ASTM E2061-23
Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles

Standard No.

ASTM E2061-23

Release Date

2023

Published By

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Latest

ASTM E2061-23

Scope

1.1 This is a guide to developing fire hazard assessments for rail transportation vehicles. It has been written to assist professionals, including fire safety engineers, who wish to assess the fire safety of rail transportation vehicles, during or after their design (see also 1.6). This guide is not in itself a fire hazard assessment nor does it provide acceptance criteria; thus, it cannot be used for regulation. 1.2 Hazard assessment is a process that results in an estimate of the potential severity of the fires that can develop under defined scenarios, once defined incidents have occurred. Hazard assessment does not address the likelihood of a fire occurring. Hazard assessment is based on the premise that an ignition has occurred, consistent with a specified scenario, and that potential outcomes of the scenario can be reliably estimated. 1.3 Consistent with 1.2, this guide provides methods to evaluate whether particular rail passenger designs provide an equal or greater level of fire safety when compared to designs developed based on the traditional applicable fire-test-response characteristic approaches currently widely used in this industry. Such approaches have typically been based on prescriptive test methodologies. The following are examples of such lists of prescriptive tests: the requirements by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) (Table X1.1), the former guidelines of the FRA, the requirements of NFPA 130 (Table X3.1), and the recommended practices of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Selective use of parts of the methodology in this guide and of individual fire-test-response characteristics from Table X1.1 (or any other set of tests) does not satisfy the fire safety objectives of this guide or of the table. This guide shall be used in its entirety to develop a fire hazard assessment for rail transportation vehicles or to aid in the design of such vehicles. 1 This guide is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Committee E05 on Fire Standards and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee E05.17 on Transportation. Current edition approved June 15, 2023. Published July 2023. Originally approved in 2000. Last previous edition approved in 2020 as E2061 – 20. DOI: 10.1520/E2061-23. Copyright © ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959. United States This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee. 1 1.4 This guide includes and applies accepted and clearly defined fire safety engineering techniques and methods consistent with both existing, traditional prescriptive codes and standards and performance based fire codes and standards under development throughout the world. 1.5 This guide provides recommended methods to mitigate potential damage from fires in rail transportation vehicles, by assessing the comparative fire hazard of particular products, assemblies, systems or overall designs intended for use in rail transportation vehicles. Such methods could include changes to the materials, components, products, assemblies, or systems involved in the construction of the rail transportation vehicle or changes in the design features of the vehicle, including the number and location of automatically activated fire safety devices present (see 4.4.4 for further details). 1.6 This guide is intended, among other things, to be of assistance to personnel addressing issues associated with the following areas. 1.6.1 Design and specification of rail transportation vehicles. 1.6.2 Fabrication of rail transportation vehicles. 1.6.3 Supply of assemblies, subassemblies, and component materials, for use in rail transportation vehicles. 1.6.4 Operation of rail transportation vehicles. 1.6.5 Provision of a safe environment for all occupants of a rail transportation vehicle. 1.7 The techniques provided in this guide are based on specific assumptions in terms of rail transportation vehicle designs, construction and fire scenarios. These techniques can be used to provide a quantitative measure of the fire hazards from a specified set of fire conditions, involving specific materials, products, or assemblies. Such an assessment cannot be relied upon to predict the hazard of actual fires, which involve conditions, or vehicle designs, other than those assumed in the analysis. In particular, the fire hazard may be affected by the anticipated use pattern of the vehicle. 1.8 This guide can be used to analyze the estimated fire performance of the vehicle specified under defined specific fire scenarios. Under such scenarios, incidents will begin either inside or outside a vehicle, and ignition sources can involve vehicle equipment as well as other sources. The fire scenarios to be used are described in detail in Section 5.3. 1.8.1 Fires with more severe initiating conditions than those assumed in an analysis may pose more severe fire hazard than that calculated using the techniques provided in this guide. For this reason severe fire conditions must be considered as part of an array of fire scenarios. 1.9 This fire standard cannot be used to provide quantitative measures. 1.10 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.

