EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF WOOD DECKING ASSEMBLIES ATTACKED BY FIREBRAND SHOWERS

Published

July 3, 2016

Author(s)

Samuel Manzello, Sayaka Suzuki

Abstract

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires have become a problem of great concern worldwide. Japan is located in one of the most earthquake prone areas of the world. After large earthquakes, many fires may simultaneously occur that can easily overwhelm fire-fighting resources. Since most Japanese cities are densely populated, severe fire spread occurs within these urban areas. An important mechanism of structure ignition in WUI fires and urban in fires is the production of firebrands In WUI fires, decking assemblies have been observed to be an ignition vulnerability based on post-fire damage surveys conducted by NIST and elsewhere. Recently, the use of decking assemblies has also become more popular in Japan. The authors have conducted experiments and demonstrated the dangers of the dynamic process of continual, wind-driven firebrand showers landing onto decking assemblies for wood decking assemblies for the first-time. In prior work, the wind speed was limited to 6 m/s (to compare to existing test methods). To this end, a series of experiments were conducted to examine possible vulnerabilities both wood decking assemblies to continuous, wind-driven firebrand showers under wind speeds of 8 m/s. Sections of wood decking assemblies (1.2 m by 1.2 m) were constructed and attached to a reentrant corner assembly lined with gypsum board in order to investigate decking assembly performance. The deck/reentrant corner assembly was then exposed to continuous, wind-driven firebrand bombardment generated by a full- scale Continuous Feed Firebrand Generator installed in the Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility (FRWTF) at the Building Research Institute (BRI) in Japan. Finally, experiments were also conducted to determine if wall ignition was observed to occur due to the burning decking assembly. Results of these experimental investigations are provided in this paper.

Proceedings Title

Interflam 2016, 14th International Conference on Fire Science and Engineering

Conference Dates

July 4-6, 2016

Conference Location

Windsor, UK

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

WUI Fires, Ignition, Firebrands

Citation

Manzello, S. and Suzuki, S. (2016), EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF WOOD DECKING ASSEMBLIES ATTACKED BY FIREBRAND SHOWERS, Interflam 2016, 14th International Conference on Fire Science and Engineering, Windsor, UK (Accessed April 27, 2024)