Development of a Database of Full-Scale Calorimeter Tests of Motor Vehicles

This paper describes the development of a database of full-scale motor vehicle fire test results. The data were obtained from a careful review of 20 publications1-20 comprised of: 3 journal articles, 2 conference papers, and 15 reports. To be included in the database, tests had to involve heat release rate measurements. A total of 33 tests in 12 studies were found to meet this requirement. The database consists of four interrelated tables that contain primarily scalar data. The main table includes links to available time-dependent data, i.e., heat release rate, mass loss, interior temperature, interior heat flux and interior CO concentration vs. time. The data may be useful in fire engineering, e.g., fire design of parking garages, fire hazard assessment of automotive materials in post-collision fires, etc. Use of the database is illustrated with an example.