FIREBRANDS GENERATED FROM FULL-SCALE BUILDING COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURES UNDER AN APPLIED WIND-FIELD

Published

June 24, 2013

Author(s)

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

Abstract

Firebrand production from a real-scale structure under well-controlled laboratory conditions was investigated. The structure was fabricated using wood studs and oriented strand board (OSB). A sofa was placed inside the structure and ignited using a remotely controlled electric match. The door opening was sized to allow flashover to occur inside the structure. The entire structure was placed inside the Building Research Institute’s (BRI) Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility (FRWTF) in Japan to apply a wind field of 6 m/s onto the structure. As the structure burned, firebrands were collected using an array of water pans. The size and mass distributions of firebrands collected in this study were compared with firebrand generation data from actual full-scale structure burns, individual building component tests, and historical structure fire firebrand generation studies. The methodology presented here provides a framework to study firebrand generation from burning structures under well-controlled laboratory conditions while affording the ability to capture the important nature of realistic scales critical to the firebrand production process. The paper closes with recent data that considers the influence of siding treatments on firebrand generation from individual building components.

Proceedings Title

Interflam 2013

Conference Dates

June 24-26, 2013

Conference Location

Windsor

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

WUI Fires, Firebrands

Citation

Manzello, S. , Suzuki, S. , Suzuki, J. and Hayashi, Y. (2013), FIREBRANDS GENERATED FROM FULL-SCALE BUILDING COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURES UNDER AN APPLIED WIND-FIELD, Interflam 2013, Windsor, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913432 (Accessed December 5, 2024)