Preliminary Study of Effect of Natural Thread Distance on Angle Dependency of Flame Spread Behaviour over Kenaf/Polyester Fabric

Abstract

Research in fabric flammability is essential in order to improve fire safety engineering. In order to improve the technical capability for fire preventions, the fundamental approach is essential which can be applied at the design stage. Such approach requires detailed understanding of the combustion process from an engineering viewpoint. From previous studies, natural thread has different flame spread characteristic than synthetic thread. This different characteristic may influence on flame behavior of combined fabric. In this research, the combined fabric was made by using 50% kenaf as the natural thread and 50% polyester as the synthetic thread. Samples are fabricated based on two conditions; one is distance between kenaf thread and another is the weft thread angle. For the first condition, two types of samples are chosen for different threads distance of kenaf; such as 0 mm and 20 mm. For both samples, distance between polyester threads is fixed for 20 mm. For the second condition, experiments for each sample are conducted for different weft thread angle; which is measured between polyester thread and horizontal line. In this research weft thread angle of 0°, 45°, and 90° are chosen. Sample is ignited from top of the edge and the flame propagated in the downward direction. The flame spread behavior is recorded by camera to analyze the data. For results, it is seen that both thread distances exhibit similar shape of flame front. However, the significant difference of the flame front is seen in different weft thread angles. As additional, both types of fabrics have a similar angle dependency of flame spread rate. The spread rate decreases as weft thread angle increases. However, based on result of V?/V0, the fabric with 20 mm of kenaf thread have small angle dependency from the one of the fabrics with 0 mm of kenaf thread.