Experimental Study of the Combustion Characteristic of Commercial Bus Floor Leather with Adding Combustion Improver

The combustion characteristic of commercial bus floor leather with adding the different volume of combustion improver (gasoline) was experimentally investigated in the cone calorimeter. The gasoline ranged from 2mL to 10mL. The influence of the irradiance heat flux on the floor leather combustion characteristics had also been examined, the irradiance intensity ranged from 20kW/m² to 50 kW/m². Several parameters such as mass loss, heat release rate and CO production rate were obtained to characterize the combustion behavior of bus floor leather. Results demonstrated that the volume of gasoline can significantly affect the combustion behavior of the fire-retardant bus floor leather sample. The mass loss and peak HRR generally increased with the volume of gasoline, indicating that the more gasoline was added, the faster the sample burned. With the increase of gasoline volume, the combustion of the sample could last for longer time. The duration of relatively high HRR could sustain longer when the dosage of gasoline increased. Insufficient combustion of sample could lead to the release of more CO, application of gasoline could aggravate the CO production to a worse state. In the real bus arson cases, that may trigger more deaths. Even though much attention had been attached to the fire retardant performance of bus interior materials itself, the combustion improver like gasoline should also be taken into consideration due to its effects on the fire characteristics of bus interior materials, so that the deaths can be decreased in arson cases.