Validation of Scaling Laws for Fully Developed Passenger Rail Car Fires
- Federal Railroad Administration
The focus of this effort was to confirm the capability of the scaling laws to predict full-scale fully-developed compartment fire heat release rates (HRR) based on reduced-scale experiments. A total of 17 compartment fire tests were conducted in this effort consisting of 14 unique configurations and three repeated tests. Tests were conducted at three scales including full-scale, half-scale, and quarter-scale. A total of five permutations of the compartment design were evaluated to demonstrate the capability with complex ventilation, combustible linings, and liquid fuels. The results indicated that the scaling approach presents a cost-effective alternative to full-scale testing of combustible linings.