Acquisition, Analysis and Reporting of Fire Plume Data for Fire Safety Engineering.
Acquisition, Analysis and Reporting of Fire Plume Data
for Fire Safety Engineering.
(875 K)
Sheppard, D. T.; Meacham, B. J.
Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. Sixth (6th)
International Symposium. International Association for
Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). July 5-9, 1999, Poitiers,
France, Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston,
MA, Curtat, M., Editor(s), 195-206 pp, 2000.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Keywords:
fire research; fire safety; fire science; fire plumes;
safety engineering; fire models; evaluation; fire tests;
uncertainty; computer models; experiments; data
analysis; temperature
Abstract:
In order to undertake engineering analyses and designs
that can be readily accepted by building and fire
authorities, fire protection engineers need engineering
tools and methods with known degrees of accuracy and
reliability. Furthermore, fire protection engineers need
valid and applicable input data with known degrees of
uncertainty and variability for use in those engineering
tools and methods. As a means to begin addressing these
concerns, an effort to been initiated to formally
evaluate the stated applications, limitations, and uses
of computer fire models, and issue reports on the
findings. To support the evaluation effort, over 50 fire
tests were conducted in a 37 meter x 37 meter test room
with ceiling heights ranging from 6.1 meters to 12.2
meters. In addition to using the data for the computer
model evaluation effort, further analysis of the data
included comparison of plume temperatures and ceiling
jet temperatures as a function of fire size and ceiling
height. This paper presents a general discussion on the
need for valid and accurate data for fire safety
engineering, and details the results of the plume
analysis, including presentation of a plume temperature
correlation with a new proportionality constant, C, and
a 95% prediction interval. Comparison of the test data
with plume correlations and proportionality constants of
others is also presented.
