This review considers whether flame retardants affect heat release, which is a critical issue to assess to determine whether adding flame retardants decreases fire hazard.1 Source: Hirschler, Marcelo M. “Flame retardants and heat release: review of data on individual polymers.” Fire and Materials 39, no. 3 (2015): 232-258.,2Source: Hirschler, Marcelo M. “Flame retardants and heat release: review of traditional studies on products and on groups of polymers.” Fire and Materials 39, no. 3 (2015): 207-231.
Key Takeaways:
- Heat release (and particularly heat release rate) is the most important property associated with fire hazard and fire safety.
- The NBS/NIST work of 1988 demonstrated that flame retardants (as used in 5 products) decreased heat release and significantly increased time available for escape and rescue from a fire and fire safety.
- Cone calorimeter (and OSU calorimeter) data on small scale samples can be used to measure heat release rate and to predict the results of fires in full scale with many materials and products.
- Flame retardants, when added as appropriately researched systems, will decrease heat release rate by well beyond statistical deviations for the polymeric materials studied, which represent most of those where fire safety is a potential concern.
