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Search Publications by: Amy Mensch (Fed)

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20

A Photoacoustic Technique for Measuring Soot Deposition on Surfaces

March 13, 2024
Author(s)
Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Amy Mensch
This study investigates a soot deposition measurement technique that relies on the photoacoustic effect of soot. A non-invasive and reliable soot deposition measurement tool would be helpful for fire investigators to quantify burn patterns in a fire scene

Measuring Firebrand Heat Flux with a Thin-Skin Calorimeter

July 11, 2023
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Savannah Wessies, Anthony Hamins, Jiann C. Yang
While the impact of wildland-urban interface fires is growing, firebrand exposure is a significant but not well understood contributor to fire spread. The ignition threat of firebrand exposures can be characterized by measuring the heat transfer of glowing

Experimental Studies on the Heat Flux of Individual Firebrands

March 22, 2023
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Savannah Wessies, Anthony Hamins, Jiann C. Yang
Every year, thousands of wildfires burn all over the world threatening lives and property in the wildland-urban interface. These wildland-urban interface fires spread by radiation, direct flame contact, or firebrand transport. Firebrand exposures are a

Measurements and Predictions of the Aerosol Dynamics of Smoke

September 30, 2022
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Haley Hamza, Thomas Cleary
Better understanding and ability to predict the aerosol dynamics of soot can improve life safety predictions generated by fire modeling tools. NIST's fire modeling tool, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), is commonly used by the international fire protection

Validation of Aerosol Dynamics in a Well-Stirred Isothermal Enclosure

September 30, 2021
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Thomas Cleary
Modeling of aerosol dynamics in fire simulations enables predictions of the effects of soot, such as visibility and detection, and the fate of soot, such as deposition and emissions. NIST's fire modeling tool, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), has implemented

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

Prevention of Cooktop Ignition Using Detection and Multi-Step Machine Learning Algorithms

May 8, 2020
Author(s)
Wai Cheong Tam, Eugene Yujun Fu, Amy E. Mensch, Anthony P. Hamins, Christina Yu, Grace Ngai, Hong va Leong
This paper presents a study to examine the potential use of machine learning models to build a real-time detection algorithm for prevention of kitchen cooktop fires. Sixteen sets of time- dependent sensor signals were obtained from 60 normal/ignition

Prevention of Cooktop Ignition Using Detection and Multi-Step Machine Learning Algorithms

April 27, 2020
Author(s)
Wai Cheong Tam, Eugene Yujun Fu, Amy E. Mensch, Anthony P. Hamins, Christina Yu, Grace Ngai, Hong va Leong
This paper presents a study to examine the potential use of machine learning models to build a real-time detection algorithm for prevention of unattended cooking fires. 16 sets of time- dependent sensor signals were obtained from 60 normal/ignition cooking

Measurements and Predictions of Thermophoretic Soot Deposition

November 1, 2019
Author(s)
Amy E. Mensch, Thomas G. Cleary
A thin laminar flow channel with a transverse temperature gradient was used to examine thermophoretic deposition of soot aerosol particles in experiments and modeled in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) simulations. Conditions investigated included three

Development of a Detection Algorithm for Kitchen Cooktop Ignition Prevention

September 30, 2018
Author(s)
Amy Mensch, Anthony Hamins, Kathryn Markell
A small number of previous studies focused on cooktop fire sources and considered multi-detector sensing of pre-ignition signatures in a kitchen environment. Johnsson conducted a series of experiments investigating the feasibility of distinguishing between

A Soot Deposition Gauge for Fire Measurements

March 12, 2018
Author(s)
Amy E. Mensch, Thomas G. Cleary
The goal of this exploratory project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a conductometric measurement to determine the time-resolved soot deposition on surfaces in fire environments. Quantitative soot deposition data enabled by this measurement method is

Quantifying Thermophoretic Deposition of Soot on Surfaces

October 2, 2017
Author(s)
Amy E. Mensch, Thomas G. Cleary
Quantitative data on deposition of soot agglomerate particles in the literature is needed to advance fire forensic analysis as well as fire model predictions of visibility and detector activation. This paper provides direct measurements of thermophoretic

Polarized Light Scattering of Smoke Sources and Cooking Aerosols

October 1, 2017
Author(s)
Thomas Cleary, Amy Mensch
Light scattering data was gathered during experiments conducted in an ANSI/UL 217 test room constructed at NIST to assess the performance of currently available smoke alarms. Smoldering and flaming fires along with cooking experiments were conducted. The

Fire Exposures of Fire Fighter Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Facepiece Lenses

November 29, 2011
Author(s)
Amy E. Mensch, George G. Cajaty Barbosa Braga, Nelson P. Bryner
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), conducted experiments which demonstrated a range of realistic thermal exposures and environmental conditions that firefighters could be exposed to. Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) facepieces