Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Approach to Modeling Flame Spread Over Polyurethane Foam-Covered Walls. (POSTER ABSTRACTS)

Published

Author(s)

Daniel M. Madrzykowski, Stephen Kerber, Nelson P. Bryner, William L. Grosshandler

Abstract

Computer simulation has been demonstrated to be credible, when properly applied, as a tool to help fill in critical details of a fire incident and to demonstrate the value of alternative building designs and fire safety measures. This poster presents the results of numerical simulations and analyses of fire spread over polyurethane foam-covered walls that relate to the conditions in The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on Feb. 20, 2003. The numerical models used in this investigation were the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Smokeview. The essential fire properties of the materials needed as input to FDS were generated from small scale and real scale measurements described in the final report on the NIST investigation and presented in a companion poster at this symposium. The key parameters were the combustion properties of the foam/plywood wall; i.e., ignition temperature, heat of vaporization, and maximum burning rate. The results from cone calorimeter tests of the polyurethane foam could not be used directly in the simulation because of the composite nature of the foam-plus-plywood fuel on the wall of the nightclub. A comparison between laboratory measurements in a full-scale mock-up of the region around the performance platform and the FDS simulations of the experiments indicated a lag in fire development in the simulation relative to the experiments, but once the simulated fire grew large enough the growth rate and smoke development were consistent with the experiments. The temperature, heat flux, and the oxygen volume fractions were used to assess the degree to which the numerical model was capable of reproducing the large-scale experiments, and, in turn, of predicting the conditions during the early minutes of fire spread in the actual nightclub.
Proceedings Title
Fire Safety Science Proceedings - Eighth (8th) International Symposium (POSTER ABSTRACTS) International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) September 18-23 2005
Conference Dates
September 18-23, 2005
Conference Location
Boston, MA
Conference Title
Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA

Keywords

fire research, fire safety, fire science, polyurethane foams, flame spread, walls, fire growth, heat transfer, compartment fires, computational fluid dynamics, heat release rate, fire investigations, forensics

Citation

Madrzykowski, D. , Kerber, S. , Bryner, N. and Grosshandler, W. (2005), Approach to Modeling Flame Spread Over Polyurethane Foam-Covered Walls. (POSTER ABSTRACTS), Fire Safety Science Proceedings - Eighth (8th) International Symposium (POSTER ABSTRACTS) International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) September 18-23 2005, Boston, MA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=900068 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created August 31, 2005, Updated June 24, 2021