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Fire

Materials flammability

News and Updates

Staff Spotlight - Dr. Ankit Sharma

March 21, 2024

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Ankit Sharma has joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as an Associate (PREP) in the

Scripps National News

February 22, 2022

Flammability Reduction Group provides virtual seminar on Reducing the Fire Risk of Residential Upholstered Furniture Fires as part of SFPE Member Series

May 24, 2021

The “Low Heat Release Upholstered Furniture” project at the Fire Research Division (FRD) of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducts

Projects and Programs

Fire Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements

Ongoing

Fire Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements support extramural work to reduce the total burden of fire on the U.S. economy, which is estimated as greater

Advanced Gas-Phase Fire Retardants Project

Completed

There is high motivation in industry to replace the widely used brominated fire retardants (and their antimony synergist). In order to aid in the development

Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings Program

Ongoing

The research in this program (Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings, FRRiB) will enable reductions in the two single largest components of this U.S. structure fire

Engineered Fire Safe Products

Ongoing

The Engineered Fire Safe Products (EFSP) Project is developing a database (the NIST Material Flammability Database) to maintain the tools (experimental and

Publications

The Impact of Material Composition on Ignitability and Fire Growth. Volume 1: Full-Scale Burning Behavior of Combustible Solids Commonly Found in Nuclear Power Plants

February 13, 2024

Author(s)

Isaac Leventon, Michael Heck, Kevin B. McGrattan, Matthew Bundy, Rick D. Davis

This report provides an overview of quantitative measurement data and visual observations obtained from a series of 52 full-scale fire growth experiments

New Fire Protection Materials

January 26, 2024

Author(s)

Andre Thompson

Residential upholstered furniture (RUF) is the leading combustible in fatal fires in the United States. In the last few decades, fire-retardant (FRs) chemicals

Heats of Combustion and Related Properties of Pure Substances

December 5, 2023

Author(s)

Donald R. Burgess Jr., Anthony Hamins

In this work, we compiled and evaluated various properties pertaining to the heats of combustion of about 420 compounds of physical, chemical, and engineering

Fire Protection of Wood with an Environmentally Benign UV-Cured Polyelectrolyte Complex

July 7, 2023

Author(s)

Sarah Fisher, Danixa Rodriguez-Melendez, Ethan Iverson, Thomas Kolibaba, Jaime Grunlan

The use of wood in home and commercial structures has continued to grow in recent years, but its flammability poses a threat to lives and property. Previous

Software

FDS and Smokeview

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier

Tools and Instruments

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) operates calorimeters to measure the heat and combustion products for fires in the range of 50 kW to 20,000 kW

The National Fire Research Laboratory

The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) is a unique experimental facility dedicated understanding fire behavior and structural response to fire. The