Research Summary
Department of Fire Protection Engineering
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742, USA
http://www.fpe.umd.edu
March 2010
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March 2010
Full-Time Faculty
Faculty
Research Areas
M. di Marzo
suppression (water- or foam-based)
A.W. Marshall
fire flows, combustion, suppression
J.A. Milke
structures, detection, egress
J.G. Quintiere
fire dynamics, scaling, flammability
S.I. Stoliarov
pyrolysis, flammability, fire growth
P.B. Sunderland
soot, fire dynamics, diagnostics
A. Trouvé
turbulent combustion, fire modeling
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March 2010
Other Faculty
Faculty
Research Areas
H. Baum
applied math, CFD
V. Brannigan
regulation and law
T. Kashawagi
material flammability
F.W. Mowrer
flammability, detection, fire modeling
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March 2010
Outline
Ignition and Flame Spread
 Flame Spread on Polymers (Stoliarov)
 Modeling UL 94V (Quintiere)
 Spontaneous Ignition for Investigation (Quintiere)
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Burning Rate
Burning Rates of Charring Polymers (Stoliarov)
Candle Flames (Quintiere/Sunderland)
Emulated Burning Rate (Quintiere/Sunderland)
Flame-Wall Interactions (Trouvé)
N-Heptane Pool Fires (Quintiere)
Spill and Burning Behavior of Flammable Liquids (Quintiere)
Tools for Numerical Experiments (Trouvé)
Heat Transfer
 Near Wall Mixing and Heat Transfer (Marshall/Trouvé)
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Fire Chemistry
Flame Design (Sunderland)
Pyrolysis Modeling (Trouvé)
Smoke Points in Microgravity (Sunderland)
Soot Oxidation (Sunderland)
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March 2010
Outline
Plumes
 Dispersion (Marshall/Quintiere)
 Flame Length Under a Ceiling (Quintiere)
 Modeling of Turbulent Wall Fires (Trouvé)
Detection
 Smoke Detection (Milke)
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Compartment Fires
New MQH Formula for Temperature (Quintiere)
Physical Scale Modeling for Investigation (Quintiere/Marshall)
Under-Ventilated Fires (Quintiere)
Vent Flows (Quintiere)
Human Behavior
 Egress (Milke)
Suppression
 Spray Suppression (Marshall/Baum)
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March 2010
Ignition and Flame Spread
Flame Spread on Polymers
Faculty: Stoliarov
M.S. Students: I. Leventon
Title: Two-Dimensional Burning Model for Aircraft Materials
Sponsor: FAA
rad(mF)
Objective: Understand andHFpredict
the initial rate of flame spread
1D
HFconv(mF)
on typical representative mF
aircraft interior or body materials.
material
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x
y
HFrad(MF, y)
HFconv(MF, y)
2D
mFy
MF   mFy y
x
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March 2010
Ignition and Flame Spread
Modeling UL 94V
 Faculty: Quintiere, with R. Lyon, FAA
 M.S. Student: B. Downey, currently with SAIC
 Title: An Investigation of the UL 94V Plastics Flammability Test, 6th
Int. Sem. on Fire and Explosions (2010)
 Sponsor: FAA
 Objective: Predict rating for UL 94V in terms of properties.
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March 2010
Ignition and Flame Spread
Spontaneous Ignition for Investigation
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Faculty: Quintiere, with T. Minnich, U Cent Fla
M.S. Student: J. Worden
Title: Spontaneous Ignition (Oven Test Method)
Sponsor: NIJ
Objective: Help fire investigators better assess
spontaneous ignition.
Supercritical
Baskets with Thermocouples
Subcritical
Linseed Oil with Cotton Rags
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Burning Rates of Charring Polymers
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Faculty: Stoliarov
Ph.D. Students: TBD
Title: Prediction of the Burning Rates of Charring Polymers
Sponsor: Minta Martin Funds
Objective: Develop and validate a detailed numerical model for burning
of charring and intumescing polymers in a cone calorimeter.
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Candle Flames
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Faculty: Quintiere, Sunderland
M.S. Student: Tabaka, Visiting Scholars: Lian/Chiu
Title: Analysis and Measurement of Candle Flame Shapes
Submitted: Combustion Symposium, Beijing (2010)
Objectives: Measurements, theory and correlations for flame
height and flame width as a function of wick dimensions.
