- Author
- Gann, R. G.
- Title
- Science of Fire Calorimetry.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- DOT/FAA/CT-95/46; AAR-423
- Book or Conf
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. Fire Calorimetry. Proceedings. July 27-28, 1995, Gaithersburg, MD, Hirschler, M. M.; Lyon, R. E., Editors, p. 10 p., 1995
- Keywords
- calorimetry
- Identifiers
- calorimetric measurements
- Abstract
- There are several reasons for wanting to quantify the "strength" of a fire, including: describing (or prescribing) the acceptable performance of a potentially flammable component, such as a chair, wall material, or clothing item; knowing the magnitude of the threat that needs to be controlled by containment or suppression measures; and calculating the growth rate of fire hazard in order to predict the time available for people to escape. At the core of each of these is numerical presentation of two of the key flammability properties: heat or enthalpy release and its time derivative or rate. This paper reviews the history of fire calorimetric measurements and the successive chemical and physical principles upon which those measurements have been based. Parallels will be drawn to the quantification of other parameters, such as length and time.