- Author
- Vandsburger, U. | Roby, R. J.
- Title
- Dynamics, Transport and Chemical Kinetics of Compartment Fire Exhaust Gases. Annual Report. September 1994-September 1995.
- Coporate
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg Hughes Associates, Inc., Baltimore, MD
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NIST GCR 96-688, June 1996, 75 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-60NANB1D1176
- Keywords
- exhaust gases | compartment fires | air entrainment | combustion gases | carbon monoxide | corridors | fire research | large scale fire tests | hydrocarbons | pool fires | toxic gases | reaction kinetics
- Abstract
- The investigation focuses on the transport of carbon monoxide (CO) away from a burning compartment and the conditions necessary for the existence of fatally high concentrtions of CO at remote locations. The study is conducted at the Building Fire Research Laboratory at Virginia Tech. During the past year, the research has concentrated on the transport of CO away from a reduced-scale burning compartment located on the side of the end of a hallway. High levels of CO were transported to remote locations by limiting the air entrainment into the plume of compartment fire gases entering the hallway. In experiments with limited plume air entrainment and external burning high levels of CO (2.5-2.8%-wet) were measured exiting the compartment and at locations across the hallway. High levels of CO (1.6-2.4%-wet) were also measured in the gases moving down the side of the hallway opposite the compartment, while low levels of CO (0.4-1%-wet) were measured in gases along the compartment side of the hallway. External burning resulted in the oxidation of mostly unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), with only 0.5% measured exiting the hallway. The non-uniform transport of combustion gases down the hallway explains the locations of fatalities in previously reported fires.