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Samuel L. Manzello, Seul-Hyun Park, Sayaka S. Suzuki, John R. Shields, Yoshihiko Hayashi
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)
Evacuation models, including engineering hand calculations and computational tools, are used to evaluate the level of safety provided by buildings during evacuation. Building designs and occupant procedures are based on the results produced from these
Seul-Hyun Park, Samuel Manzello, Matthew Bundy, Tensei Mizukami
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Center for Better Living (CBL) have formed an international collaboration to assess the performance and failure mechanisms of gypsum wall assemblies under real fires/furnace conditions. In
This paper presents a simple model to demonstrate the effect on grass-fire propagation of the winds induced by structural fires in a Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) setting. The model combines an empirical formula for wind-driven grass-fire spread and a
Jiann Yang, William M. Pitts, Marco Fernandez, Kuldeep Prasad
An experimental apparatus, which was based on the ¿-scale garage previously used for studying helium release and dispersion in our laboratory, was used to obtain effective diffusion coefficients of helium and hydrogen (released as forming gas for safety
An international workshop was held within the Fire Research Division at NISTs Engineering Laboratory on June 27th, 2011. The workshop was entitled Urban and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires: A Workshop to Explore Future Japan/USA Research
Anthony D. Putorti Jr., Francine K. Amon, Kathryn M. Butler, Catherine A. Remley, William F. Young, Christina Spoons
One of the most important aspects of effective firefighter response to an emergency event is awareness of the location of the firefighters involved, especially in cases with limited visibility due to darkness, heavy smoke, or unfamiliar and changing
Anthony D. Putorti Jr., William F. Guthrie, Jason D. Averill, Richard G. Gann
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) initiated a program to determine the effects of emissions from problem drywall on residential electrical, gas distribution, and fire safety components. As part of this program, the National Institute of
Yilin Tian, Kyung Sul, Cynthia H. Reed, Dennis D. Leber, Andrea Ferro
Human walking influences indoor air quality by resuspending dust particles that have deposited on the floor. Previous research shows that particle resuspension rates vary over several orders of magnitude because of several influencing factors, such as
To reduce indoor exposure to harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), low VOC-emitting products are increasingly in demand. These are usually tested in emission chambers by independent laboratories, but very different profiles are often obtained for the
Chi P. Hoang, Dong H. Rim, Lance L. Wallace, Andrew K. Persily
In building environments, oxidation reactions involving ozone and terpenoids lead to nano-sized particle formation [Jang et al. 1999]. Low volatility products of these reactions are important and add to particle mass concentrations in air through
This study has investigated the effect of a kitchen exhaust hood on the reduction of exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) from a gas stove. Size-resolved UFP ranging from 2 nm to 100 nm were monitored in a manufactured test house (volume of 340 m3), using
To improve the reliability and accuracy of tests used to measure emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from samples of interior building products, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Virginia Tech (VT) have created a
Building energy efficiency has been an important goal for decades. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, much has been learned about how to improve energy efficiency in buildings. More recently, given increases in energy costs and concerns about the
Samuel L. Manzello, Sayaka S. Suzuki, Keisuke Himoto
An international workshop was held within the Fire Research Division at NISTs Engineering Laboratory on June 27th, 2011. The workshop was entitled Urban and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires: A Workshop to Explore Future Japan/USA Research
This report summarizes the results of the workshop Measurement Science Roadmap for Workability of Cementitious Materials held on March 18, 2011 in Gaithersburg Maryland and sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology with
Robert R. Zarr, Amanda C. Harris, John F. Roller, Stefan D. Leigh
Thermal conductivity measurements at and near room temperature are presented as the basis for certified values of thermal conductivity for SRM 1450d, Fibrous Glass Board. The measurements have been conducted in accordance with a randomized full factorial
Four real-scale experiments were conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to measure the temperatures above and below a wood floor assembly exposed to fire conditions from below. The objectives of the experiments were: 1) to examine
Alexander Maranghides, William Mell, Karen Ridenour, Derek McNamara
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to reduce the risk of fire spread in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities. An objective of this work is to develop first generation tools for improved risk assessment and risk
Joseph T. Hodges, David A. Long, Daniel K. Havey, S. S. Yu, M Okumura, Charles E. Miller
Frequency-stabilized cavity ring-down spectroscopy (FS-CRDS) was employed to measure over 100 transitions in the R-branch of the b1Σg+←X3Σg-(0,0) band for the rare O2 isotopologues. The use of 17O- and 18O-enriched mixtures allowed for line positions to be
Jiann Yang, Edward Hnetkovsky, Felix Gonzalez, Christopher Bajwa, Robert Einziger, Earl Easton
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is evaluating the performance of seals in used fuel transportation packages during beyond-design-basis fires, similar to the Baltimore tunnel fire that occurred in 2001. The performance of package seals is
Dilip K. Banerjee, Emil Simiu, John L. Gross, Raghu N. Kacker
The performance of composite floor steel trusses in fires is a function of the steel temperatures within the trusses. For any given specified fire and composite system design, the temperatures depend on three randomly varying factors: (1) the thermal
Elemental X-ray μ-analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) backscattered electron imaging (BEI) are combined to develop quantitative phase maps for portland cement, fly ash, and slag. The process is facilitated with visual textural analysis of the
Rodney A. Bryant, Olatunde B. Sanni, Elizabeth F. Moore, Robert P. Borthwick, Marco G. Fernandez, Iosif I. Shinder, Jiann C. Yang, Aaron N. Johnson
Two series of independent flow measurements were conducted for cross validation of flow velocity in the exhaust duct of the NIST Large Fire Laboratory. In the first series, two pressure measurement probe types, an S probe and a 3-D probe, were used to