Fire behavior of styrofoam

Styrofoam burns like e.g.wood. For the purpose of construction, styrofoam is made selfextinguishing.

No toxic vapours arise on burning, as you can take from the following table:

Gaseous decomposition products when smoldering or burning polystyrene compared to reference building materials.

Fire composition in ppm at test temperature
Components of the fire gases
300 °C
400 °C
500 °C
600 °C
Styrofoam
Carbon monoxyde 10 +* 50 +* 500 +* 1,000 **
Monostyrene 50 100 500 50
Other aromatics Traces 20 20 10
Hydrogen bromide 10 15 13 11
Spruce
Carbon monoxyde 400 * 6,000 ** 12,000 ** 15,000 **
Aromatics - - - 300
Wood fibre insulation boards
Carbon monoxide 14,000 ** 24,000 ** 59,000 ** 69,000 **
Aromatics Traces 300 300 1,000
Expanded cork
Carbon monoxide 1,000 * 3,000 ** 15,000 ** 29,000 **
Aromatics Traces 200 1,000 1,000
+
Pyrolytic (Thermal) decomposition

*
Smouldering Fire

**
Flaming fire

-
Not measured



  • Test conditions according to DIN 53 436 - Generation of thermal decomposition products from materials with air supply and their toxicological test air supply 100 l/h
  • Sample size in mm: 300 x 15 x 10
  • ppm = parts per million by volume
Table reprinted with the kind permission of the German IVH Industrieverband Hartschaum e.v. (Heidelberg)

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