Experimental study on combustion characteristics of billboard materials

Billboards are permanent facilities in large commercial buildings, indoor and outdoor public places, and in fire accidents, billboards will become the main cause of the expansion and spread of fires. To reduce the fire accidents caused by the burning of billboards, this paper conducted experimental tests on 12 commonly used billboard material types of Polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET) and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Among the 12 materials, only PVC4 belongs to the range of flame-retardant materials. PVC6 has the lowest calorific value, less heat release, and a stronger fire effect than other materials. The flammability experiment shows that the ignition time of the material is positively correlated with the combustion height under the same ignition method, and the ignition time is also positively correlated with the combustion width. Under the same ignition time conditions, the flame aspect ratio using edge ignition is greater than or equal to the flame aspect ratio using surface ignition, and the fire hazard is greater. It is necessary to avoid the presence of combustibles around 250 mm to cause fire spread. The monomer combustion experiment shows that the flame spread area of PVC material is much larger than that of PET material. Among all materials, the most dangerous is PVC6, which releases the largest CO concentration and the fastest rate after combustion, produces the most flue gas within 100 after combustion and has poor flame-retardant performance. The combustion of all advertising materials releases less CO and CO₂ concentration, which can cause physiological adverse reactions in the human body but will not cause death.