Techniques for Assessing the Combustion Behaviour of Polymeric Materials: Some Current Perspectives and Future Directions

Summary Polymers are increasingly being used in domestic, commercial and in public environments as components of fabrics, surface coatings and moulded articles. Most of these polymeric components are synthetic, are based on hydrocarbon intermediates, and are highly flammable, thus resulting in unwanted fires. Combustion of polymeric materials is a complex phenomenon that involves the solid phase, gaseous phase and the interphase. To fully characterize the flammability attributes of a polymeric material is not a straightforward task, and therefore several analytical techniques and other prescriptive tests (small‐, medium‐, and large‐scale) were developed over the years. However, the actual behaviour of these materials in a real fire scenario can be quite different from the inferences that we get, especially, through the small‐ and medium‐scale tests, and that there is often a lack correlation among the tests. In this paper, we attempt a critical appraisal of the various evaluation methods and test regimes that are currently used to characterize the combustion behaviours of polymeric materials.