Enabling the Study of Structure Vulnerabilities to Ignition from Wind Driven Firebrand Showers: A Summary of Experimental Results

Published

July 18, 2012

Author(s)

Samuel L. Manzello, Sayaka S. Suzuki, Yoshihiko Hayashi

Abstract

Until recently, attempting to experimentally quantify the vulnerabilities of structures to ignition from firebrand showers has remained elusive. The coupling of a two unique facilities has begun to unravel this difficult problem. The NIST Firebrand Generator (NIST Dragon) is an experimental device than can generate a firebrand shower in a safe and repeatable fashion. Since wind plays a critical role in the spread of WUI fires in the USA and urban fires in Japan, NIST has established collaboration with the Building Research Institute (BRI) in Japan. BRI maintains one of the only full scale wind tunnel facilities in the world designed specifically for fire experimentation; the Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility (FRWTF). The coupling of the NIST Firebrand Generator and BRI’s FRWTF is leading to progress in accessing vulnerabilities of structures to a firebrand attack. A brief summary of key results to date using the NIST Dragon installed in the FRWTF are provided in this paper as well as a description of the new and improved NIST Dragon’s LAIR (Lofting and Ignition Research) facility. The Dragon’s LAIR is the only experimental facility capable of simulating wind driven firebrand showers at bench scale. This paper marks the first occasion that all these findings have been compiled to provide a complete story.

Citation

Fire Safety Journal

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2012.06.012

Keywords

WUI Fires, Firbrands, Ignition

Citation

Manzello, S. , Suzuki, S. and Hayashi, Y. (2012), Enabling the Study of Structure Vulnerabilities to Ignition from Wind Driven Firebrand Showers: A Summary of Experimental Results, Fire Safety Journal, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2012.06.012 (Accessed October 16, 2025)