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Fire

Fire risk reduction

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Displaying 26 - 50 of 114

Characterization of backdrafts generated from methane fires

March 10, 2022
Author(s)
Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Christopher U. Brown, Thomas Cleary
An analysis of oxygen concentration measurements is conducted to investigate compartment ventilation before a potential backdraft phenomenon. Experiments are performed in a 2/5th scale compartment of varying configurations such as fuel flow time, spark

WUI Structure/Parcel/Community Fire Hazard Mitigation Methodology

March 1, 2022
Author(s)
Alexander Maranghides, Eric Link, Shonali Nazare, Steven Hawks, Jim McDougald, Stephen Quarles, Daniel Gorham
In the last twenty years, wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires have been growing in severity and size. The structures destroyed by WUI fires have devastated entire communities and have cost billions of dollars while significantly impacting the social

The Design and Performance of a Second-Generation Phi Meter

January 5, 2022
Author(s)
Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Thomas Cleary
This report documents the design and performance of a second-generation phi meter used in multi-scale experimental applications. A constructed second-generation phi meter is implemented in bench and 2/5th scale experiments to demonstrate the instrument's

A Generic Flashover Prediction Model for Residential Buildings Using Graph Neural Network

November 11, 2021
Author(s)
Wai Cheong Tam, Eugene Yujun Fu, Paul A. Reneke, Richard D. Peacock, Thomas Cleary
A generic graph neural network-based model is developed to predict the potential occurrence of flashover for different building structures. The proposed model transforms multivariate temperature data into graph-structure data. Utilizing graph convolution

Characteristics of Nuclear Power Plant Fires Involving Electrical Enclosures

November 10, 2021
Author(s)
Isaac Leventon, Kenneth Hamburger, Kevin B. McGrattan, Rick D. Davis
PRIMARY AUDIENCE Fire protection and fire probabilistic risk assessment engineers conducting or reviewing fire modeling that supports fire probabilistic risk assessments related to characteristics (e.g., ignition, fire growth, and peak heat release rate)

Human Behavior in Home Fires

November 9, 2021
Author(s)
Stanley W. Gilbert
Casualties in fires--and in particular, deaths--are tail events. The average fire does not cause deaths or injuries. There is increasing evidence that the people susceptible to dying in fires are a specific subset of the people in homes. It seems likely

Response Time Impact of Smoke Alarms

September 9, 2021
Author(s)
Stanley W. Gilbert, Thomas Cleary, Paul A. Reneke, Richard Peacock, David Butry
It can be assumed that smoke alarms reduce reported fires and casualties by reducing on average the amount of time it takes to detect a fire. This paper sets out to determine by how much that detection time is reduced. It does so by comparing the effect of

Demonstration of an all-in-one solution for fire safe upholstery furniture: A benign backcoating for smoldering and flame-resistant cover fabrics

August 15, 2021
Author(s)
Ickchan Kim, Andre Thompson, Sung Chan Kim, Anthony Hamins, Matthew Bundy, Shonali Nazare, Rick D. Davis, Mauro Zammarano
The development of fire prevention and mitigation technologies with a benign toxicological and environmental profile has become of particular interest in the USA due to the recent adoption of state regulations that severely restrict the use of flame

Sensors and Machine Learning Models to Prevent Cooktop Ignition and Ignore Normal Cooking

July 28, 2021
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Anthony Hamins, Wai Cheong Tam, John Lu, Kathryn Markell, Christina You, Matthew Kupferschmid
According to a recent NFPA report, 49 % of reported home fires involve cooking equipment, with cooktops accounting for 87 % of cooking-fire deaths and 80 % of the civilian injuries [1, 2]. Between 2014–2018, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated

Sensors and Machine Learning Models to Prevent Cooktop Ignition and Ignore Normal Cooking

March 18, 2021
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Anthony Hamins, Andy Tam, John Lu, Kathryn Markell, Christina You, Matthew Kupferschmid
Cooking equipment is involved in nearly half of home fires in the United States, with cooktop fires the leading cause of deaths and injuries in cooking-related fires. In this study, we evaluate 16 electrochemical, optical, temperature and humidity sensors

Optimizing Flame Retardancy and Durability of Melamine-Formaldehyde/Solid-Urban-Waste Composite Panels

February 26, 2021
Author(s)
Mauro Zammarano, Carola Esposito Corcione, Francesca Ferrari, Raffaella Striani, Laura J. Dubrulle, Paolo Visconti, Antonio Greco
In our previous study, an innovative method for sterilization, inertization, and valorization of organic fraction of the municipal solid waste (OFMSW), to be recycled in the production of composite panels, had been developed. In this follow-up work, the

Predicting Flashover Occurrence using Surrogate Temperature Data

February 9, 2021
Author(s)
Andy Tam, Eugene Yujun Fu, Richard Peacock, Paul A. Reneke, Jun Wang, Grace Ngai, Hong Va Leong, Thomas Cleary
Fire fighter fatalities and injuries in the U.S. remain too high and fire fighting too hazardous. Until now, fire fighters rely only on their experience to avoid life-threatening fire events, such as flashover. In this paper, we describe the development of

The Character of Residential Cooktop Fires

January 8, 2021
Author(s)
Yue Hu, Jian Chen, Zhigang Wang, Ki Yong Lee, Matthew Bundy, Anthony Hamins, Marco G. Fernandez
A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the pre-combustion and combustion properties of corn oil heated in pans from 10 cm to 26 cm diameter by a residential electric- coil element cooktop. For comparison, torch-ignited gasoline, heptane and

Full-Scale Experiments to Demonstrate Flammability Risk of Residential Upholstered Furniture and Mitigation Using Barrier Fabric

December 11, 2020
Author(s)
Mauro Zammarano, Matthew S. Hoehler, John R. Shields, Andre L. Thompson, Ickchan Kim, Isaac T. Leventon, Matthew F. Bundy
In this work, we investigated fire growth in a furnished compartment intended to mimic a living room where a couch was the main fuel load. Three TB-117-2013 compliant and commercially available couches were procured. The couches were identical except for

Estimating the Impact of 16 CFR Part 1633 on Bed Fire Outcomes

November 18, 2020
Author(s)
Stanley W. Gilbert, David Butry, Rick D. Davis, Richard Gann
Effective July 1, 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission promulgated a standard to severely reduce the heat release rate and the early heat output from mattresses and foundations when ignited by a flaming ignition source. This study estimates

The Roles of Standard Cigarettes in Assuring the Ignition Resistance of Soft Furnishings

November 18, 2020
Author(s)
Richard G. Gann, Ickchan Kim, Steven P. Lund, William F. Guthrie, Rick D. Davis
Regulations for cigarette ignition resistance (CIR) of soft furnishings (beds and upholstered furniture) and less fire-prone cigarettes have contributed substantially to the decrease in losses from cigarette-initiated fires over time. Two Standard
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