ISO/TS 3814:2014

TECHNICAL ISO/TS
SPECIFICATION 3814
First edition
2014-03-01
Standard tests for measuring reaction-
to-fire of products and materials —
Their development and application
Essais de mesurage de la “réaction au feu” des matériaux de
bâtiment — Leur élaboration et leur application
Reference number
©
ISO 2014
© ISO 2014
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ii © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 2
4 Development of reaction to fire tests . 2
5 Fire development and growth. 3
5.1 General context . 3
5.2 Fire performance of products . 4
6 Fire hazard assessment . 5
6.1 A determination that a particular product can be potentially hazardous in a fire . 5
6.2 An estimate of the ignitability of the product being ignited under particular conditions . 6
6.3 Knowledge of the reaction of the product in various fire situations . 6
6.4 Uses of reaction-to-fire tests in reducing fire hazard in different areas. 7
7 Future developments and conclusions . 8
Annex A (informative) Reaction-to-fire tests .10
Bibliography .19
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 92, Fire safety, Subcommittee SC 1, Fire initiation
and growth.
This first edition cancels and replaces ISO/TR 3814:1989, which has been technically revised.
iv © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Introduction
A fire can constitute a hazard to both the structure, e.g. building, transport, and to its occupants, because
of the heat generated and the production of smoke and gaseous products of combustion. Consequently,
early codes and regulations for fire safety were designed to prevent rapid fire development and spread
within individual structures and also from one structure to another. These codes have since developed
into more complex laws governing public safety. Formerly, a distinction was made between the
protection of persons from fire and the protection of property, with more importance being placed upon
the latter. However, this distinction becomes somewhat difficult to make when considering modern,
large-area, high-rise structures, where protection of the occupants in-place needs to be substituted for
rapid evacuation. Restrictions on the use of combustible materials, compartmentalization, early fire
detection, and suppression are key factors for in-place protection of occupants and are also important
for minimizing property loss.
Real-scale fire tests are the ideal way to quantify the fire hazard of products. However, such tests are
impractical in the vast majority of cases. The reaction-to-fire tests developed by ISO/TC 92/SC 1 seek
to quantify aspects of the fire hazard that may result from the use of particular products in particular
applications in a meaningful, cost-effective, and reproducible way.
This Technical Specification describes the work being carried out by ISO/TC 92/SC 1 on the development
of tests and guidance for the “reaction-to-fire” of products and discusses the role and limitation of these
tests in reducing fire danger.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION ISO/TS 3814:2014(E)
Standard tests for measuring reaction-to-fire of products
and materials — Their development and application
1 Scope
This Technical Specification describes the relevance of, and how to apply, the fire tests developed by
ISO/TC 92/SC 1 so that they can be used effectively to reduce the hazard of fire. Each reaction-to-fire
test is related to the different phases of a developing fire in buildings and transport and has to be seen
in its relation to the fire scenario and phase of the fire it represents. Some reaction-to-fire tests are
proposed to assess the fire hazard in those different phases.
Although this Technical Specification does not address smouldering combustion, this does not mean
that smouldering is not important in some fire development situations. However, there are no tests in
Subcommittee 1 (SC 1) which currently address this phenomenon.
This Technical Specification is aimed at indicating those ISO tests which produce relevant and useful
data for fire safety engineering and those which do not. This Technical Specification is also of use to
regulators, people who are performing reaction-to-fire tests including manufacturers and all people
who are responsible to create, control, and assess fire safety concepts.
