Equipment and facilities

Smoke Density Chamber

Fire prevention in structures is aimed at limiting the spread of fire and smoke for a certain time in order to give people the chance to escape from the fire. Due to the toxicity, the light absorption and the scattering properties smoke is always one of the major hazards and affects the escape routes of persons who are exposed to the smoke.

Essential characteristic values on smoke gases can be obtained by using the smoke density chamber. The specific optical density of smoke gases of flat material samples is determined according to EN ISO 5659-2 and ASTM E 662. In a closed test chamber the sample is exposed to horizontal thermal irradiation up to 50 kW/m² (EN ISO 5659-2) or to vertical thermal irradiation of 25 kW/m² (ASTM E 662), with or without a pilot flame. In order to evaluate the toxicity, determinations of qualitative and quantitative composition of smoke gases are obtained by applying FTIR-spectroscopy. AFTIR-spectrometer is directly coupled with the chamber.

Result

Characteristic values are determined by investigating the measurable light transmission for the specific optical density Ds. When tests are carried out according to EN ISO 5659-2,  the mass referenced optical density MOD is determined too.

After 4 and 8 minutes test time gas samples are analyzed quantitatively with respect to some acute inhalation-toxic smoke gas components using FTIR-spectroscopy. The smoke gas toxicity of the sample is evaluated by the CIT-value (CEN TS 45545-2).

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