Plate sensor temperature data from full-scale fire experiments of battery electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles

Over time, the burning behavior of passenger vehicles has been influenced by continuous advancements in vehicle design, including changes in materials, manufacturing processes, and the integration of modern lithium-ion battery powertrains. Fire protection engineers, first responders, and other safety professionals currently lack sufficient data to determine whether existing fire protection system designs and firefighting practices effectively address the hazards associated with modern vehicle fires, or to adapt these approaches to any measurable changes in fire dynamics. In this study, a total of eighteen full-scale vehicle fire experiments were conducted in a laboratory environment to obtain a novel data set describing the fire size, thermal hazards, and evolved smoke and particulate species resulting from vehicle fires. The present data repository includes measurements from nine of these experiments in which vehicles were ignited in the engine compartment (gasoline vehicles) or under the battery packs (electric vehicles) using a 30 kW propane burner. In these experiments, plate sensors and infrared cameras were positioned along both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicles, and temperature over the surfaces of the plate sensors was measured over time using infrared thermography. Thermogram sequences were exported to comma-separated-value (CSV) files at a frequency of 1 Hz. These measurements can be used, in tandem with an inverse heat transfer model, to deduce the spatially and temporally varying heat flux to the surroundings of the burning vehicles. For additional details on this method, referred to as the HFITS method, please refer to the source publication (10.1016/j.mex.2025.103327). There are many potential uses of this data, but primary uses are expected to include revision of design criteria and guidance within the fire protection engineering community, strategic and tactical decision aids for vehicle fire incident operations, validation of existing (and development of new) fire behavior models, and guidance to vehicle manufacturers for improved fire safety design.