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Engineering Laboratory

Fire Research Division

The Fire Research Division develops, verifies, and utilizes measurements and predictive methods to quantify the behavior of fire and means to reduce the impact of fire on society.

Photograph of large open room with fire engineers standing around a large fire test.
50 Years of Fire Safety Advances
Groups of people sit or lie in a parking lot surrounded by low buildings as fires burn in the forest beyond.
Guidance for Emergency Response During Wildfires
A fireball rushes out of the opening of a small metal compartment in a concrete room.
Machine Learning May Help Circumvent Deadly Backdrafts

Through its comprehensive programs in measurement, prediction, systems integration, and the study of fire dynamics in both built and natural environments, the division leads efforts to advance the science and practice of fire safety engineering, firefighting, fire investigation, fire testing, fire data management, and controlled burning.

News and Updates

Ankit Sharma

Staff Spotlight - Dr. Ankit Sharma

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Ankit Sharma has joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as an Associate (PREP) in the

Projects

FDS Ceiling Smoke

Advanced Fire Modeling

Ongoing
Objective To develop and maintain robust, validated fire models—and the associated visualization and analysis tools—for performance-based fire safety, forensics (fire reconstruction), and fire research applications in the built and natural environments. Technical Idea Applications in fire protection
Timelapse of intermediate flame spread test

Material Flammability Characterization

Ongoing
Objective To develop a database that maintains the tools (experimental and analytical), measurement data (for model calibration and validation), material property sets, and validation data needed to enable quantitative prediction of material flammability behavior (e.g., ignition, steady burning, and
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Software

CFAST

CFAST (Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport) is a computer program that helps fire investigators, safety officials, engineers, architects, and

FDS and Smokeview

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier

Tools and Instruments

FCD-landing-page.jpg

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

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
Cone Calorimeter

Cone Calorimeter

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the fire community was pushing for reliable bench-scale tools to measure material flammability based on heat release rate. A

Fire Emulator/Detector Evaluator

The fire emulator/detector evaluator (FE/DE) is a computer-controlled flow tunnel used to re-create the environments surrounding detectors in the early stages

Radiative Gasification Apparatus

This apparatus, developed at EL, determines gasification rate (mass loss rate) of a horizontally oriented specimen exposed in a nitrogen environment to a

Awards

Contacts