The rational design of fire protection engineering in buildings requires a thorough understanding of fire behaviour, and it is known that the behaviour of fires in compartments is dependent on many factors.K. Kawagoe and T. Sekine¹⁾ reported that openings could be the biggest controlling factor, and their experiments and theory have been supported by most researchers throughout the world.

The behaviour of a fire in a compartment depends on the basic burning characteristics, and shape of the combustibles, and their positions as well as on the compartment and its properties. In particular, the burning characteristics of lining materials have a significant influence on the growth and behaviour of a compartment fire, but there is little information concerning their assessments.

Studies on compartment fires have been made mainly with compartments composed of noncombustible interior linings and very little work has been done with compartments finished with combustible interior linings.

For fire protection of buildings, it is necessary to consider combustion prevention measures for commodities including interior linings. However, since compartments are living spaces, an undue emphasis on the demand for fire protection may lead to undue interference with other physical or human engineering requirements. In other words, fire safety should be considered as a total design of compartment space.

At present, even though details of the burning behaviour of compartments are still unknown, it is considered necessary to evaluate quantitatvely the influence of materials on fire risk by suitable methods. Accordingly, I have conducted studies using model boxes by which the interaction of the burning of the linings and the combustibles present in the compartment can be easily clarified.