New Concepts for Fire Protection of Passenger Rail Transportation Vehicles

Recent advances in guided ground transportation, fire test methods, and hazard analysis necessitate re-examination of requirements for fire safety. Several studies have indicated nearly random ability of current tests to predict actual fire behavior. A comparison of the approaches used in the United States, Germany, and France is presented. With the strengths and weaknesses of current methods for measuring the fire performance of materials used in rail transit systems reviewed, a direction is suggested in which most fire science-oriented organizations in the world are clearly headed fire hazard and fire risk assessment methods supported by measurement methods based on heat release rate.