Horizontal flame spread behavior of densified wood: Effect of structural characteristics

Densified wood (DW) is a recently developed material with excellent mechanical properties, considered as an ideal construction material for high-rise timber buildings. However, its flame spread behavior has not been well understood limiting its applications. This work for the first time experimentally and analytically investigates the horizontal flame spread behavior of DW. The influences of material structural characteristics (e.g. density) on heat transfer characteristics are focused. Thermally thin DW with density ranges of 441–1025 kg/m³ and a constant thickness of 2 mm were tested. The flame spread rate, mass loss rate (MLR) and flame height decreased with the increased wood density. A power-law correlation between the dimensionless MLR and dimensionless density is proposed, which well predicts the experiments with an R² of 0.922. The increased wood density decreases flame height and reduces flame radiation. The gas-phase heat transfer shifts from radiation-dominant to convection-dominant. The longitudinal and radial thermal conductivities of DW increased with wood density. Empirical equations are optimized to predict the thermal conductivities of DW with R² of 0.870 (longitudinal) and 0.837 (radial). The preheating zone length and the temperature gradient per unit length don't vary significantly with wood density. Their values are averaged to 25.62 mm and 9.312 K/mm respectively. The longitudinal heat conduction is increased with the wood density due to the increased conductivity. However, this conduction increase is lower than the radiation decrease as the wood density increases. Thus, the total heat flux is slightly decreased with the wood density. The gas phase heat transfer dominates the flame spread. However, the longitudinal heat conduction can account for more than half of the gaseous heat transfer, and thus cannot be negligible. Results of this work improve the understanding of DW flame spread, which helps to evaluate the fire behaviors of timber construction. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd.