- Author
- Fleischmann, C. M. | Pagni, P. J.
- Title
- Preliminary Backdraft Experiments.
- Coporate
- California Univ., Berkeley
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-60NANB1D1168
- Book or Conf
- U.S./Japan Government Cooperative Program on Natural Resources (UJNR). Fire Research and Safety. 12th Joint Panel Meeting. October 27-November 2, 1992, Building Research Inst., Ibaraki, Japan Fire Research Inst., Tokyo, Japan, ['Tsukuba, Japan', 'Tokyo, Japan'], 208-215 p., 1992
- Keywords
- fire safety | fire research | experiments | deflagration | backdraft | gravity current
- Abstract
- Backdraft is defined as a rapid deflagration following the introduction of oxygen into a compartment filled with accumulated excess pyrolyzates. A scenario describing the physical and chemical fundamentals underlying backdraft phenomena is presented. A half-scale apparatus, designed to avoid dangerous over-pressures, is used to obtain data from backdraft experiments. A gas burner supplied a 150 kW natural gas fire in a 1.2 m high, 1.2 m wide, 2.4 m long compartment with a small, 2.5 cm high 30 cm wide, vent at floor level. Significant excess pyrolyzates accumulate in 180 sec, when a hatch covering a 0.4 m high 1.2 m wide vent, centered on a short wall, is opened. A gravity current carries a flammable mixed region to a spark located near the burner on the opposite wall. The rapid deflagration which results upon ignition of the mixed region is the backdraft.