ISSN: 1945-7553
CODEN: JTEVAB
Published Online: 7 December 2011
Page Count: 13

What Have We Learned About Uncertainty? Are We Still Playing with Fire?

Keltner, Ned
Fire Instrumentation Research and Engineering Services, Albuquerque, NM

(Received 16 April 2011; accepted 11 November 2011)

Abstract

Accurate characterization of the thermal environment in fires and fire safety tests is crucial to understanding the impact of fire on materials and assemblies and the work on modeling those impacts. Standardized fire resistance test methods have been used to help evaluate building materials and assemblies since the early 1900s and have been part of a successful effort to improve fire safety. However, current methods use predominately temperature measurements and do not provide sufficient heat transfer data to support the development and validation of fire protection engineering models. This paper looks at measurement techniques that were used successfully in pool fire research and how they could be applied to modeling structure fires.

Keywords:
temperature, heat flux, uncertainty analysis, directional flame thermometers, fire resistance, pool fires

Paper ID: JTE103919
DOI: 10.1520/JTE103919
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