Smoke Emission and Burning Rates for Urban Structures.
Smoke Emission and Burning Rates for Urban Structures.
(11231 K)
Bryner, N. P.; Mulholland, G. W.
Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 25A, No. 11, 2553-2562,
1991.
Sponsor:
Defense Nuclear Agency, Washington, DC
Keywords:
smoke emissions; burning rate; urban fires; nuclear
winter; smoke generation; crib burning; scale effects;
wood; ABS plastics; gypsum
Abstract:
Cribs, ordered arrays of sticks, were burned to mimic
post-nuclear building fires. As the packing density of
the cribs was increased to simulate blast damage, the
smoke yield increased and the smoke changed from
strongly light absorbing to whitish in color. A
ventilation parameter proportional to the ratio of the
crib vent area to the total fuel surface area correlated
the burning rate and smoke yield data for both large
(3.81 cm stick thickness) and small (0.64 cm stick
thickness) scale cribs. The globally averaged smoke
optical depth inferred from the burning of the wood
cribs is in the low range of Penner's (1986, Nature 324,
222-226) estimate. The smoke yield for freely burning
cribs containing wood, gypsum, and plastic can be
accounted for based on the high sooting yield of the
plastic by itself.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899