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Using the NIST Dragon to Quantify Structure Vulnerabilities to Ignition from Firebrand Showers

Published

Author(s)

Samuel L. Manzello, Yoshihiko Hayashi

Abstract

Until recently, 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) is an experimental device than can generate a firebrand shower in a safe and repeatable fashion. Since wind plays a critical role in the spread of WUI fires in the USA and urban fires in Japan, NIST has established collaboration with the Building Research Institute (BRI) in Japan. BRI maintains one of the only full scale wind tunnel facilities in the world designed specifically for fire experimentation; the Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility (FRWTF). The coupling of the NIST Firebrand Generator and BRI’s FRWTF is leading to progress in accessing vulnerabilities of structures to a firebrand attack. A brief summary of key results to date using the NIST Dragon installed in the FRWTF are provided in this paper as well as a description of the newly developed NIST Dragon’s LAIR (Lofting and Ignition Research) facility. The Dragon’s LAIR is the only experimental facility capable of simulating wind driven firebrand showers at reduced scale.
Proceedings Title
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Combustion and Energy Utilization (10th ICCEU)
Conference Dates
May 4-8, 2010
Conference Location
Mugla
Conference Title
10th International Conference on Combustion and Energy Utilization (10th ICCEU)

Keywords

Firebrands, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires

Citation

Manzello, S. and Hayashi, Y. (2010), Using the NIST Dragon to Quantify Structure Vulnerabilities to Ignition from Firebrand Showers, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Combustion and Energy Utilization (10th ICCEU), Mugla, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905304 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created May 4, 2010, Updated February 19, 2017