Overview
ISO/TR 17252:2019 - "Fire tests - Applicability of reaction to fire tests to fire modelling and fire safety engineering" is a Technical Report from ISO/TC 92/SC 1. It provides guidelines on how results from existing reaction to fire tests can be used in fire safety engineering (FSE) and fire modelling, and describes the types of input data required for engineering calculations and models. The report clarifies limits of applicability, uncertainties (repeatability/reproducibility) and the relationship between standard test outputs and real-life fire scenarios.
Key topics
- Design fire and fire scenarios
- Definition and quantification of a design fire (heat release rate over time, time to key events, smoke/toxic production).
- Typical scenario examples (room fires, single-item, cable tray, façade, tunnel, external fires).
- Design fire types and growth curves
- Use of mathematical fire growth models (e.g., t‑squared/power-law growth), plateaus and decay phases to represent realistic HRR profiles.
- Essential input data for FSE and modelling
- Heat release rate (HRR), smoke production rate (SPR), toxic species generation, flame spread, temperature and emissivity, time-to-event metrics.
- Test applicability and limits
- How standard reaction-to-fire test parameters (from the ISO/TC 92/SC 1 portfolio) map to model input.
- Factors affecting experimental quantification: ignition, heat flux, flame spread, HRR measurement, smoke measurement.
- Repeatability, reproducibility and constraints when generalizing laboratory results to real fires.
- Modelling complexity vs. data quality
- Guidance on choosing modelling approaches consistent with available test data and uncertainties.
- Sensitivity analysis
- Importance of sensitivity studies when selecting or extrapolating test results for design fires.
Applications
- Fire safety engineering design - to define credible design fires and choose appropriate test-derived inputs for performance-based assessments.
- Fire modelling and simulation - to select and justify HRR curves, smoke/timing inputs and boundary conditions in CFD and zone models.
- Standards development & regulation - to inform regulators and committees on how reaction-to-fire test outputs can support performance-based codes.
- Product manufacturers & test laboratories - to understand how test parameters may be used in engineering analyses and where additional data are needed.
Who uses this standard: fire safety engineers, fire modelers, building regulators, certification bodies, test laboratories, product manufacturers and researchers working on performance-based fire design.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO/TR 17252:2019, reaction to fire tests, fire modelling, fire safety engineering, design fire, heat release rate, smoke production, fire scenarios.