Fire behavior of upholstered furniture

A systematic review is made of engineering data on the major aspects of upholstered furniture flammability: cigarette ignition, small open flame ignition, radiant ignition, transition from smoldering to flaming, flame spread rates, and heat release and mass loss rates during fully involved burning. Other areas discussed, but for which less data are available, include smoke production and radiant heat fluxes. Mattresses and transportation vehicle seating are included, along with upholstered chairs, loveseats, and sofas. Appropriate test methods most suitable for measuring each of these properties are discussed. Where available, relationships are presented which permit the quantitative prediction of full scale furniture behavior from bench scale tests. Where such relationships are not available, generalizations of qualitative results of empirical tests are given. Areas where substantive work is not available are outlined.