BFRL Strategic Goal

Measurement Science for Innovative Fire Protection

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Experiments characterizing PPV fan flow (a) and corresponding model simulations using FDS / Smokeview (b).   Methane-fired panel which creates a flux gradient for flame spread test of extruded flame retardant polymer sample rods. What is the problem?  The cost of fire in the U.S. is growing. In 2005, direct property loss due to fire was $10.7 billion and the total burden of fire on the U.S. economy is estimated to be around $270 billion/year. In 2005, the annual losses attributable to fire included 3,600 lives and 22,000 serious injuries. Fire service losses included about 100 lives and 80,000 injuries. Fires continue to kill more people per capita in the U.S. (by as much as a factor of two) than in most other developed nations. Fire losses from systemic causes are preventable. Significant damage from wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires is on the rise in the U.S. and there have been two major WUI fire loss events in the last five years. The 2003 Cedar fire in California cost $2 billion in insured losses and destroyed 3,600 homes, while the October 2007 southern California fires displaced residents of over 300,000 homes. Overall, the trends suggest that the severity of the U.S. fire problem is growing. There is an incomplete understanding of fire behavior, which hinders the development of innovative fire protection. Current prescriptive fire standards and codes stifle innovation in fire safety systems, technologies, and building design. To ensure fire safety in a cost-effective manner and to reduce fire losses, it is essential that adequate science-based tools are developed to enable the implementation of the next generation of standards, codes, and technologies that address the U.S. fire problem. Measurement science is lacking to reduce the risk of fire spread in buildings, to reduce fire spread in WUI communities, to ensure effective and safe use of emerging fire service technologies, and to derive lessons from fire investigations. Addressing these measurement science  needs is essential, if fire losses are to be reduced and the resilience of buildings and communities (people and property) are to be increased. Why is it hard to solve?  Fire is a complex set of dynamic interacting processes that are inadequately understood. Unwanted fires occur in unconfined geometries with heterogeneous mixes of fuel, uncontrolled air supply and uncertain ignition events. Fires are characterized by a multiplicity of time and length scales, and the complexity of the phenomena that control fire dynamics renders computer predictions approximate, at best.  While soot is a dominant factor in the radiative heat transfer that controls the rate of fire spread and the formation of deadly smoke; key mechanisms that dictate the amount of soot are not yet tractable. Quantitative measurements at full-scale can be dangerous, limited by environmental constraints, technically challenging, and expensive. Solutions to reducing losses extend beyond fire dynamics to include structural dynamics and human behavior within a fire environment. Manufacturers of new fire technologies lack the measurement science to evaluate the performance of products due to complexities of fire dynamics and man-machine interactions in a fire environment. Why BFRL?  NIST has sole statutory responsibility under the Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 to support fire safety research for constructed facilities. Research on this strategic goal is supported by BFRL's core competency in fire protection and fire spread within buildings and communities. BFRL has strong links with industry, the fire services, the construction communities, and codes and standards organizations, which enable rapid dissemination of new knowledge, tools and measurement science results from laboratory to practice. BFRL staff has leadership positions on key U.S. and international standards committees that will make use of the research results. This strategic goal addresses recommendations from nationally recognized reports, studies and investigations.  Component Programs: Advanced Fire Service Technologies Reduced Risk of Fire Spread in Buildings Reduced Risk of Fire Spread in Wildland-Urban Interface Communities Contact: Anthony Hamins Fire Research Division (301) 975-6598 (301) 975-4052 (fax) anthony.hamins@nist.gov

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