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Search Publications by: William M. Pitts (Assoc)

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Displaying 101 - 125 of 128

Fire-Induced Mass Flow Into a Reduced-Scale Enclosure (NISTIR 5499)

September 1, 1994
Author(s)
Erik L. Johnsson, Nelson P. Bryner, William M. Pitts
Enclosure fires are of great interest because of the resulting loss of life and property, yet the fluid dynamic and chemical behaviors of fires within enclosures are still not well understood. In recent decades, it has become clear that burning rates, fire

Carbon Monoxide Formation in Fires by High-Temperature Anaerobic Wood Pyrolysis

July 31, 1994
Author(s)
William M. Pitts, Erik L. Johnsson, Nelson P. Bryner
Building fire fatalities often occur at locations remote from the room where the fire is actually burning. The majority of these fire deaths are the result of smoke inhalation, primarily due to exposure to carbon monoxide (CO). Although causing nearly 2500

Computer Simulation of the Liquid Agent Spray Motion and Evaporation

July 18, 1994
Author(s)
G. Gmurczyk, Leonard Y. Cooper, William L. Grosshandler, William M. Pitts
The discharge of a liquid fire extinguishing agent stored in a pressurized vessel through an orifice generates a freely moving spray outside the vessel. The flow has been modeled as a two-phase, three-component, turbulent, compressible, dissipative flow

Discharge Characteristics of Cryogenic Fluids From a Pressurized Vessel

July 18, 1994
Author(s)
Jiann C. Yang, William M. Pitts, B D. Breuel, G. Gmurczyk, William J. Rinkinen, W G. Cleveland
An experimental technique to study the rapid release of liquid cryogenic fluids from a pressurized vessel orientated downward is described. A rupture disc was used as the release mechanism. Experimental observations were made on the discharge

Executive Summary (NIST SP 861)

April 1, 1994
Author(s)
William L. Grosshandler, Richard G. Gann, William M. Pitts
Bromotrifluoromethane (halon 1301 or CF3Br) has been the fire-fighting agent of choice for decades to protect inaccessible spaces aboard aircraft in flight because of its inherent ability to inhibit combustion while possessing a high liquid density and

Fluid Dynamics of Agent Discharge (NIST SP 861)

April 1, 1994
Author(s)
William M. Pitts, Jiann C. Yang, G. Gmurczyk, Leonard Y. Cooper, William L. Grosshandler, W G. Cleveland, Cary Presser
The extinguishment of a fire using gaseous agents is a very complicated process which is not completely understood. Current fire-fighting agents such as halon 1301 and halon 1211 are believed to function by a combination of chemical (catalytic removal of

Introduction (NIST SP 861)

April 1, 1994
Author(s)
William L. Grosshandler, Richard G. Gann, William M. Pitts
The Montreal Protocol of 1987 identified halon 1301 (CF3Br) as one of a number of halogenated chemicals that were sufficiently deleterious to stratospheric ozone that their continued production and use required limitation. An amendment to the Protocol

Summary and Recommendations (NIST SP 861)

April 1, 1994
Author(s)
William L. Grosshandler, Richard G. Gann, William M. Pitts
The main objective of this research program was to provide guidance to the sponsors on which materials to evaluate in the full-scale fire suppression test plan at Wright-Patterson AFB. Specifically, the recommendations were to include the following: 1) The

Sidejet Strength and Mixing in Self-Excited Jets. [Abstract ONLY]

November 21, 1993
Author(s)
A W. Johnson, William M. Pitts
Absolutely unstable jet flows are known to produce vigorous and intermittent lateral ejections of fluid, or 'sidejets'. Sidejet generation has been attributed to the near-field interaction of axisymmetric vorticies, streamwise vorticies, and lobes formed

Rayleigh Light Scattering Studies of Turbulent Mixing

October 25, 1993
Author(s)
William M. Pitts
Turbulent combustion remains a very active research area. This interest is justified due to the pivotal role it plays in a wide variety of technologically important processes. Development of models for combusting flows is crucial for the more efficient

Agent Screening for Halon 1301 Aviation Replacement

October 20, 1993
Author(s)
William L. Grosshandler, Richard G. Gann, Anthony P. Hamins, Marc R. Nyden, William M. Pitts, Jiann C. Yang, Michael R. Zachariah
A comprehensive experimental program is described in which eleven gaseous agents and sodium bicarbonate powder have been screened, so that the best three candidates for subsequent full-scale aircraft fire extinguishment evaluation can be identified

Dynamics of the Release of Alternate Halon Replacement Agents From Pressurized Bottles

May 11, 1993
Author(s)
William M. Pitts, Jiann C. Yang, B D. Breuel, W G. Cleveland, G. Gmurczyk
Halon 1301 has been widely employed on military and commercial aircraft for fire fighting purposes. Unfortunately, due to the deleterious effects of chlorine and bromine on stratospheric ozone, the manufacture of halon 1301 will be phased out by the end of

Production Mechanisms for Carbon Monoxide in Enclosure Fires

March 15, 1993
Author(s)
William M. Pitts, Nelson P. Bryner, Erik L. Johnsson
Roughly two thirds of all deaths resulting from enclosure fires can be attributed to the presence of carbon monoxide (CO), which is known to be the dominant toxicant in fire deaths. The mechanisms responsible for the generation of high concentrations of CO

Global Density Effects on the Self-Preservation Behavior of Turbulent Free Jets

January 1, 1993
Author(s)
C D. Richards, William M. Pitts
An experimental investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that all axisymmetric turbulent free jets become asymptotically independent of the source conditions and may be described by classical similarity analysis. Effects of initial conditions were

Greatly Enhanced Soot Scattering in Flickering CH4/Air Diffusion Flames

January 1, 1993
Author(s)
K C. Smyth, J E. Harrington, Erik L. Johnsson, William M. Pitts
Planar images of laser-induced fluorescence from OH radicals and elastic scattering from soot particles are presented in time-varying laminar CH4/air diffusion flames burning in a co-flowing, axisymmetric configuration at atmospheric pressure. Acoustic

Carbon Monoxide Production and Prediction (NISTIR 4449)

October 19, 1989
Author(s)
William M. Pitts
A long-term research plan has been formulated which is designed to improve the understanding of and predictive capability for the formation of carbon monoxide in enclosure fires. The current understanding of the problem is briefly discussed. Goals