Research on flame spread is essential to understanding the risks associated with materials in a wide range of geometries. My research into flame spread developed from warehouse fire research, where flame spread over corrugated cardboard was investigated. This area has huge applications to the design of warehouses and warehouse protection systems. It was found that corrugated cardboard does not follow with classical assumptions for upward flame spread, and an explanation of lower rates of spread that were observed was offered. The peeling or delamination of corrugated cardboard as it burns influences the boundary layer, resulting in slower rates of upward flame spread.
Prof. Forman Williams (PI, UCSD)
Prof. Ali S. Rangwala (Co-PI, WPI)
Michael Gollner
Storage of commodities in large warehouses pose a unique hazard to occupants, firefighters, and surrounding communities due to the concentration of flammable, often toxic materials stored to heights of up to 16 meters (50 ft). A key aspect of the protection strategy for these large warehouses is a hazard ranking applied to each commodity stored in the facility – used to design the protection system, often fire sprinklers. Despite strong advances in the fire sciences, over the last three decades this area of fire protection has been overlooked. Protection strategies in these facilities are deficient. A long history of destruction has resulted from warehouse fires, including firefighter deaths and environmental catastrophe. These large structures present a unique firefighting situation; firefighters investigating fires enter a maze-like inferno where the seat of a fire may occur deep within a structure up high in the air where the power of their hoses is no longer ideal. Many deaths in table 1 occurred while firefighters were searching through this “maze” for the seat of the fire, which could have been prevented by initially designing the facility to suppress, contain, or extinguish a possible fire contents to a pre-determined level.
The objective of this research is to analyze material flammability with an emphasis on classifying storage commodities in large warehouses. The results of this study could be applied in quantitatively predicting the ignition hazard, burning rate, flame spread and minimum quantity of suppressant required to extinguish a fire of given size. The theoretical basis for the proposed idea will evolve from the classical theory of ignition, flame spread, and extinction in boundary layer flows. The problem is unique because of the variation of commodity material, packing material, and storage configuration which will be accounted for with a modified set of nondimensional numbers to represent the physics of the problem. The mathematical analysis and experimental validation of the theory proposed is the primary goal of the study.
Prof. Forman Williams (PI)
Prof. Ali S. Rangwala (Co-PI, WPI)
Michael Gollner
Prof. Forman Williams
Prof. Kozo Saito