1.2 Overview of Post-fire Analysis of Construction Materials
1.2.1 Early Fire Scene Analysis (until the 1950s)
1.2.2 Fire Science in the 1960s and later
1.2.3 Fire Investigation Today
2.1 Physical characteristics of wood
2.2.2 Thermal degradation of wood, hemicellulose, and a -cellulose
2.2.3 Active pyrolysis of wood, hemicellulose, and a -cellulose
2.2.4 Thermal degradation of lignin
2.2.5 Active pyrolysis of lignin
2.3 Summary: a “task of awesome complexity”
2.4 How the Fire investigation community has used wood:
2.4.3 Using char lines of demarcation to interpret fire evidence
2.4.4 Using depth and rate to determine time of burn
2.5 Summary: wood is plentiful, traditional, but unreliable
2.7.2 Variability in char rate: a closer look
2.7.3 Attempt to make a “map” of heat flux and exposure time for wood
2.7.5 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
3.1 Physical and thermal characteristics of concrete
3.1.1 Physical characteristics of concrete
3.1.2 Thermal conductivity of concrete
3.2.1.1 Spalling as a result of vapor pressure
3.2.1.2 Spalling as a result of thermal expansion of aggregate
3.4 How the Fire Investigation Community has used Concrete
3.5 Summary of concrete section
3.6 Experiments to expose concrete to well characterized fire exposures
3.7 Conclusions about concrete as an indicator of heat flux exposure, time, and temperature.
4.1 Physical characteristics of gypsum
4.3 The fire investigation community’s use of gypsum
4.4 Experimental research on gypsum
4.4.2 Experimental observations
5.2 The thin-slab problem and an approximate solution
5.3 When will a thermocouple first register heat?
5.4 A numerical method: a solution for gypsum
6 Conclusions and Future Research
6.1 Conclusion: use gypsum, not wood or concrete
7.2 Photographic images of wood
7.2.2 Pyrolysis zone width study
7.3 Data, measurements, and analysis
7.3.2 Graphs of composite wood behavior
7.3.3 Analysis: rate of charring
7.3.4 Determination of exposure time and heat flux
8.3 Petrographic images of concrete
8.3.1 SEM Examination of a single sample
8.3.2 SEM images of heated concrete
8.4 Data measurement and analysis
9.2 List of gypsum samples and test conditions
9.3 Data, measurements, and analysis
9.3.1 Graphs of gypsum’s response to heat
9.3.2 Analysis: rate of isotherm progression
9.3.3 Determination of exposure time and heat flux