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A series of experiments was conducted to examine the potential to use kitchen-installed photoelectric smoke detection devices to warn of approaching ignition of food during unattended cooking. An electric range, range hood, and cabinets were installed in a
Jian Jiang, Joseph A. Main, Fahim Sadek, Jonathan M. Weigand
This report presents detailed and reduced-order finite element modeling of heat transfer in composite floor slabs with profiled steel decking. The detailed modeling approach uses solid elements for the concrete slab and shell elements for the steel decking
Kathryn Butler, Erica D. Kuligowski, Susanne M. Furman, Richard Peacock
Since the tragic loss of life in the World Trade Center disaster, efforts have refocused on the provision of safe and efficient evacuation procedures, especially for occupants who cannot negotiate exit stairs without assistance. Several evacuation options
Piotr A. Domanski, Riccardo Brignoli, J S. Brown, Andrei F. Kazakov, Mark O. McLinden
The merits of an alternative refrigerant are established based on many attributes including environmental acceptance, chemical stability in the refrigeration system, low toxicity, flammability, efficiency and volumetric capacity. In an earlier work, these
Hidemi Omori, Erica D. Kuligowski, Steve Gwynne, Kathryn Butler
The purpose of this article is to provide guidance on enhancing human response to emergency communication. This guidance can, in turn, help engineers improve the design of emergency notification and messaging systems, which, as a result, can help inform
Steven Emmerich, Kevin Y. Teichman, Andrew Persily
In this paper, we summarize the results of field studies to evaluate the ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) performance in high-performance commercial (non-industrial, non-residential) buildings in North America. We show that the number of such
According to recent results of Planetary Boundary Layer research relevant to tall building design, for elevations of up to at least 1 km: (i) the longitudinal mean wind speeds are monotonically increasing with height, and (ii) veering angles are negligible
Isaac T. Leventon, Stanislav I. Stoliarov, Kevin T. Korver
In this work, experimental measurements of flame heat flux and sample mass loss rate are obtained as a flame spreads vertically upward over the surface of seven commonly used polymeric materials, two of which are glass reinforced composites. Using these
Nine full-scale fire experiments were conducted in two residential-scale structures to study how different fire fighting tactics, specifically horizontal, vertical, and positive pressure ventilation, affect the fire environment within a structure. The fire
The 4SIGHT computer code facilitates the performance assessments (PA) of nuclear waste and decommissioning facilities that employ concrete as the principal engineered barrier to isolate waste. Such facilities include those for Low Level Waste (LLW)
A three-dimensional model of the probe volume in duel-beam interferometry measurements was developed to evaluate the effect of laser beam alignment errors. Simulations of droplets passing randomly through the probe volume of a two-component duel-beam
This paper presents a method that uses Boolean logic to model complex logical constraints in a zero-one integer programming optimization. The article examines how the problem of inding a least-cost plan of compliance with building fire codes can be modeled
Jeffrey W. Gilman, R Haggenmueller, Sameer Rahatekar, Jeffrey Fagan, Jae H. Chun, Matthew Becker, Rajesh R. Naik, Todd Krauss, Lisa Carlson, Shana O. Kelley, Paul C. Trulove, D M. Fox, John Kadla
The application of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in current and future applications crucially depends on the ability to process SWCNT in a solvent to yield high quality dispersions characterized by individual SWCNTs and possessing a minimum of SWCNT
This paper proposes a measure of the deviation between a nonlinear equation and its affine model, and demonstrates applications to nonlinear systems. The measure expresses the model error relative to a representative change in its predicted value
This report compares results from similar egress models based on documented evacuation movement data. When EXIT89 and Simulex1 are used to 1) simulate the same design scenarios and 2) perform a bounding analysis of the hotel building, differences in egress
The purpose of detecting fires early is to provide an alarm consistent with an environment which is deemed to be a threat to people or a building. High reliability detection is based on the supposition that it is possible to utilize a sufficient number of
Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fires are different than either wildland or urban fires. In part, this is because the heat release rates and the burning time scales are significantly different for wildland and structural fuels. Therefore, modeling WUI fires
An analytical model of the initial expansion of a fireball is presented.The model is based on an exact solution of the low Mach number combustion equations in the form initially proposed by the authors. The equations consist of the conservation of mass
An analytical model of the initial expansion of a fireball is presented.The model is based on an exact solution of the low Mach number combustion equations in the form initially proposed by the authors. The equations consist of the conservation of mass
Smokeview is a software tool designed to visualize numerical calculations generated by the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. This report documents some of the technical details and
One of the recommendations of the National Construction Safety Team for the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1, 2005) is to enhance the performance-based capability of available computational
This report describes the results of the chemical contamination and decontamination of pipe materials found in residential building for the second phase of a research project to evaluate how contaminants accidentally or intentionally introduced into the
The Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been conducting research that will provide a quantifiable physical and scientific basis upon which industry standards for imaging performance