Experimental investigation of structure vulnerabilities to firebrand showers

Manzello, Samuel L.; Park, Seul-Hyun; Suzuki, Sayaka; Shields, John R.; Hayashi, Yoshihiko

doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2011.09.003

Cited by 49 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Regardless, it was observed that most of firebrands could not reach the mulch bed for this case; rather the firebrands landed far ahead from the assembly due to wind flow around the assembly. There is qualitative agreement with prior work that demonstrated that the nature of the obstacles in the flow influences the stagnation zones, and thus firebrand accumulation [13]. The time to reach sustained FI of the mulch beds from the time when the first firebrand landed on the mulch beds was measured and shown in Table 3.…”

Section: Wood Fencing Assemblies Located Adjacent To Fine Fuelssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…It is important to note that this device was recently used to expose decking assemblies, as well as mulch beds attached to noncombustible re-entrant corner assemblies, to continuous wind-driven firebrand showers [19,28]. This version of the device was modified from the NIST Dragon [9][10][11][12][13]15] and consisted of two parts: the main body and continuous feeding com- Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies ponent. The feeding system was connected to the main body and was equipped with two gates to prevent fire spread (described in more detail below).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies Exposed to Continuous Wind-Driven Firebrand Showers

et al. 2015

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Post-fire studies conducted by NIST on the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado (2012) determined that wood fencing assemblies are believed to be vulnerable to ignition from firebrand showers in Wildland-Urban Interface fires, but again there has never been any experimental verification of this ignition mechanism. As a result, a series of experiments were conducted to examine ignition of wood fencing assemblies subjected to continuous, wind-driven firebrand showers. Western Red Cedar and Redwood fencing assemblies were exposed to continuous, wind-driven firebrands generated by the NIST full-scale Continuous Feed Firebrand Generator installed in the Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility at the Building Research Institute in Japan. To simulate fine fuels that may be present near fencing assemblies, dried shredded hardwood mulch beds were placed adjacent to the fencing assemblies. The fencing assemblies were varied in length and in orientation to the applied wind field to simulate a range of configurations that may be encountered in realistic situations. Both flat and corner sections of fencing assemblies were used in these experiments. The dimensions of the flat wood fencing assemblies sections were varied from 0.91 m wide, 1.83 m in height to 1.83 m wide, 1.83 m in height. With respect to the corner sections, the dimensions used were 0.91 m by 0.91 m by 1.83 m in height. All configurations considered resulted in flaming ignition (FI) of the mulch beds, and subsequent FI of the wood fencing assemblies. Finally, experiments were also completed to determine if wind-driven firebrand showers could produce FI of fencing assemblies without the presence of fine fuels adjacent to the fence sections. Firebrands produced smoldering ignition (SI) of the fencing assemblies without fine fuels present, and SI transitioned to FI under the applied wind field. These experiments have demonstrated that wood fencing assemblies are vulnerable to ignition by wind-driven firebrand showers.

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Section: Wood Fencing Assemblies Located Adjacent To Fine Fuelssupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies Exposed to Continuous Wind-Driven Firebrand Showers

et al. 2015

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“…[7] were used for the dimensional analysis. In the experiments, V was fixed at 7 m/s, while the screen opening size L s was varied from 1.04 mm to 5.72 mm.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[7]. In that work, a generic building vent design, consisting of only a frame fitted with a metal mesh, was used since the purpose of the experiments was to assess the proposed test methods and not specific proprietary vent technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A dimensional analysis on firebrand penetration through a mesh screen

Yang

Manzello

2015

Fuel

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A dimensional analysis on firebrand penetration through a mesh screen was carried out to correlate the experimental data previously reported in the literature. Three dimensionless variables, one dimensionless time and two dimensionless lengths, were obtained. The resulting dimensionless parameters correlated the data well and may provide a useful framework to assess firebrand penetration through mesh screens, a significant problem associated with the ignition of interior contents of built structures in wildland-urban interface fires.

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The new and improved NIST Dragon's LAIR (Lofting and Ignition Research) facility

Manzello

Suzuki

2011

Fire and Materials

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SUMMARY Several studies suggest that the firebrands are a major cause of structural ignition of Wildland–Urban Interface fires in USA and Australia. For 40 years, past firebrand studies have focused on how far firebrands fly and do not assess the vulnerabilities of structures to ignition from firebrand showers. The development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Dragon has allowed the quantification of structure ignition vulnerabilities of full‐scale building assemblies. Full‐scale tests are necessary to highlight vulnerabilities of structures to ignition under firebrand attack, whereas bench‐scale test methods afford the capability to test new firebrand‐resistant technologies and may serve as the basis for new standard testing methodologies. To this end, the present investigation was undertaken to construct a new and improved Dragon's Lofting and Ignition Research facility. This entailed removing the NIST Baby Dragon from the wind tunnel facility and inserting the new and improved NIST continuous feed Baby Dragon. The unique feature of the continuous feed Baby Dragon, over the current NIST Baby Dragon, is the capability to produce a constant firebrand shower in order to expose building materials to continual firebrand bombardment. The efficacy of the new experimental facility to determine ignition regime maps of building materials exposed to wind‐driven firebrand showers is presented. Specifically, ignition regime maps are presented as a function of continuous firebrand generation rate, wind tunnel speed, and cedar moisture content. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Experimental investigation of structure vulnerabilities to firebrand showers

Cited by 49 publications

References 16 publications

Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies Exposed to Continuous Wind-Driven Firebrand Showers

Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies Exposed to Continuous Wind-Driven Firebrand Showers

A dimensional analysis on firebrand penetration through a mesh screen

The new and improved NIST Dragon's LAIR (Lofting and Ignition Research) facility

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