An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
This paper discusses an engineering approach for estimating the generation rate of carbon monoxide (CO) within a room containing a fire. The algorithm incorporates four CO formation mechanisms which have been identified in past investigations.
Daniel M. Madrzykowski, G Roadarmel, Laurean A. DeLauter
The objective of this study was to investigate the capability of "durable agents" to protect building exterior materials from ignition. The "durable agents" used in this study included: a protein-based, compressed air foam, and two different water
Richard D. Peacock, Paul A. Reneke, Walter W. Jones
Several methods for studying predictive capability and sensitivity have been applied to fire models, but with limited utility. These range from explicit evaluation of the equations used in simple models such as ASET to evaluation of complex models from
Recent earthquakes have shown that buildings designed for life safety could sustain severe damage to structural and nonstructural elements and building contents. In the U.S. several groups have proposed performance-based seismic design approaches to
A series of experimental measurements were conducted in a baffle stabilized turbulent jet spray flame and a baffle stabilized pool fire in an effort to provide an improved understanding of the influence of various parameters on the processes controlling
Thermal conductivity measurements from an international interlaboratory study between the United States and Canada are presented for two materials, glass-fiber board and fibrous alumina silica. The measurements were determined using guarded hot plate
Rebecca W. Portier, Richard Peacock, Walter W. Jones
Fire Data Management System, FDMS, is a system designed to store and retrieve fire test results obtained from bench-scale and real-scale tests as well as fire simulation programs. By storing available fire test values in a common format, this data is
Existing methods for evaluating the performance of smoke and thermal detectors are reviewed. The levels of combustion gases, smoke, temperature and velocity likely to be produced in the European standard detector test fires are discussed, and this
Jiann C. Yang, Anthony P. Hamins, M Glover, M D. King
Polymer combustion is a very complicated process which involves the coupling of gas-phase combustion, melting, pyrolysis and possible charring of the condensed phase. Although only a few studies on the combustion of a spherically shaped polymer have been
A time-dependent, three-dimensional numerical model is under development to predict the temperature field, burning rate, and buttle bursting characteristics of burning thermoplastic materials in microgravity. Model results will be compared with experiments
As plans progress for construction and maintenance of the international space station and, more importantly, private missions to LEO and beyond become viable, serious thought will need to be given to re-engineering EVA (space suit) systems to achieve
Jeffrey W. Gilman, Richard H. Harris Jr., James E. Brown
We have synthesized several new cyanate ester functionalized polystyrene polymers and copolymers. Poly(4-cyanatostyrene), PCS, poly(4-cyanatostyrene) "polymer grade", PCS-PG, poly(4-cyanatostyrene "novalak grade", PCS-NG, poly(4-cyanatostyrene-co
This paper introduces an engineering approach for estimating the generation rate of carbon monoxide (CO) within a room containing a fire. Four CO formation mechanisms: 1) quenching of a turbulent fire plume upon entering a rich upper layer, 2) mixing of
S J. Ritchie, Kenneth D. Steckler, Anthony P. Hamins, Thomas G. Cleary, Jiann C. Yang, Takashi Kashiwagi
The burning of a horizontal wood slab situated atop an insulating substrate was modeled using three coupled submodels for the gas-phase, wood, and substrate processes. A global analytical model was used to determine the radiative and convective heat
An explosion below the World Trade Center plaza in New York City on February 26, 1993, killed six workers, and resulted in injuries to over 1,000 occupants as they made their way out of the affected buildings. The explosion and subsequent fire caused
Kathryn M. Butler, Howard R. Baum, Takashi Kashiwagi
A method of studying the swelling and thermal behavior of intumescent materials using understanding of the basic physical and chemical processes is described. The material is treated as a highly viscous fluid with properties dependent on temperature. the
A precast, prestressed concrete framing system for resisting earthquake loads is described. The system uses both unbonded post-tensioned reinforcement and bonded bar reinforcement. Tests hve shown that its performance is equal or superior to that of a
Numerous investigations have attributed laser-induced broadband fluorescence observed in both rich, premixed flames and in diffusion flames to small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). However, the wide variety of experimental flame conditions and
Valeri I. Babushok, Anthony P. Hamins, Wing Tsang, T Noto
The specific mechanisms by which fire suppressants influence flame properties have been determined on the basis of computer simulations. Attention is focussed on the relative contributions from physical and chemical processes. Chemical effects are most
William D. Davis, Glenn P. Forney, Richard W. Bukowski
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting a four-year research project where in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer code is utilized to map temperature, flow velocities, and particle densities in spaces with complex
This study experimentally quantified the change in heat transfer and pressure drop associated with tilting a compact brazed plate heat exchanger from the intended vertical position. Both clockwise and counterclockwise rotations within a plane perpendicular
A coupled radiation and soot kinetics calculation of laminar methane/air diffusion flame properties is described. Transport equations for mass, momentum, mixture fraction, enthalpy (sensible + chemical) including gas-band radiation, soot mass fraction, and
David G. Holmberg, Kenneth D. Steckler, C A. Womeldorf, William L. Grosshandler
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) presently conducts heat flux sensor calibrations using standard radiation methods. In practice, however, many heat flux sensors are used in test environments where convective heat transfer dominates
Valeri I. Babushok, T Noto, Donald R. Burgess Jr., Anthony P. Hamins, Wing Tsang
Methane combustion in a continuously stirred flow tank reactor (CSTR) in the presence and absence of chemical inhibitors such as CF3I, CF3Br, CF3H, and a chemically inert gas with high heat capacity is simulated with the CHEMKIN program. The aim of the
Jiann C. Yang, I Vazquez, C I. Boyer, Marcia L. Huber, L A. Weber
Experimental measurements of selected thermodynamic properties of alternative agent/nitrogen mixtures were performed. The selected alternatives were HFC-227 ea (C3HF7), CF3I, FC-218 (C3F8), and HFC-125 (C2HF5); CF3Br was also included as a reference. A