Materials flammability

News and Updates

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

NIST Research Featured in Fire and Materials Journal Special Issue on Furniture Flammability

March 12, 2021

The NIST Flammability Reduction Group (FRG) recently contributed to the production of a Special Issue on Furniture Flammability in the Fire and Materials

Diagram shows a mattress being set on fire by gas burners in a standard flammability test.

Mattress Flammability Standard Is a Lifesaver, NIST Report Finds

November 18, 2020

No matter how soft and cozy, beds that have gone up in flames are a source of some of the deadliest fires in the U.S. As large pieces of furniture loaded with

Projects and Programs

High Temperature Performance of Fire Fighter Equipment

Ongoing

The performance of fire fighting equipment and gear is critical for the safety and effectiveness of fire fighters. Current equipment standards and test methods

Reduced Ignition and Flame Spread with Nano-Engineered Foam Project

Completed

This research will enable commercialization of a reduced flammability, inexpensive, and EHS[1] compliant polyurethane foam and a high smoldering reference foam

Residential Fire Safety Innovation

Ongoing

Residential fire losses substantially dominate the total fire losses in the U.S. accounting for 83% of the 2855 deaths, 78% or the 16500 injuries, and 58% of

epoxy with an intumescent fire retardant

Engineered Fire Safe Products

Ongoing

This project will conduct research to support the use of lightweight (wood, plastics, and composites)-engineered fire safe products (L-EFSP) with long fire

Publications

The MaCFP Condensed Phase Working Group: A Structured, Global Effort Towards Pyrolysis Model Development

November 23, 2021

Author(s)

Isaac Leventon, Benjamin Batiot, Morgan Bruns, Simo Hostikka, Yuji Nakamura, Pedro Reszka, Thomas Rogaume, Stanislav Stoliarov

The International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) Working Group on Measurement and Computation of Fire Phenomena (i.e., the MaCFP Working Group) has

Fire Performance of Upholstery Materials: Correlation between Cube Test and Full-Scale Chair Mock-Ups

November 17, 2021

Author(s)

Mauro Zammarano

In our previous work, the fire performance of seven upholstery materials combinations - including six barrier fabrics, one cover fabric and one flexible

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

Ignitibility of Structural Wood Products Exposed to Embers During Wildland Fires: A Review of Literature

April 27, 2021

Author(s)

Shonali Nazare, Isaac T. Leventon, Rick Davis

Ignitability of structural components due to ember accumulation is a common cause of structural fires in wildland urban interface (WUI) communities. To fire

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