Description

Effective mitigation of external fires on structures can be achieved flexibly, economically, and aesthetically by (1) preventing large-area ignition on structures from close proximity of burning vegetations and (2) stopping flame travel from firebrands landing on combustible building objects. In using bench-scale and mid-scale fire tests to obtain fire growth properties on common building construction and landscaping plants, a model is being developed to use fast predictive methods suitable for changing environments imposed on the parcel lot consisting of structures and ornamental plants. When fully implemented and validated, the property owners and associated professionals will be able to view realistically in real-time (or faster) the various fire scenarios with the ability to select building materials and shapes as well as select ornamental plant species and placement for achieving the desired fire mitigation. Because of the analytical model's ability to respond to the changing 'parcel' environments of wind, temperature, humidity, moisture, sunshine, and wildfire sources of heat and embers, as well as to variations in building construction and ornamental plants, means that analysis can be done eventually for various neighborhoods. The mathematical formulation presented at the 2006 BCC Symposium is partially shown here and some results are compared with (1) our refurbished and modified Lateral Ignition and Flame Travel Test (ASTM E1321 and E1317), (2) specialized testing of Class B burning brand (ASTM E108) in the Cone Calorimeter (ASTM E1354), (3) room-corner tests with OSB (ISO 9705), and (4) Cone Calorimeter tests of fire resistive materials such as FRT plywood and single-layer stucco-coated OSB. A preliminary Fortran dll file has been generated for use in other models, such as ecoSmart Fire.