W f / D  2.710.70/ 
L f / D  Cxn , x  Ra1/4 (L / D) – 2
C as 0.526 and 0.470, and
n as 0.75 and 0.60 for
tetracosane and paraffin, respectively
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Emulated Burning Rate
 Faculty: Quintiere, Sunderland
 Ph.D. Student: K.T. Dotson
 Title: Experimental Investigation of Emulated Burning Rate at Various
Gravity Levels
 Sponsor: NASA Glenn
 Objective: Measure and correlate the steady burning rates of a range of
fuels as a function of orientation and gravity.
Theory
Experiment
m ' '  q ' '
q ' '
m ' ' c p x
Heat Flux
Gage
k
B
Fuel
m ' '

Parameters
 f B, Nu 
H c r 1   r Yox,  c p (Ts  T )
Nu  f Ra 
L
Ra 
gTx 3

Heat of Combustion,
ΔHc: 5 – 50 MJ/kg
Heat of Gasification, L:
Fuel
0.5 – 5 MJ/kg
Properties
Surface Temperature,
Ts: 50 – 500°C
Gravity, g: 10-4 – 1.5g
Angle, θ: 0 – 180°
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Flame-Wall Interactions
 Faculty: A. Trouvé, with U. Piomelli (Queens U.)
 PhD Students: L. Bravo, A. Voegele
 Title: Numerical Modeling of Non-Premixed Flame-Wall Interactions in Turbulent
Boundary Layer Flows
 Sponsors: NSF, NASA
 Objective: Develop a high-fidelity, parallel, LES solver for turbulent combustion.
Application to simulations of boundary layer combustion (fundamental studies;
CFD model development and validation).
 2009 Results: Extension of initial constant density code to variable mass density
and combustion.
LES simulation of a film cooling configuration
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March 2010
Burning Rate
N-Heptane Pool Fires
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Faculty: Quintiere, with Bing Chen
Collaborator: L.S. Lu (USTC, China)
Title: Pool fire under different initial fuel temperatures
Sponsor: National Natural Science Foundation of China
Objective: Study the effects of initial fuel temperature on
pool fire behavior. Application to fire hazards of hightemperature fuel.
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Spill and Burning Behavior of Flammable Liquids
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Faculty: Quintiere
M.S. Student: M. Benfer
Collaborators: D. Gottuk and C. Mealy (Hughes)
Sponsor: NIJ
Objective: Develop and validate a flammable liquid spread
and burning behavior model by assessing the spreading
dynamics and burning behavior of liquids over a flat surface.
Preliminary Spill Results
s
q
sSG
sSL
Spill Formation
Substrate
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March 2010
Burning Rate
Tools for Numerical Experiments
 Faculty: A. Trouvé, PhD student: P. Narayanan, Post-doc: V.R. Lecoustre
 Collaborators: H.G. Im (UMich), D. Haworth (PSU), T. Lu (UConn), R.
Sankaran (ORNL), K.-L. Ma (UC-Davis)
 Title: Petascale Computing, Visualization, and Science Discovery of
Turbulent Sooting Flames
 Sponsor: NSF
 Objective: Develop a massively-parallel, high-fidelity, DNS solver to
simulate soot-flame-radiation interactions in turbulent combustion.
 2009 Results: Basic study of radiation extinction in sooting, luminous,
laminar and turbulent diffusion flames.
soot mass fraction
temperature
extinction
Radiation extinction in a turbulent diffusion flame
Increasing
soot levels
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March 2010
Heat Transfer
Near Wall Mixing and Heat Transfer
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Faculty: Marshall, Trouvé
Ph.D. Students: A. Voegele, F. Raffan
Collaborator: C. Cadou (UMD)
Title: Detailed Experiments and Model Development for Thrust
Chamber Film Cooling
 Sponsor: NASA Marshall
 Objective: Characterize the detailed mixing and transport processes near
film cooled surfaces to support near-wall CFD model development.
Film cooling effectiveness and near wall diagnostics
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March 2010
Fire Chemistry
Flame Design
 Faculty: Sunderland
 Ph.D. Student: V.R. Lecoustre
 Collaborators: V. Lecoustre, R.L.
