Overview
ISO/TS 23782:2024 provides requirements and guidance for the design and execution of large-scale fire test methods that represent fire threats to people in different real-world scenarios. The Technical Specification focuses on assessing acute exposure to fire effluents by evaluating tenability (life-threatening conditions) and sets out generic design requirements for large-scale test rigs and scenarios. It explicitly does not address chronic health effects or firefighter exposure over prolonged periods.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Scope and principles
- Definition of fire profiles and compromised tenability criteria for people exposed to toxic effluents.
- Guidance for selecting fire scenarios relevant to human tenability assessment.
- Suitable test rig design
- Generic design requirements for rigs to simulate a range of scenarios, including:
- non-flaming fires in small rooms
- smouldering or flaming small-room fires (with door/window states)
- small fires with large exterior vents
- flaming fires in large spaces with high ceilings
- Annexes with example rig designs and instrumentation configurations.
- Preparation and conduct of tests
- Consideration of occupants of interest, ignition sources, fuel selection and test-rig readiness.
- Instrumentation and sampling requirements for accurate capture of fire effluents.
- Measurements
- Core measurements include heat (convective/radiant), smoke obscuration, toxic gases, equivalence ratio, and mass loss.
- Guidance on sampling and analysis per ISO 19701 and related references.
- Data analysis, repeatability and reproducibility
- Requirements and recommendations for analyzing results, ensuring repeatable and reproducible test outcomes.
- Reporting
- Defined reporting requirements to ensure clear communication of test setup, data, and interpretation.
Practical applications and users
ISO/TS 23782:2024 is directly applicable to:
- Fire safety engineers designing human-tenability studies and evacuation analyses.
- Test laboratories developing large-scale fire test rigs and validation procedures.
- Manufacturers assessing product fire performance in scenarios relevant to occupant safety.
- Regulators and standards bodies developing performance-based fire safety regulations.
- Researchers studying combustion, smoke toxicity, and human exposure in real-scale fires.
Practical uses include designing representative large-scale tests to evaluate smoke toxicity, obscuration, heat exposure, and time-to-compromised-tenability for building occupants in relevant fire scenarios.
Related standards
- ISO 13943 (Fire safety - Vocabulary)
- ISO 13571 (Life‑threatening components of fire - Time to compromised tenability)
- ISO 19701 / ISO 19702 (Methods and guidance for sampling and analysis of fire effluents)
Keywords: ISO/TS 23782:2024, large-scale fire tests, fire threat assessment, tenability, fire effluents, test rig design, smoke toxicity, fire safety standards.