Building and Fire Research Laboratory
Fire Research Division
The speed of a flame is measured as increasing amounts of super- effective suppressant are added during the search for possible halon replacements. The Fire Research Division develops, verifies, and utilizes measurements and predictive methods to quantify the behavior of fire and the means to reduce the impact of fire on people, property, and the environment. This work involves integration of laboratory measurements, verified methods of prediction, and large-scale fire experiments to demonstrate the use and value of the research products. Focused research activities develop scientific and engineering understanding of fire phenomena and metrology; identify principles and produce metrology, data, and predictive methods for the formation/evolution of smoke components in flames and for the burning of polymeric materials; and develop predictive methods to enable high-performance fire detection and suppression systems. Through the Division’s programs in measurement, prediction, systems integration, and the dynamics of fire and its interactions with the built and natural environment, the division provides leadership for advancing the theory and practice of fire safety engineering, fire fighting, fire investigation, fire testing, fire data management, and intentional burning. Extensive publication and technology transfer efforts facilitate the use of fire research results in practice in the fire communities in the United States. Participation in the codes and standards processes helps to reduce barriers to trade and global markets for U.S. goods and services.
William L. Grosshandler, Chief
(301) 975-2310
(301) 975-4052 (fax)
email: william.grosshandler@nist.govFire Loss Reduction
Research ProgramsMost of the Division's research is carried out in three main programs:
- Advanced Fire Service Technology
- Advanced Measurement and Prediction Methods for Fire Loss Reduction
- Reduced Risk of Flashover
These programs benefit from collaborations with other BFRL divisions, divisions in other NIST laboratories, industry sponsors, and other government agencies. The Division sponsors an Extramural Grants Program, as well, to promote academic research in these areas. The objectives of these programs are:
- Advanced Fire Service Technology -- Enable a shift to an information rich environment for safer and more effective fire service operations through new technology, measurement standards, and training tools.
- Advanced Measurement and Prediction Methods for Fire Loss Reduction -- To lead the world in fire measurement and prediction methods by 2006, enabling engineered fire safety for people, products, facilities, and first responders.
- Reduced Risk of Flashover -- To eliminate flashover risk cost-effectively by adapting measurement and predictive methods to better understand conditions leading to flashover; to enable early and certain fire and environment sensing; to advance fire suppression technologies; and to enable new/improved materials whose fire resistance does not negatively impact performance, cost, or the environment.
Fire Fighting Technology Group
The Fire Fighting Technology group enables advances in fire fighter safety, fire ground operations, and effectiveness of the fire service; develops and applies technology, measurements and standards, and improves the understanding of the behavior, prevention and control of fires to enhance fire fighting operations and equipment, fire suppression, fire investigations, and disaster response.
Nelson Bryner, Leader
(301) 975-6868
email: nelson.bryner@nist.govFire Metrology Group
The uncertainty in thermocouple temperature measurements, an essential part of all meaningful fire tests, are quantified here under actual conditions. The Fire Metrology Group applies measurement science in the development a nd quantification of new and existing methods for studying fire growth, fire induced flows, flame radiation, smoke formation and dynamics, species production, heat transfer, and fire suppression. It conducts long term basic research to develop new measurement paradigms and responds to short term challenges to address needs identified by other groups within the division. The group serves as division resource for quantification of measurement uncertainty, development of calibration standards, and best practices documents. The group also manages the NIST Large Fire Facility where advanced field scale diagnostics, real time data output, and quantified measurements are employed to validate models for fire growth, smoke dynamics, and suppression.
Jiann Yang, Leader
(301) 975-6662
email: jiann.yang@nist.govAnalysis and Prediction Group
The Analysis and Prediction Group develops understanding and predictive methods of dynamic fire phenomena to advance fire science and engineering practice, reduce fire hazards, and improve fire protection and fire fighting. It performs research to enhance the understanding of the physics of fires to improve predictions of the growth, spread, suppression, and emissions from fires of all scales, and it uses experiments, analysis, metrology, and advanced computer simulations to improve predictions of fire phenomena.
Anthony Hamins, Leader
(301) 975-6598
email: anthony.hamins@nist.govIntegrated Performance Assessment Group
The Integrated Performance Assessment Group produces quantitative tools useful to a broad base of stakeholders in the building and fire safety communities, including: architects and design engineers; manufacturers of building materials, products and furnishings; code developers, enforcers, and regulating authorities; and stakeholders exposed to direct risk such as building owners, occupants, the general public and the fire service. The group utilizes enhanced data and predictions to quantify fire events for fire hazard and risk assessment; for fire fighter operations, training and fire investigations; and performance evaluation of fire protection systems in buildings, transportation systems, and vehicles in response to fire. The group works with customers to build fire safety decision models making use of advancements in metrology, simulation, and materials; and manages the flow of research data and information to the fire safety community.
William Davis, Leader
(301) 975-6884
email: william.davis@nist.govMaterials and Products Group
Polypropylene specimen undergoing gasification in absence of O2 leads to greater understanding of polymer flammability. The Materials and Products Group performs research to understand fundamentally the mechanisms that control the ignition, flame spread, and burning rate of materials and the chemical and physical characteristics that affect these aspects of flammability. It develops methods of measuring and predicting the response of a material to a fire, which includes characterizing the burning rates of charring and non-charring polymers and composites, delineating and modeling the enthalpy and mass transfer mechanisms of materials combustion, and developing computational molecular dynamics and other mechanistic approaches to understand the relationships between polymer structure and flammability.
