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Fire

Fire risk reduction

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Displaying 1 - 25 of 121

Understanding the Risk of Lithium-Ion Battery Fires - multi-source data analysis

March 10, 2026
Author(s)
Stanley Gilbert, Hongqiang Fang, David Butry, Wai Cheong Tam, Michelle Donnelly, Juan Fung
Lithium ion battery (LIB) fires are a growing problem that extends across the supply chain, including mining, production, warehousing, shipping, and waste disposal, as well as the consumer side. But data on such fires is fragmented and mostly incomplete

The influence of inclination angles on thermal runaway characteristics and burning behavior of 18650 lithium-ion batteries

February 10, 2026
Author(s)
Jian Chen, Xue Liu, Haolan Chen, Qiuhong Wang, Jun Deng, Jingyu Zhou, Wai Cheong Tam, Yanni Zhang
This paper experimentally examined the thermal runaway (TR) characteristics and burning behavior of 18650 lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with different inclination angles and states of charge (SOC). A series of experiments on TR burning of LIBs was conducted

Chemical Kinetics and Fire

December 31, 2025
Author(s)
Gregory Linteris, John Griffiths
The purpose of this chapter is to set out the principles of chemical kinetics as they apply to combustion in flames and fires. Chemical equilibrium, which was discussed in a previous chapter, deals with the final preferred state of a given set of reactants

Wind-Driven Fire Spread to a Structure from Landscape Timbers

April 16, 2025
Author(s)
Erik Johnsson, Kathryn Butler, Marco Fernandez, Wei Tang, Shonali Nazare, Philip Deardorff, Sebastian Arana, Alexander Maranghides
NIST is studying how combustible landscape features around a home burn to better understand their levels of hazard and potential roles in spreading wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. A series of field experiments was conducted to examine the effects of

The Effect of Water Vapor on the Flammability of Fluorinated Refrigerants

March 24, 2025
Author(s)
Gregory Linteris, Michael Hegetschweiler, Valeri Babushok
Possible replacements for the refrigerant R-134a have been proposed in previous work based on their flammability behavior in standard tests of the Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigeration industry. The present work extends that behavior to

Thermal Exposure of Objects Near Burning Electrical Enclosures

December 16, 2024
Author(s)
Kevin McGrattan, Isaac Leventon
This report documents a series of fire experiments performed within steel electrical enclosures and on open "ladder back" cable trays. The first objective is to measure the heat release rates and qualitatively understand the burning behavior of circuit

Preliminary Field Burns of RV Trailers with External Ignitions

July 10, 2024
Author(s)
Eric Link, Shonali Nazare, Karen Jackson, Lucy Fox, Alexander Maranghides
Two recreational vehicle (RV) travel trailers were burned outdoors at the Austin Fire Department training campus in Austin, TX. The goal of these preliminary experiments was to observe and document the burning behavior of fully furnished RV trailers and to

Conformal Flame Retardant Coating Systems

June 21, 2024
Author(s)
Thomas Kolibaba, Federico Carosio, Jaime Grunlan
Surface coatings represent an important class of fire protective treatments. When deposited conformally, these treatments offer extremely effective fire protection, especially to high surface area substrates (e.g., textiles and foams). Additionally, use of

The Impact of Material Composition on Ignitability and Fire Growth. Volume 1: Full-Scale Burning Behavior of Combustible Solids Commonly Found in Nuclear Power Plants

February 13, 2024
Author(s)
Isaac Leventon, Michael Heck, Kevin B. McGrattan, Matthew Bundy, Rick D. Davis
This report provides an overview of quantitative measurement data and visual observations obtained from a series of 52 full-scale fire growth experiments conducted on 16 unique combustible solids including: natural and synthetic polymers, copolymers

Wind-driven Fire Spread to a Structure from Firewood Piles

March 30, 2023
Author(s)
Erik L. Johnsson, Kathryn Butler, Marco G. Fernandez, Shonali Nazare, Alexander Maranghides
A series of field experiments was conducted to examine the effects on fire spread toward a structure for firewood piles under conditions that may be encountered in a wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire. The fire behavior of a variety of firewood types in
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