Bryant, R.
, Johnsson, E.
and Mulholland, G.
(2012),
Characterizing Heat Release Rate Transients, Fire Safety Journal, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907146
(Accessed June 7, 2023)
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Characterizing Heat Release Rate Transients
Published
Author(s)
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Abstract
A series of experiments was performed to characterize the time response of a large-scale open calorimeter to square-wave pulses in terms of peak heat release rate, width of the peak, and conservation of energy. Quantitative heat release rate measurements of full-scale fires up to 2.7 MW were conducted using the principle of oxygen consumption calorimetry. A remotely-operated natural gas burner provided a reproducible heat source and near-square-wave inputs to the system. The calorimeter was capable of resolving the actual peak heat release rate value for fire transient events having a full width at half height of 15 s or greater. However, if the full width at half height measured by the calorimeter was less than 11 s, the measured peak value underestimated the actual peak heat release rate by 15 % or more. Even if the peak heat release rate could not be fully resolved, the calorimeter was able to provide an estimate of the total heat released to within about 5 %, demonstrating conservation of energy by the system.Citation
Fire Safety Journal
Volume
51
Pub Type
Journals
Download Paper
Keywords
heat release rate, fire growth, hazard evaluation, measurement response time
Citation
Created April 26, 2012, Updated February 19, 2017