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are
indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated
references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies
ISO 5657, Reaction to fire tests — Ignitability of building products using a radiant heat source
ISO/TS 5658-1, Reaction to fire tests — Spread of flame — Part 1: Guidance on flame spread
ISO 5658-2, Reaction to fire tests — Spread of flame — Part 2: Lateral spread on building and transport
products in vertical configuration
ISO 5658-4, Reaction to fire tests — Spread of flame — Part 4: Intermediate-scale test of vertical spread of
flame with vertically oriented specimen
ISO 5660-1, Reaction-to-fire tests — Heat release, smoke production and mass loss rate — Part 1: Heat
release rate (cone calorimeter method) and smoke production rate (dynamic measurement)
ISO 9239-1, Reaction to fire tests for floorings — Part 1: Determination of the burning behaviour using a
radiant heat source
ISO 9239-2, Reaction to fire tests for floorings — Part 2: Determination of flame spread at a heat flux level
of 25 kW/m2
ISO 9705-1, Reaction to fire tests — Room corner test for wall and ceiling lining products — Part 1: Test
method for a small room configuration
ISO/TR 9705-2, Reaction-to-fire tests — Full-scale room tests for surface products — Part 2: Technical
background and guidance
ISO/TR 11925-1, Reaction to fire tests — Ignitability of building products subjected to direct impingement
of flame — Part 1: Guidance on ignitability
ISO 11925-2, Reaction to fire tests — Ignitability of products subjected to direct impingement of flame —
Part 2: Single-flame source test
ISO 11925-3, Reaction to fire tests — Ignitability of building products subjected to direct impingement of
flame — Part 3: Multi-source test
ISO 12136, Reaction to fire tests — Measurement of material properties using a fire propagation apparatus
ISO/TR 13387-1, Fire safety engineering — Part 1: Application of fire performance concepts to design
objectives
ISO/TR 13387-2, Fire safety engineering — Part 2: Design fire scenarios and design fires
ISO/TR 13387-3, Fire safety engineering — Part 3: Assessment and verification of mathematical fire models
ISO 13784-1, Reaction to fire test for sandwich panel building systems — Part 1: Small room test
ISO 13784-2, Reaction-to-fire tests for sandwich panel building systems — Part 2: Test method for large
rooms
ISO 13785-1, Reaction-to-fire tests for façades — Part 1: Intermediate-scale test
ISO 13785-2, Reaction-to-fire tests for façades — Part 2: Large-scale test
ISO 13943, Fire safety — Vocabulary
ISO 14696, Reaction-to-fire tests — Determination of fire and thermal parameters of materials, products
and assemblies using an intermediate-scale calorimeter (ICAL)
ISO 14934-1, Fire tests — Calibration and use of heat flux meters — Part 1: General principles
ISO 14934-2, Fire tests — Calibration and use of heat flux meters — Part 2: Primary calibration methods
ISO 14934-3, Fire tests — Calibration and use of heat flux meters — Part 3: Secondary calibration method
ISO 14934-4, Fire tests — Calibration and use of heat flux meters — Part 4: Guidance on the use of heat flux
meters in fire tests
ISO/TS 16732, Fire Safety Engineering ― Guidance on fire risk assessment
ISO/TR 17252, Fire tests — Applicability of reaction to fire tests to fire modelling and fire safety engineering
ISO/TS 17431, Fire tests — Reduced-scale model box test
ISO 20632, Reaction-to-fire tests — Small room test for pipe insulation products or systems
ISO/TS 22269, Reaction to fire tests — Fire growth — Full-scale test for stairs and stair coverings
ISO 24473, Fire tests — Open calorimetry — Measurement of the rate of production of heat and combustion
products for fires of up to 40 MW
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 13943 apply.
NOTE ISO 13943 defines reaction-to-fire as the response of a product (material) in contributing by its own
decomposition to a fire to which it is exposed, under specified conditions.
4 Development of reaction to fire tests
Authorities responsible for fire safety in many countries have been concerned over the years about
the safe use of materials in the construction environment. A number of national test methods have,
therefore, been developed to provide the data necessary to identify the important characteristics of
2 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

materials and products under fire conditions. These tests, most of which are of laboratory scale, are
collectively referred to as “reaction-to-fire” tests and include
— ignitability,
— surface spread of flame,
— smoke development and obscuration,
— rate of heat release,
— non-combustibility, and
— corner, wall, and/or room fire development.
The original “reaction-to-fire” tests were generally developed with particular hazards, or fire situations,
in mind. For example, the predecessors of the modern surface spread of flame tests were developed in the
1930s and 1940s using flame or radiative heat exposure to represent a fire burning freely in one corner
of a room. Such tests are frequently referred to as “open tests”. Later developments led to tests which
included a representation of the room itself, these tests being called “enclosure tests” or “box tests”. In
the latter case some, or all of the heat produced by the burning material, is retained in the enclosure and
therefore can in turn affect more of the material. Consequently, fire exposures in “enclosure tests” are
often more severe (in terms of heat release rate) than in “open tests”.
Some tests are designed to measure more than one fire parameter. The individual results can sometimes
be used independently, although the importance attached to each can vary, whereas in others the
test results can be combined empirically to produce an index, or a range of indices, of performance.
Considerable care should be taken when interpreting the results of such combined tests.
Because the various national reaction-to-fire test methods have been developed in different ways,
even though they are intended to measure essentially the same fire characteristics, it has proved very
difficult, and in some cases impossible, to obtain any meaningful correlations between the test results
obtained when using them. This has created major difficulties, both for the product manufacturers and
for regulatory authorities around the world, when comparing the fire performance of products which
have been tested using different national test methods. Additional problems have also arisen concerning
international acceptance of fire test data, and in some cases these have created barriers to trade.
In attempt to resolve this situation, ISO/TC 92 decided in the late 1960s to develop a series of individual
test methods, each of them capable of providing information about certain aspects of the fire performance
of a range of building products, including those intended for use as wall and ceiling linings, floors and
external cladding. It was intended that as the new international test methods were developed and
accepted, countries should incorporate them into their regulations, thereby minimizing the problems
caused by the use of individual national tests.
