- Author
- Mitler, H. E. | Steckler, K. D.
- Title
- SPREAD: A Model of Flame Spread on Vertical Surfaces.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NISTIR 5619, April 1995, 69 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
- computer models | flame spread | fire growth | fire models | fire spread | mathematical models | upward spread | walls fires
- Abstract
- This report describes the computer program SPREAD. SPREAD is the explicity implementation of a model which has been developed for predicting the ignition of, and the subsequent rate and extent of fire spread on flat walls in a room using the fire properties of the materials involved. It uses input data from bench-scale tests including the LIFT and the Cone Calorimeter. The principal mode of spread is upward, but the calculations also include the slow lateral spread on the wall. For the latter calculations, the fact that the room produces a two-layer environment has been taken into account (the lateral spread rate within the upper layer is greater than in the lower one). Embedded in the overall model is a general pyrolysis submodel, specially developed for this purpose, which treats arbitrary materials (ablating, char-forming, composite, etc.). SPREAD also calculates the regression of the pyrolyzing surface, including the possible burnout of the wall/slab at any point. The program has been compared to experimental data for wood particle board and for PMMA. The structure of the program is given in a set of appendices.