TY - GEN
T1 - Analysis of water application in large-scale residential structures
AU - Traina, Nicholas
AU - Kyritsis, Dimitrios C.
AU - Kerber, Stephen
AU - Horn, Gavin P.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - An experimental study is presented of the effect of water application on the fire environment in residential fires. Experiments were conducted in one-story and two-story residential structures, and water was applied to the fire with a combination nozzle set in either a straight stream or 30° fog stream. The amount of temperature reduction 60 s after water application in non-fire rooms, i.e. rooms without materials on fire, had a closely linear relationship with room temperature before water application. It was established that this relationship was different between straight streams and fog streams. Initially, fog streams achieved larger temperature reductions than straight streams, but as time after water application progressed, temperature reductions became larger for straight streams. Additionally, "pushing heat," i.e. the effect of water application increasing the temperature in the rooms adjacent to the fire room, was observed only in fog streams. "Pushing heat" was attributed to the entrainment of gases by the fog stream, which created an inflow of gases into the fire room, thus raising its pressure and sending hot gases into adjacent rooms. This effect was expectedly not observed for straight streams, since entrainment of gases in those streams was negligible.
AB - An experimental study is presented of the effect of water application on the fire environment in residential fires. Experiments were conducted in one-story and two-story residential structures, and water was applied to the fire with a combination nozzle set in either a straight stream or 30° fog stream. The amount of temperature reduction 60 s after water application in non-fire rooms, i.e. rooms without materials on fire, had a closely linear relationship with room temperature before water application. It was established that this relationship was different between straight streams and fog streams. Initially, fog streams achieved larger temperature reductions than straight streams, but as time after water application progressed, temperature reductions became larger for straight streams. Additionally, "pushing heat," i.e. the effect of water application increasing the temperature in the rooms adjacent to the fire room, was observed only in fog streams. "Pushing heat" was attributed to the entrainment of gases by the fog stream, which created an inflow of gases into the fire room, thus raising its pressure and sending hot gases into adjacent rooms. This effect was expectedly not observed for straight streams, since entrainment of gases in those streams was negligible.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943226572&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84943226572
T3 - 8th US National Combustion Meeting 2013
SP - 3033
EP - 3040
BT - 8th US National Combustion Meeting 2013
T2 - 8th US National Combustion Meeting 2013
Y2 - 19 May 2013 through 22 May 2013
ER -