Subcommittee 1 was, therefore, established and instructed to devise a portfolio of reaction-to-fire tests
which could be used either individually, or collectively, to provide the required information on the fire
performance of building materials and products.
5 Fire development and growth
5.1 General context
Fire statistics show that the majority of fires are started by the ignition of contents as well as building
[8]
products . Nevertheless, during a fire in a building compartment all combustible items present are
capable of contributing to the overall fire hazard, whether they are present as contents, or are used to
form part of the building itself. The item first involved in a fire will emit both convective and radiative
energy in the form of hot gases and radiative heat. Under unfavourable conditions, this can then cause
ignition of other combustibles in the room. If sufficient fuel and oxygen are available, the fire will
continue to grow. Building products could therefore become involved at any stage of a developing fire.
Consequently, reaction-to-fire tests have to provide different exposure intensities simulating a variety
of fire situations ranging from fire initiation to a fully-developed fire.
The different phases occurring during the development of a fire within a room under different
ventilation conditions are shown in Figure 1. Reaction-to-fire properties such as ignitability, spread of
flame, smoke production, and heat release produced by fire effluents are primarily related to the phases
of a developing fire before “flashover”. Different possible fire developments, e.g. ISO 834 fire curve and
the hydrocarbon fire curve, are shown to emphasize that fires develop very differently under different
conditions. Fire curves such as the ISO 834 fire curve and the hydrocarbon fire curve only take the stage
of the fully developed fire into account. To assess the reaction-to-fire of materials, the earlier phases of
the fire also need to be considered.
5.2 Fire performance of products
The fire performance of a product is generally highly complex and is not usually solely dependent on
the nature or chemical composition of the materials from which it is composed, but is affected by many
other factors. These factors can include its shape, surface area, mass, and thermal inertia. Its orientation
and position in relation to any potential ignition source and the presence of other products or items are
also important. In addition, the environmental and service conditions to which the product has been
exposed prior to ignition, the intensity and duration of the thermal exposure, and also the ventilation
conditions during exposure can strongly influence the fire performance of a product.
These factors, provided by the product and its environment, shall be taken into consideration when
designing fire test methods and when using the results for estimating potential fire hazards. Large
scale testing is not always feasible due to the cost of the test, the pollution created, and the amount of
product needed for the test. It is therefore desirable to develop small scale tests which can, if possible, be
[9]
linked to large scale tests. For example, the cone calorimeter (ISO 5660-1) has been shown that it can
be linked to the ISO 9705-1 room/corner test. The link in this case allows the prediction of large scale
(ISO 9705) performance from cone calorimeter data. However, other links have not been predicted.
Fire risk is a combination of many factors of which fire performance of a building product is only one
factor. Other factors include building design, building use, human behaviour, fire and smoke control
systems, and active and passive fire protection systems.
On a simple level, it is possible to describe a range of specific fire scenarios and link them to some specific
fire tests. Fire tests developed in ISO/TC 92/SC 1 are linked to specific fire scenarios in Table 1:
Table 1 — Relationships between scenarios and reaction to fire tests
Scenario
ISO Test number  Scale of test  Fire type
geometry
Open  ISO 24473  Large  Developing to fully devel-
oped
No compartment
Small room  ISO 9705  Large  Developing to the point of
flashover
Small room  ISO 13784-1  Large  Developing
Small room  ISO 20632  Large  Developing
Small room  ISO/TS 17431  Intermediate  Developing and post-flash-
over
Small room  ISO 12949  Large  Developing to flash-over
Large room  ISO 13784-2  Large  Developing
Corridor  No test identified -
Stairway  ISO/TS 22269  Large  Developing
Façade  ISO 13785-2  Large  Developing
Façade  ISO 13785-1  Intermediate  Developing
4 © ISO 2014 – All rights reserved

Table 1 (continued)
Scenario
ISO Test number  Scale of test  Fire type
geometry
Roof  ISO 12468-1  Large  Developing
No geometry linked  ISO 1182  Small scale  Post-flashover
No geometry linked  ISO 1716  Small scale  Post-flashover
Single surface  ISO 5658-2  Small scale  Developing
No geometry linked  ISO 5660-1 to 4  Small scale  Ignition and
developing ≤ 50 kW, 75kW is
post flashover
Floor  ISO 9239-2  Small scale  Developing
No geometry linked  ISO 11925-3  Small scale  Ignition
Single surface  ISO 14696 Intermediate  Developing
NOTE All fire tests in Table 1 developed in SC 1 start under a well-ventilated fire condition.
6 Fire hazard assessment
Authorities in charge of fire safety, fire protection engineers, and scientists have been developing and
using fire hazard assessment procedures for many years. These procedures, which have formed the
basis for the development of fire protection codes and standards, have of necessity been primarily based
on experience, since until recently very little effort has been made to refine the state-of-art knowledge
to provide a technical basis for them.
