scope:

A molecular-level combustion parameter for early-stage fire growth that includes ignitability and heat release can be measured at milligram scale using a microscale combustion calorimeter (MCC), per ASTM D7309-21, Standard Test Method for Determining Flammability Characteristics of Plastics and Other Combustible Solid Materials Using Microscale Combustion Calorimetry. This microscale combustion parameter, called the fire growth capacity (FGC; J/g-K), was derived from a continuum-level burning model and showed excellent correlation with bench-scale fire tests. In this paper, we show that FGC is also obtained from flame spread theory as the potential of a combustible material to initiate fire growth in a full-scale compartment.