Fire dynamics & science

News and Updates

Firefighters spray water into a burning concrete building with a sign saying "NIST Fire Research."

How AI Could Alert Firefighters of Imminent Danger

June 1, 2021

Firefighting is a race against time. Exactly how much time? For firefighters, that part is often unclear. Building fires can turn from bad to deadly in an

New Fire-Simulating Tool Could Improve In-Flight Fire Safety

March 24, 2021

Some of the most dangerous fires are the ones you don’t see coming. That goes not only for fires in buildings but for those kilometers off the ground, aboard

NIST Conducts Full-Scale Experiments to Demonstrate Flammability Risk of Residential Upholstered Furniture (RUF) and Potential Mitigation Strategies

March 12, 2020

The NIST Flammability Reduction Group (FRG) is conducting a series of full-scale fire experiments in collaboration with the National Fire Research Laboratory

Publications

Velocity and Temperature Structure of Medium-Scale Pool Fires

June 22, 2021

Author(s)

Kunhyuk Sung, Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Anthony Hamins

A series of measurements was conducted using a bidirectional probe to characterize the upward speed in the plumes of medium-scale pool fires burning a variety

The Thermal Character of a 1 m Methanol Pool Fire

June 15, 2021

Author(s)

Kunhyuk Sung, Jian Chen, Matthew Bundy, Marco G. Fernandez, Anthony Hamins

This is the second edition of this study, which presents a series of measurements conducted to characterize the structure of a 1 m diameter methanol pool fire

CFAST - Consolidated Fire and Smoke Transport (Version 7) Volume 5: CFAST Fire Data Generator (CData)

June 11, 2021

Author(s)

Paul A. Reneke, Richard Peacock, Stanley W. Gilbert, Thomas Cleary

This document provides documentation for creating and running Monte Carlo simulations with the Consolidated Fire And Smoke Transport (CFAST) model using the

Improving the State-of-the-Art in Flow Measurements for Large-Scale Oxygen Consumption Calorimetry

May 6, 2021

Author(s)

Rodney A. Bryant, Matthew Bundy

The accuracy of the exhaust flow measurement contributes significantly to the uncertainty of calorimetry measurements for large fire testing. Less than ideal

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