In fire safety engineering, ISO 16732-1:2012 has been developed to provide the conceptual basis for
fire risk assessment by outlining the principles underlying the quantification and interpretation of fire-
related risk. The quantification steps to conduct a fire risk assessment are initially placed in the context
of the overall management of fire risk and then explained within the context of fire safety engineering,
as discussed in ISO/TR 13387-1, ISO/TR 13387-2, and ISO/TR 13387-3. The use of scenarios and the
characterization of probability and consequence related to hazard are then described as steps in fire
risk estimation, leading to the quantification of combined fire risk. Guidance is also provided on the
use of the information generated, i.e. on the interpretation of fire risk. Finally, there is an examination
of uncertainty in the quantification and interpretation of the fire risk estimates obtained following the
procedures in this Technical Specification.
These fire risk principles can apply to all fire-related phenomena and all end-use configurations, which
mean these principles can be applied to all types of fire scenarios.
Fire hazard assessment procedures usually include an evaluation of the following (see 6.1 to 6.4).
6.1 A determination that a particular product can be potentially hazardous in a fire
The possibility that a particular product will create a hazard in a fire has generally been based on the
assumption that combustible materials can contribute actively to a fire, whereas non-combustible
materials will not. Consequently, most regulations are based on the concept that combustible materials, as
defined by a specified test method, could be considered to be potentially “harmful” and non-combustible
materials are, therefore, conversely considered to be “safe”. Whereas, this can be considered to be a
reasonable general approach it shall not be assumed to be applicable in all cases, since the presence of
non-combustible materials can influence fire performance to some degree, particularly in the context of
fire growth and spread in a compartment. For example, when making a hazard assessment of a product
intended for use in a particular situation, account has to be taken of the thermal inertia (kpc) of products
in surrounding structures and the reflecting properties of those products, organic compounds both
inside or outside the products, e.g. binders, adhesives or covering, and the influence of air gaps between
non-combustible and combustible products.
For modelling purposes, input parameters like heat release rate, smoke production, flame spread, and
gross calorific value are often used. However, the implementation of test data in modelling calculations
is only possible under the assumption that the tested product will behave similarly in the test and in the
calculated fire scenario which cannot be assumed generally. Major purposes of the tests are the ranking
and discrimination of products under different fire conditions; most of them were not developed to
provide suitable input data for modelling calculations. Using test data for modelling calculations must
take this fact into account.
— The recent developments in Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) show that test data of several tests, e.g.
Cone calorimeter tests, open calorimetry, room corner test, and Fire Propagation Apparatus tests,
can be used successfully to perform FSE calculations, e.g. using data as input data for performance
based fire safety concepts. The FSE models are under recent and further development. Their range
of applicability has been widened. However, the limits of the models have to be taken into account
as well as the applicability of test data as input data for the models.
Using test data as input data for modelling calculations which do not represent similar fire scenarios and
conditions could lead to incorrect modelling predictions.
6.2 An estimate of the ignitability of the product being ignited under particular condi-
tions
The probability of a fire occurring is a most important consideration in the fire hazard assessment
process, and this can be very difficult to estimate. Currently, much reliance is placed on experience and
fire records, including statistics, to determine this probability.
The traditional approach was based on the so-called “fire triangle” which required the three components,
viz. heat, fuel, and oxygen, to be available in appropriate quantities for a fire to start and to be sustained.
However, even this was not a simple concept to apply since it was found that factors other than just the
quantities of the various components needed to be taken into account. For instance, the total quantity
of fuel available can not be a critical factor for determining ignitability since the physical form in which
the fuel is presented to the ignition source can also have a significant effect. In general, a material in a
finely divided form with a relatively large surface area such as thin strips, shavings, etc., will be more
easily ignited and permit more rapid flame spread across its surface and consequently be potentially
more hazardous than an equivalent quantity of the same material in a solid form. Indeed, when some
materials are used in the form of a fine powder, the ignition process can occur explosively under certain
conditions.
Other considerations also need to be taken into account during the assessment procedure, such as
whether any heat generated is likely to be retained in close proximity to the fire source, e.g. from a fire
in a closed compartment.
6.3 Knowledge of the reaction of the product in various fire situations
Fire tests developed by ISO/TC 92 and similar organizations can provide the necessary information on
the reactions of products to different fire situations. However, such tests are most useful when a range
of ignition sources and heating conditions can be used. Results based only on a restricted range of test
conditions should therefore be used with caution. For example, a product can react entirely differently
when exposed to a high heat flux than when tested with a relatively low heat flux. The used test methods
should reflect the end use conditions of the product as far as possible regarding the mounting and fixing
and the possible fire situations the product can face when it is used. Shape of the product, e.g. if the
products shape is not flat, can influence the performance of the product and the test conditions; large
scale tests might be necessar
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