An Assessment of Selected Programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Engineering Laboratory Fiscal Year 2020 (2021) / Chapter Skim
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6 Fire Research Programs
6 Fire Research Programs
Pages 47-57
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From page 47... ...
At NIST, this is being addressed with programs on upholstered furniture flammability and residential fire safety innovation, such as advanced home fire alarms, cooking fire hazard reduction, and reduced ignition–propensity cigarettes. The research focus on the WUI is also related to this effort, because there is increasing residential fire death and property loss in those areas in such fires.
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From page 48... ...
Solving the problem of nuisance alarms is a critical step in ensuring increased home fire safety. The work at NIST has led to smoke detector standards being modified based on NIST technical guidance.
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From page 49... ...
Much progress is needed in upholstered furniture fire performance. The evaluation of the toxic effluents produced during a fire is a gap in the work on home fire safety research.
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From page 50... ...
The WUI Parcel Vulnerability Program is a coordinated effort using targeted laboratory and field experiments, post-WUI fire data collection and analysis, and a range of models, including vegetation and structure fire models to understand WUI exposures. The program provides measurement science–based tools for the development of WUI fire-resistant test methods, standards, and codes.
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From page 51... ...
There is high-level academic expertise in those disciplines, but also emergency response experience to help develop relevant test methods and criteria. There is a high degree of collaboration with the Fire Research Laboratory and with WUI efforts for specific fire and materials testing of robots under actual fire conditions.
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From page 52... ...
The outdoor fire models are also dependent on data gathered in WUI fires. There are strong ties to the groups working with the Emberometer and the BOB camera system and the fire modeling groups at NIST.
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From page 53... ...
Successes include the following: smoke detector standards are being modified based on NIST technical guidance; work by FRD provided the technical basis for changes to the standard on household electrical ranges, UL858, to prevent cooktop ignition during unattended cooking; development of two different barrier technologies for residential upholstered furniture, one already patented in 2017 the other with patent pending; NIST SRM 1196/a cigarettes are required by ASTM 1352/1353, NFPA 260/261, CPSC 16 CFR 1632, BHGS TB 117-2013, and many European standards/regulations for accessing flammability of soft furnishings; and a cube test for RUF is under development as a voluntary standard, ASTM-WK65005. The WUI Data Collection program has good outreach to many diverse groups with extensive WUI field experience, such as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
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From page 54... ...
Combinations of numerical simulations and photography of phenomena such as flame acceleration in realistic geometries and other illustrations of unfamiliar WUI-specific fire hazards could be very effective ways to illustrate the immediate value of NIST research in these rapidly growing communities. The Emberometer papers published for the development of the device are thorough and convincing as first steps toward measurement and prediction of ember and firebrand development and movement as part of WUI fires.
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From page 55... ...
The lack of a wind tunnel severely limits the ability of NIST to do the needed research on WUI fires. RECOMMENDATION: The Fire Research Division should add National Fire Research Laboratory facilities for curing structural samples and add a wind tunnel suitable for use in wildland-urban interface fire research.
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From page 56... ...
Considering that the fire performance of buildings can be significantly impacted by technologies used to improve energy efficiency, knowledge exchange between the two divisions is encouraged. Another example is that passive solar design may increase the amount of glazing that could become an avenue for fire spread through radiant energy in WUI zones.
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From page 57... ...
Work on cooking fire safety is an example of a work area where the results could benefit public education. The combination of fire visualization and data presentation could have significant value for producing public information documents for things like WUI fire safety measures.
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