Axelbaum, D.L. Urban, B.H. Chao
 Title: Flame Design: A Novel
Approach to Clean Efficient Diffusion
Flames
 Sponsor: NASA Glenn
 Objectives: Study the effects of fuel
and oxidizer dilution on soot formation
and flame extinction. Application to
smoke and extinction.
 Preparing for testing aboard the
International Space Station.
(a) 18% C2H4  27% O2
(b) 18% C2H4  28% O2
30 mm
(c) O2  12% C2H4
(d) O2  13% C2H4
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March 2010
Fire Chemistry
Pyrolysis Modeling
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Faculty: A. Trouvé, MS students: R. Webster, M. McKeever, Z. Ghorbani
Collaborator: M. Lázaro (U. Cantabria, Spain)
Sponsor: NIJ
Objectives: Develop thermal properties and burning item database (the database
has a material property component populated by cone calorimeter test data and
an object property component populated by furniture calorimeter test data).
Develop models to describe the formation of flammable vapors from pyrolysis
of solid fuel sources.
 2009 Results: Construction of
preliminary version of database.
Evaluation of limitations of
current
methodologies
for
pyrolysis modeling.
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March 2010
Fire Chemistry
Smoke Points in Microgravity
75% C3H6
1.6 mm Burner
uf = 41.9 cm/s
uair = 59.0
55.2
47.7
36.4 cm/s
32.9
37.6
42.3 cm/s
75% C3H6
30 mm
 Faculty: Sunderland
 M.S. Student: K.T. Dotson
 Collaborators: D.L. Urban, Z.G.
Yuan
 Title: Smoke Points in Coflow
Experiment (SPICE)
 Sponsor: NASA Glenn
 Objectives: Study the effects of
fuel type and coflow on soot
emissions.
Application
to
spacecraft fire safety.
 Images shown are from the
International Space Station.
1.6 mm Burner
uair = 50.5 cm/s
uf = 28.2
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March 2010
Fire Chemistry
Soot Oxidation
 Faculty: Sunderland
 Title:
Soot
Oxidation
Hydrocarbon-Free Flames
Wide View
in
Close-Up
hydrogen
diffusion
flame
 Objectives:
Establish
soot
oxidation kinetics for OH, O2, O,
CO2 and H2O. Application to
smoke emission and radiation.
propylene
diffusion
flame
70 mm
 Sponsor: NSF
 Measurements to be performed
include soot volume fraction, soot
temperature, soot structure, and
gas compositions.
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March 2010
Plumes
Dispersion
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Preliminary visualization
of a plume in cross-flow
Faculty: Marshall, Quintiere
M.S. Students: C. Haus, A. Goodman, T. Layton
Title: Characterizing Buoyancy Induced Dispersion via Scale Modeling
Sponsors: NIJ, Combustion Science and Engineering
Objective: Apply PLIF, PIV, and other non-intrusive diagnostics for use in
dispersion studies. Current focus is salt-water dispersion experiments (used
for: applied studies of smoke transport and detector response; plume
dispersion studies; CFD model validation).
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Dispersion measurements; impinging plume
(above); centerline unconfined plume (right)
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March 2010
Plumes
Flame Length Under a Ceiling
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rf
D
 1.62QD*
25
Faculty , J. G. Quintiere
Title: Prediction of the flame length under a ceiling
Sponsor: JL Bryan funds
Objective: Develop a theoretical basis for correlating
a wide range of data for ceiling flame length
m p
m j

Q
hc 
hc
nps
n js
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March 2010
Plumes
Modeling of Turbulent Wall Fires
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Faculty: A. Trouvé
PhD Student: A. Ojofeitimi, Intern: F. Collonval
Sponsor: FM Global
Objectives: Develop next-generation CFD tool for fire modeling
(OpenFOAM framework) - Adapt FireFOAM (developed by FMG) to
treat wall fire configurations.
 2009 Results: Validation study focused on convective heat transfer in
classical buoyancy-driven turbulent vertical wall boundary layer flow.
