Engineered timber products are becoming increasingly popular in the construction industry due to their attractive aesthetic and sustainability credentials. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is one such engineered timber product, formed of multiple layers of timber planks glued together with adjacent layers perpendicular to each other. Unlike traditional building materials such as steel and concrete, the timber structural elements can ignite and burn when exposed to fire, and thus this risk must be explicitly addressed during design. Current design guidance focusses on the structural response of engineered timber, with the flammability risk typically addressed by encapsulation of any structural timber elements with the intention of preventing their involvement in a fire. Exposed structural timber elements may act as an additional fuel load, and this risk must be adequately quantified to satisfy the intent of the building regulations in that the structure does not continue burning. This can be achieved through timber’s natural capacity to auto-extinguish when the external heat source is removed or sufficiently reduced. To address these issues, a fundamental understanding of auto-extinction and the conditions necessary to achieve it in real fire scenarios is needed. Bench-scale flammability studies were undertaken in the Fire Propagation Apparatus to explore the conditions under which auto-extinction will occur. Critical conditions were determined experimentally as a mass loss rate of 3.48 ± 0.31 g/m2s, or an incident heat flux of ~30 kW/m2. Mass loss rate was identified as the better criterion, as critical heat flux was shown by comparison with literature data to be heavily dependent on apparatus. Subsequently, full-scale compartment fire experiments with exposed timber surfaces were performed to determine if auto-extinction could be achieved in real fire scenarios. It was demonstrated that auto-extinction could be achieved in a compartment fire scenario, but only if significant delamination of the engineered timber product could be prevented. A full-scale compartment fire experiment with an exposed back wall and ceiling achieved auto-extinction after around 21 minutes, at which point no significant delamination of the first lamella had been observed. Experiments with an exposed back and side wall, and experiments with an exposed back wall, side wall, and ceiling underwent sustained burning due to repeated delamination, and an increased quantity of exposed timber respectively. Firepoint theory was used to predict the mass loss rate as a function of external heat flux and heat losses, and was successfully applied to the bench-scale experiments. This approach was then extended to the full-scale compartment fire experiment which achieved auto-extinction. A simplified approach based on experimentally obtained internal temperature fields was able to predict auto-extinction if delamination had not occurred – predicting an extinction time of 20-21 minutes. This demonstrates that the critical mass loss rate of 3.48 ± 0.31 g/m2s determined from bench-scale experiments was valid for application to full-scale compartment fire experiments. This was further explored through a series of reduced-scale compartment fire experiments, demonstrating that auto-extinction can only reliably be achieved if burnout of the compartment fuel load is achieved before significant delamination of the outer lamella takes place. The quantification of the auto-extinction phenomena and their applicability to full-scale compartment fires explored herein thus allows greater understanding of the effects of exposed timber surfaces on compartment fire dynamics.

Cette thèse de doctorat est consacrée à l’étude sur le risque d’inflammation de gaz imbrûlés au niveau du système de ventilation suite à un incendie dans un milieu confiné sous-ventilé. La caractérisation de l’état de stratification des fumées et du désenfumage apparaît aussi comme un objectif. Lors d’un incendie en milieu clos, la quantité d’oxygène présente dans le local peut devenir insuffisante, engendrant une combustion incomplète. Des gaz chauds imbrûlés résiduels peuvent alors s’accumuler dans le local et être évacués par la ventilation d’extraction. Lorsque ces derniers sont mis en présence d’air apporté par un autre conduit de ventilation, ils peuvent s’enflammer spontanément et générer une déflagration pouvant rompre le confinement dynamique des matières dangereuses, situation inacceptable pour la sûreté des installations nucléaires. Cette inflammation dépend de la quantité des imbrûlés, de la température dans la gaine d’extraction et de la concentration minimale en oxygène. L’objectif de cette étude est de quantifier et d’analyser ce risque par l’étude aérodynamique de la flamme et par le niveau de confinement dynamique afin de choisir le type de ventilation présentant le moins de risque. Cette étude, à la fois numérique et expérimentale, permet d’améliorer la compréhension de l’influence de la richesse globale liée au niveau de confinement de l’enceinte sur la production d’imbrûlés comme CO, H2 et fuel. Elle permet par la suite de mettre en évidence l’influence de celle-ci sur le risque d’inflammation de gaz imbrûlés au niveau du système de ventilation. / This doctoral thesis is devoted to the study of the risk of ignition of unburnt gases in the ventilation system after a fire in an under-ventilated confined enclosure. The characterization of the state of lamination of smoke and smoke extraction also appears as an objective. In a closed fire, the amount of oxygen present in the room may become insufficient leading to incomplete combustion. Residual unburnt hot gases can then accumulate in the room and be evacuated by extraction ventilation. When the latter are placed in the presence of air supplied by another ventilation duct, they can ignite spontaneously and generate a deflagration capable of breaking the dynamic containment of hazardous materials, an unacceptable situation for the safety of nuclear installations. This ignition depends on the quantity of the unburned gases, the temperature in the extraction sheath and the minimum concentration of oxygen. The objective of this study is to quantify and analyze this risk through the aerodynamic study of the flame and the level of dynamic confinement in order to choose the ventilation posing the least possible risk. This study, both numerical and experimental, makes possible to improve the understanding of the influence of the equivalence ratio linked to the level of confinement of the enclosure on the production of unburned like CO, H2 and fuel. Then, it makes possible to highlight the influence of the latter on the risk of ignition of unburnt gases in the ventilation network.