Guide on Methods for Evaluating Fire Hazard to Occupants of Passenger Road Vehicles - Effective Date: 5/18/2019

Abstract

This document addresses issues associated with the development of hazardous conditions from fire involving passenger road vehicles and the time available for safe egress or rescue.

This document provides guidance toward a systematic approach of the determination of the relationship between the properties of passenger road vehicles, including the materials, components and systems, and the development of hazardous conditions in the vehicle.

This approach can include smallscale testing, full-scale testing of systems or entire vehicles, and computer modeling techniques in specified, well-defined scenarios.

The principles and concepts presented in this document provide a methodology that can be used to determine the effects of changes in design or in the properties of materials, components, and assemblies in passenger road vehicles on the development of hazardous fire conditions in passenger road vehicles in response to specified well-defined scenarios.

This document provides a methodology that can be used in the selection of materials and design of components and systems, with the intent of providing a desired level of fire safety to occupants in passenger road vehicles in response to specific fire scenarios.

The use of this document cannot eliminate all fire risk in passenger road vehicles.

The uncertainty of the fire hazard analysis resulting from the application of this document is a function of the accuracy, precision, and relevance of the data, correlations, test methods, calculations, and simulations used.