Special Issue on Operation Tomodachi—Fire Research

Abstract

. Due to the success of the kickoff meeting, EL-NIST signed a Statement of Intent with JAFSE to hold two workshops, the first held in Tokyo in 2012 (see Manzello et al. [1] for a summary of that workshop), and the second on March 16-18, 2015. The objective of the relationship was to: (1) develop scientific knowledge and translate it to building codes and standards that will be of use to both countries to reduce the devastation caused by unwanted fires, (2) provide a forum for next generation researchers to present their work in order to develop research collaborations, (3) and allow participants a chance to visit.To this end, oral presentations were focused on two topics: large outdoor fires (LOF) and fire-structure interaction (FSI). Justifications on why these two topics were chosen are provided elsewhere [1]. In addition, poster sessions were held in the areas of LOF and FSI, as well as two general fire safety science poster sessions. All of the presentations were documented in a recent NIST Special Publication 1189 [2]. These presentations provide a flavor of some of state of the art research in LOF and FSI ongoing in both countries. 21 papers were submitted to the special issue, and 12 were accepted for publication.

Summary of workshop large outdoor fires and the built environment

“…In China, a major focus has been on the fire dynamics of wildland fires, such as fire whirls. In Japan, extensive work has been performed in collaboration with the USA to explore common features for mitigation of structure ignition from firebrands which is common in WUI fires and Japanese urban fires [26]. Extensive fire whirl research has been ongoing in Japan for decades as well [25].…”