Review of railway seat fire tests

Review of rail seat fire tests shows varying results with different test methods, materials and with material ageing. The use of paper as flame source in older test methods (UIC 564-2, DIN 5510-2) give less reliable results than today’s railway standard EN 16989 which uses a 15 kW gas burner. Also, cone calorimeter results do not usefully predict EN 16989 seat test results, both for heat release rate and for smoke emissions. Results also show that fire behaviour depends strongly on the seat design as well as on the fire performance of the materials used. One study also suggests that 14 year old leather may have lost ifs fire protection with ageing, but data is insufficient for clear conclusions. Fire test data for all materials used, under different heat intensities, can enable modelling of fire development through a rail carriage, and this has shown to correspond well to full-scale fire test results.

“Review of Fire Tests on Seats for Passenger Coaches and the Materials Used in Them”, D. Hohenwarter, Fire 2025, 8, 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8010032