Upholstered furniture and furnishings play an important
part in our daily life to make life more comfortable.
However, statistics [1] show that more than 94% of the
fire fatalities occurred in dwellings and that a major cause
of fire fatalities in dwellings was associated with burning
of upholstered furniture. From the point of fire hazard
assessment, information is needed concerning rates of
fire development and toxic gas and smoke release from
foam/fabric combinations used in such furniture.
Basic materials for upholstery composites are covering
and filling materials. Polyurethane flexible foams are
widely used as filling material and have frequently been
claimed to produce large amount of heat when burning
[2]. However, the effective heat of combustion of polyurethane
foam is relatively low. It is in the same range
as wool (20 to 26 MJ/kg), slightly higher than cellulose
(13.6 MJ/kg) and only about 53% of that of polyethylene
[3]. According to our previous study [4], the
polyurethane foam was the easier to ignite and gave a
higher heat release rate compared to wool fabric. Such