A Home Ignition Assessment Model Applied to Structures in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013

OSTI ID:1150917

Biswas, Kaushik ^[1]; Werth, David ^[2]; Gupta, Narendra ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC

The issue of exterior fire threat to buildings, from either wildfires in the wildland-urban interface or neighboring structure fires, is critically important. To address this, theWildfire Ignition Resistant Home Design (WIRHD) program was initiated. The WIRHD program developed a tool, theWildFIREWizard, that will allow homeowners to estimate the external fire threat to their homes based on specific features and characteristics of the homes and yards. The software then makes recommendations to reduce the threat. The inputs include the structural and material features of the home and information about any ignition sources or flammable objects in its immediate vicinity, known as the home ignition zone. The tool comprises an ignition assessment model that performs explicit calculations of the radiant and convective heating of the building envelope from the potential ignition sources. This article describes a series of material ignition and flammability tests that were performed to calibrate and/or validate the ignition assessment model. The tests involved exposing test walls with different external siding types to radiant heating and/or direct flame contact.The responses of the test walls were used to determine the conditions leading to melting, ignition, or any other mode of failure of the walls. Temperature data were used to verify the model predictions of temperature rises and ignition times of the test walls.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Building Technologies Research and Integration Center (BTRIC)
• Sponsoring Organization: Work for Others (WFO)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1150917
• Resource Relation: Conference: Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings XII, Clearwater, FL, USA, 20131201, 20131201
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English