Investigation of the fire hazard of textile materials and soft furniture products for interior decoration of passenger wagons

Introduction. The issues of ensuring the fire safety of passenger transportation are important, in this regard, studying the level of fire load in the passenger compartment of railway transport and obtaining up-to-date data for modelling the development of fire is an urgent task. The existing regulatory system of fire safety requirements for interior decoration materials for passenger wagons, including textiles and upholstered furniture, requires significant clarification.

The purpose of these studies is to study the fire hazard parameters of textile materials and upholstered furniture products of salons passenger wagons, to develop proposals for clarifying regulatory requirements governing their fire safety and to obtain new fire load data when modelling fire development.

Research methods. Standard methods were used to determine the flammability of decorative fabrics (GOST R 50810–95), the toxicity indicator of combustion products and smoke-forming capacity (GOST 12.1.044.18), the methodology for assessing the fire hazard of subway car sofas (NPB 109) and the method for assessing the concentration of toxic gases on a small-scale experimental installation to determine the fire hazard of condensed substances and materials.

Research results and their discussion. Regulatory fire safety requirements for textile materials and soft products of interior decoration of passenger wagons were analyzed. Experimental data of estimation of fire hazard para­meters of curtains, upholstery materials and upholstered furniture elements of passenger car saloons are obtained. The danger of highly toxic gases emitted during thermal decomposition of upholstered furniture materials for the life and health of passengers and the need to take into account the values of their concentrations when modelling the development of a fire were revealed.

Conclusions. Proposals are developed to clarify the normative requirements for fire safety of textile materials and upholstered furniture products of passenger wagons saloons. There are presented the results of research of fire hazard characteristics of materials of seats, armchairs, sleeping shelves, which should be taken into account to exclude the use of the most dangerous ones in the saloons of wagons.

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