ASTM E2061-23 Referenced Document

• ASTM C1166 Standard Test Method for Flame Propagation of Dense and Cellular Elastomeric Gaskets and Accessories
• ASTM D123 Standard Terminology Relating to Textiles*， 2023-09-14 Update
• ASTM D2724 Standard Test Methods for Bonded, Fused, and Laminated Apparel Fabrics
• ASTM D3574 Standard Test Methods for Flexible Cellular Materials8212;Slab, Bonded, and Molded Urethane Foams
• ASTM D3675 Standard Test Method for Surface Flammability of Flexible Cellular Materials Using A Radiant Heat Energy Source
• ASTM D5424 Standard Test Method for Smoke Obscuration of Insulating Materials Contained in Electrical or Optical Fiber Cables When Burning in a Vertical Cable Tray Configuration
• ASTM D5537 Standard Test Method for Heat Release, Flame Spread and Mass Loss Testing of Insulating Materials Contained in Electrical or Optical Fiber Cables When Burning in a Vertical Cable Tray Configuration
• ASTM D6113 Standard Test Method for Using a Cone Calorimeter to Determine Fire-Test Response Characteristics of Insulating Materials Contained in Electrical or Optical Fiber Cables
• ASTM E119 Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials
• ASTM E1321 Standard Test Method for Determining Material Ignition and Flame Spread Properties
• ASTM E1354 Standard Test Method for Heat and Visible Smoke Release Rates for Materials and Products Using an Oxygen Consumption Calorimeter
• ASTM E1355 Standard Guide for Evaluating the Predictive Capability of Deterministic Fire Models
• ASTM E1472 Standard Guide for Documenting Computer Software for Fire Models
• ASTM E1474 Standard Test Method for Determining the Heat Release Rate of Upholstered Furniture and Mattress Components or Composites Using a Bench Scale Oxygen Consumption Calorimeter
• ASTM E1537 Standard Test Method for Fire Testing of Real Scale Upholstered Furniture
• ASTM E1590 Standard Test Method for Fire Testing of Mattresses
• ASTM E1591 Standard Guide for Obtaining Data for Fire Growth Models
• ASTM E162 Standard Test Method for Surface Flammability of Materials Using a Radiant Heat Energy Source
• ASTM E1623 Standard Test Method for Determination of Fire and Thermal Parameters of Materials, Products, and Systems Using an Intermediate Scale Calorimeter (ICAL)
• ASTM E1740 Standard Test Method for Determining the Heat Release Rate and Other Fire-Test-Response Characteristics of Wall Covering or Ceiling Covering Composites Using a Cone Calorimeter
• ASTM E176 Standard Terminology of Fire Standards
• ASTM E603 Standard Guide for Room Fire Experiments
• ASTM E648 Standard Test Method for Critical Radiant Flux of Floor-Covering Systems Using a Radiant Heat Energy Source
• ASTM E662 Standard Test Method for Specific Optical Density of Smoke Generated by Solid Materials
• ASTM E814 Standard Test Method for Fire Tests of Penetration Firestop Systems*， 2023-07-01 Update
• ASTM E906 Standard Test Method for Heat and Visible Smoke Release Rates for Materials and Products
• ASTM F1534 Standard Test Method for Determining Changes in Fire-Test-Response Characteristics of Cushioning Materials After Water Leaching
• ISO 13943 Fire safety — Vocabulary*， 2023-09-01 Update
• ISO 4880 Burning behaviour of textiles and textile products - Vocabulary
• ISO 9705 Fire tests; full-scale room test for surface products; technical corrigendum 1

ASTM E2061-23 history

• 2023 ASTM E2061-23 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2020 ASTM E2061-20 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2018 ASTM E2061-18 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2015 ASTM E2061-15 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2012 ASTM E2061-12 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2009 ASTM E2061-09a Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2009 ASTM E2061-09 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2006 ASTM E2061-06 Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2003 ASTM E2061-03 Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2002 ASTM E2061-02a Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2002 ASTM E2061-02 Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2001 ASTM E2061-01a Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2001 ASTM E2061-01e1 Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2001 ASTM E2061-01 Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2000 ASTM E2061-00b Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles
• 2000 ASTM E2061-00a Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of Rail Transportation Vehicles