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Engineering Laboratory / Fire Research Division

National Fire Research Laboratory

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

Image of wood crib fire — Image of a 2.3 megawatt wood crib fire below the 3 MW calorimeter at NFRL

The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) operates calorimeters to measure the heat and combustion products for fires in the range of 50 kW to 20,000 kW. This Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD) contains results of fire experiments conducted at the NFRL. The specimens contained in this database include single burning items, fully furnished rooms, controlled burners, well characterized fuels and real composite fuels of unknown composition. The measurement method is described by Bryant and Bundy, 2019.

FCD User Guide (PDF)

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this database to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

Experiments

Projects

Title	Research Overview	Number of experiments
Characteristics of a 1 m Methanol Pool Fire	A series of measurements were made to characterize the structure of a 1 m diameter methanol (CH3OH) pool fire steadily...	2
Dry Tree Fire Hazard	These experiments were designed to examine the difference in fire hazard between a dry Christmas tree and a watered...	2
Stovetop Cooking Pan Fire Safety	A series of experiments was conducted characterizing the flammability properties of small-scale corn oil fires. The oil...	3
Cross Laminated Timber Compartments	This study quantifies the contribution of CLT building elements to compartment fires and characterizes the effect of...	10
Kitchen Room Fire	A furnished kitchen compartment fire was studied to provide a comparison with the design fire scenarios. The compartment...	1
Multiple Item Transient Combustion Calorimetry	Experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between the peak heat release rate (HRR) and the number of...	41
Natural Gas Confirmation Burner	The NFRL operates two systems for calorimetry measurements, one based on oxygen consumption calorimetry and one based on...	13
Transient Combustion Calorimetry (TCC)	An extensive set of fire experiments was conducted to support the development of guidance to improve the realism for how...	107

Bryant, R. and Bundy, M. The NIST 20 MW Calorimetry Measurement System for Large-Fire Research, Technical Note (NIST TN) 2077, 2019
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2077

NIST Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)
https://doi.org/10.18434/mds2-2314

Contacts

Matthew Bundy

matthew.bundy@nist.gov

Created November 19, 2020, Updated November 23, 2020