Client
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Project Objectives
- Design and build a system that simulates the burning of fires in enclosed environments and allows the measurement of the important combustion processes
- This research was funded by a group studying the propagation of fires in buildings. The fundamental research conducted in this project was used to help establish national fire safety codes and regulations
Summary of Project and Results (Non-Confidential)
- Designed and built a buoyant diffusion flame burner and flame anchoring mechanism
- Built an enclosure that surrounded the diffusion flame. The height of the enclosure could be raised or lowered to control the rate of entrainment of hot products or fresh air into the diffusion flame. The variable enclosure provided the simulation of a fire burning in a variety of building environments.
- Assembled and operated a gas chromatography system that measured a wide range of combustion product species
- Assembled and operated an infrared absorption system that measured the chemical species CO and NO2
- Developed an image processing system that automatically measured and averaged the height of flames from a series of video images
The Diffusion Flame Burner with Controllable Entrainment Enclosure