The Single Burning Item (SBI) test method – a decade of development and plans for the near future

Rudolf van Mierlo¹ and Bart Sette²
¹ TNO Centre for Fire Research, Delft, the Netherlands
² Ghent University, Dep. of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent, Belgium

Harmonised technical specifications are needed to create a single European market. Although many test methods were available to assess the reaction to fire performance of building products, no set of existing test methods was both politically and technically acceptable. As a result the Single Burning Item (SBI) test method has been developed . For about 80% of the building products on the European market this assessment will be, and partly is already, compulsory. The paper describes the development process of the SBI test method, including the result of the second recently finalised round robin exercise. Items for further development are discussed with the emphasis on some uncertainty aspects of the test method.

Key words: Reaction to fire, SBI, test methods, round robin

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	The Single Burning Item (SBI) test method – a decade of development and plans for the near future Rudolf van Mierlo¹ and Bart Sette² ¹ TNO Centre for Fire Research, Delft, the Netherlands ² Ghent University, Dep. of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent, Belgium Harmonised technical specifications are needed to create a single European market. Although many test methods were available to assess the reaction to fire performance of building products, no set of existing test methods was both politically and technically acceptable. As a result the Single Burning Item (SBI) test method has been developed . For about 80% of the building products on the European market this assessment will be, and partly is already, compulsory. The paper describes the development process of the SBI test method, including the result of the second recently finalised round robin exercise. Items for further development are discussed with the emphasis on some uncertainty aspects of the test method. Key words: Reaction to fire, SBI, test methods, round robin