- Author
-
Cleary, T. G.
|
Grosshandler, W. L.
|
Nyden, M. R.
|
Rinkinen, W. J.
- Title
- Signatures of Smoldering/Pyrolyzing Fires for Multi-Element Detector Evaluation.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- Interscience Communications Ltd.; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Building Research Establishment; and Society of Fire Protection Engineers; Swedish National Testing and Research Institute. Interflam '96. International Interflam Conference, 7th Proceedings. March 26-28, 1996,
Interscience Communications Ltd., London, England,
Cambridge, England,
Franks, C. A.; Grayson, S., Editors,
497-506 p.,
1996
- Keywords
-
fire safety
|
fire suppression
|
fire detection
|
fire signatures
|
smoldering
|
test fires
- Identifiers
- measurements were conducted in a laboratory 3.1 m by 3.1 m by 3.5 m high; smoldering/pyrolyzing wood (TF 2); smoldering cotton (TF 3)
- Abstract
- Levels of CO, CO₂, H₂O, hydrocarbons, smoke, temperature and velocity produced in the plumes of smoldering/pyrolyzing wood and smoldering cotton fires are reported, following test protocols described for evaluating automatic fire detection systems. The repeatability of the wood fires is high, but the smoldering cotton results can vary considerably depending upon the exact configuration of the fuel. The water vapor builds up most quickly in both fires, with CO and CO₂ growing more slowly in volume fraction but at a close to constant ratio. Temperatures increase steadily on the plume centerline, and the vertical velocities correlate rougly with the square root of the difference in plume and surrounding temperatures. The data are compared to previous results, and a method for using these measurements to evaluate multi-criteria fire detection systems is proposed.