Wall model to calculate convective heat flux in buoyancy-driven turbulent boundary layer
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March 2010
Detection
Smoke Detection
 Faculty: Milke
 Title: Comparative loss of life and injury analysis between: fully
sprinklered occupancies, smoke detector-only occupancies and sprinklered
in combination with smoke detector-protected occupancies
 Sponsor: NEMA
 Objective: Conduct a literature review and statistical analysis of the losses
that have occurred in fire incidents in U.S. buildings with sprinklers and
smoke detectors.
Death rates/ 100
U.S. Resid. Fires,
2003-06
Sprinkler performance
in U.S. Resid. Fires
(2003-06) (% of fire
incidents)
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March 2010
Compartment Fires
New MQH Formula for Temperature
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Faculty: Quintiere
M.S. Student: P. Sharma
Publication: “Compartment Fire Temperatures,” JFPE (2010)
Objective: Use new vent flow formula to compute compartment fire
temperatures and compare to MQH formula.
Type X Gypsum Wall Board
1.8
1.6
1.4
For H*=0.025
1.2
y
1.0
Dimensionless
Temperature
&
HRR
0.6
T  T
y
T
Q 
0.8
0.4
0.2
0.0
Q
0.0
 c p,T g Ao H o
0.2
0.4
0.6
Q*2/3 / H* 1/3
0.8
1.0
1.2
MQH
w=0.43
w=0.67
w=1.00
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March 2010
Compartment Fires
Physical Scale Modeling for Investigation
 Faculty: Quintiere
 M.S. Student: A.Carey
 Collaborators: Marshall, C. Chan, D.T. Sheppard
(ATF)
 Title: Scale Modeling of Static Fires in a Complex
Geometry for Forensic Fire Applications
 Sponsor: NIJ
 Objective: Apply Froude scaling to various fuels
to develop a methodology for fire investigators.
 Presented at 2009 ESSCI Conference.
Full Scale
Q* 
Q
 c pT g 5 / 2
1/8th Scale
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March 2010
Compartment Fires
Under-Ventilated Fires
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Faculty: Quintiere, with B. Chen
Collaborators: L.S. Lu (USTC, China)
Title: Flow through ceiling vents in enclosure fire
Sponsor: National Natural Science Foundation of China
Objective: Investigate the smoke flowing through the horizontal vent in
enclosure fires. Understand the critical condition of the unidirectional
and bidirectional flow, and compute the volumetric flow.
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March 2010
Compartment Fires
Vent Flows
 Faculty: Quintiere, with L. Wang, China U Mining & Tech.
 “The Mixture Fraction to Predict Product Species in Fire,” Int J Eng Perf
Fire Codes (2007)
 “An analysis of compartment fire doorway flows,” FSJ (2009)
 “A general formula for the prediction of vent flows,” FSJ (2009)
 Sponsor: Chinese government
 Objective: Develop new analytical formulas to estimate vent flows in
compartment fires, and a new algorithm for predicting species in a zone
model.
Schematic of flows
Doors
Windows
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March 2010
Human Behavior
Egress
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Faculty: Milke
Title: Analysis of Observations of People Movement
Characteristics during Evacuation of High Rise Office Buildings
Sponsor: NIST
Objective: Assess the linear relationship commonly assumed
between stairwell width and the speed and flow of occupants
evacuating from high-rise buildings.
Evacuation Times for 24 Story Building-A
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March 2010
Suppression
Spray Suppression
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Faculty: Marshall, Baum
Ph.D. Students: N. Ren, P.Y.H. Zheng
M.S. Student: B. Salyers
Collaborator: P. Tartarini (U. Modena)
Title: Fire Suppression Spray Characterization
Sponsors: NSF, FM Global
Objective: Characterize the initial sprinkler spray for analysis/simulation
of water-based fire suppression systems. Application to sprinkler systems
and integration into CFD solvers (e.g., FDS).
Ddef = 25 mm
Atomization experiments for fire suppression devices
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March 2010
Summary
The FPE Department…
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…has many state-of-the-art capabilities
 Advanced diagnostics (PIV, PLIF, etc)
 High-fidelity numerical solvers (FDS, LES, DNS)
 Analysis and scaling
…is a leading institution in Fire Science
 Fluid mechanics and heat transfer in fires
 Fire modeling (scale modeling, zone modeling, CFD modeling)
…is a leading institution in FPE professional practice
 Evaluation and development of standards
 Testing combined with analysis
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March 2010