Foam Flammability Consortia

Consortium 1 - Conventional Flexible Polyurethane Foams

Goal: to determine the effects of flame retardants, other foam additives, density, air flow, and foam structure on fire performance in various flammability tests (crib-5, smoldering, melt-drip Cone test, Cal-117, Vee test, micro-calorimetery, etc.) in terms of heat release rate, melt dripping rate, heat feed-back, flame spread, smoldering and ignition.  We would also determine if any of the above small scale tests could be used to predict or screen for behavior in the larger tests.

Related documents: 

• Aspects of Fire Behavior of Thermoplastics
• Assessment of a Medium Scale Foam Flammability Test

Consortium 2 - New Flame Retardant Approaches for Flexible Polyurethane Foams

Goal: To determine the effect of new flame retardant approaches such as, nano-additives, coatings, resins (green polyols, etc), and charring monomers on foam flammability. Here we will continue looking at carbon nanofibers, clays, boehmite, and nanocomposite coatings with and without conventional flame retardants.

Related documents:

• Flammability Reduction of Flexible Polyurethane Foams via Carbon Nanofiber Network Formation
• Effect of Nanoparticles on Flammability of Flexible Polyurethane Foams
• Flame Resistant Flexible Polyurethane Foams

Membership fee
The membership fee will be $20K /year. The duration will be for 3 years with optional extension for one year. The members will also be asked to provide some level of in kind support, i.e., foam preparation, characterization, materials supply, testing.

We plan on having a workshop in November.