Marc Nyden, Leader
(301) 975-6692
email: marc.nyden@nist.gov
Highlights:
8th IAFSS 2005 - September 18-23, 2005, Beijing, China - 8th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science
The 8th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science will be held September 18-23, 2005 in Beijing, China at Tsinghua University. It will be co-hosted by the China Fire Protection Association, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Tsinghua University.
- Fire on the Web - Fire on the Web is a collection of resources from the Building and Fire Research Laboratory's Fire Research Division at NIST. These Web pages provide links to fire related software, experimental fire data and mpeg/quick time movies of fire tests that can be downloaded and/or viewed with a Web browser.
NIST Combinatorial Methods Center Focused Project:
High Throughput Flammability Test Methods for Compositionally Graded Samples
The Fire Research Division at NIST has allocated over $650K of internal funding for 2002 for High Throughput flammability research. Membership in this Focused Project on High Throughput Flammability Test Methods affords members an excellent opportunity to leverage their R&D funds for the purpose of gaining information, knowledge and skills in the high throughput field. This is also an opportunity for the members to help set the direction for the development of these new R&D tools.
3 Megawatt Heat Release Rate Facility - The Fire Research Division at NIST has made a considerable effort toward having broad capabilities for making quantitative large scale fire measurements. The 3 Megawatt Heat Release Rate Facility was developed as a first step toward those capabilities. Such capabilities will be used at NIST to validate fire models and to develop sub-grid models. It will also serve to provide a data base for studying a broader range of fire phenomena, and to address issues related to material acceptance and fire codes. An equally important objective is to provide templates for use by other laboratories including commercial testing facilities to improve the quality of their data.
NIST Special Publication 1007 – The NIST 3 Megawatt Quantitative Heat Release Rate Facility - This document is intended to serve as a description of the 3 Megawatt Heat Release Rate Facility and as a general guide for implementing, operating and maintaining quality control of similar quantitative large scale heat release rate measurement facilities.
*** UPDATED 7/1/2004 *** This document supersedes the document as posted at this link prior to 6/25/2004. An incorrect reference temperature (288.5 K) was used in computing the natural gas heat of combustion on page 50 paragraph 1. Using the correct reference temperature of 300 K, the value of the heat of combustion is 33,733 kJ/m3 compared to the incorrect value of 35,000 kJ/m3. The document has been changed where ever necessary to reflect this correction. This change decreases the natural gas burner output by about 4 %. The document citation remains unchanged.
Contacts:
George Mulholland, george.mulholland@nist.gov
Rodney Bryant, rodney.bryant@nist.gov
- Home Smoke Alarm Tests - The purpose of the project is to determine if different types of fire alarms can respond to threatening residential fire settings in order to permit egress of typical groups of occupants. The ability of the alarm devices to avoid nuisance alarms will also be evaluated.
Contact: Richard Bukowski, richard.bukowski@nist.gov
- NIST and NFPA’s second report on the sublethal effects of fire smoke is the next step in establishing a technically sound basis for assessing the accuracy of bench-scale toxic potency devices. Data from these devices are key inputs to fire hazard and risk assessment. The report contains:
- a methodology for and results from a series of room-corridor fire tests;
- yields or upper limits of potential toxicants for pre- and post-flashover fires, all with associated uncertainties; and
- data on the losses of CO, HCN, and HCl as they flowed down the corridor.
FINAL REPORT
Contact: Richard Gann, rggann@nist.gov
Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research
Contact: William Grosshandler, william.grosshandler@nist.gov
CIB WI4: Fire
The present emphasis of CIB W14: Fire is on fire safety engineering needed for performance based fire codes or regulations. To meet our objectives, we have initiated several projects with specified goals. We meet annually, arrange workshops or co-sponsor symposia and conferences.The work of W14 is a voluntary activity: our achievements depend on the efforts of our members. The current membership of W14 is about 75 from 30 different countries around the world and it is growing.
Contact: Richard Bukowski, richard.bukowski@nist.gov
Diffusion Flame Measurements - Profile data are presented here to aid research on the chemical structure of laminar, hydrocarbon diffusion flames - both for comparisons with other experimental results as well as for evaluating the predictions of flame models. Specifically, measurements made at NIST during the period 1984-1998 of species concentrations (mole fraction), temperatures (K), and velocities (cm/s) are included for two diffusion flame systems.
Contact: Kermit Smyth, kermit.smyth@nist.gov
Table on Flame Measurements of Minor Species (PDF format)
Contact: Kermit Smyth, kermit.smyth@nist.gov
FY2000 NGP Annual Report - The Department of Defense’s Next Generation Fire Suppression Technology Program (NGP) has completed its fourth year of research with a revised goal to develop and demonstrate, by 2005, technology for economically feasible, environmentally acceptable and user-safe processes, techniques, and fluids that meet the operational requirements currently satisfied by halon 1301 systems in aircraft.
Contact: Richard Gann, rggann@nist.gov
Publications
- Publications prepared by Fire Research Division staff
Staff
- Fire Fighting Technology Group
- Fire Metrology Group
- Analysis and Prediction Group
- Integrated Performance Assessment Group
- Materials and Products Group
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Date created: 3/12/2001
Last updated: 9/24/2004