Abstract
The production of firebrands during large outdoor fires remains unresolved in spite of many advances in the fire safety science discipline. To better grasp this complex problem, multiple experiments were undertaken using full-scale re-entrant corner assemblies exposed to wind in order to sample firebrands. In prior work, an ignition methodology was developed to generate firebrands from re-entrant corner assemblies constructed of wood studs and oriented strand board (OSB) as the base sheathing material. The objective of this study was to apply this same ignition methodology to examine if the base sheathing material, namely plywood as compared to OSB, greatly impacted the firebrand generation from re-entrant corner assembly combustion. It was interesting to observe that plywood generally produced far greater numbers of smaller firebrands (within size class up to 0.9 cm2), whereas OSB produced a great number of firebrands in the size class from 3.61 to 14.4 cm2. It is believed that these differences may be related to the different nature of the production process of these materials. Plywood firebrands clearly showed the presence of veneers, whereas the OSB firebrands show the wood strands still compressed together, suggesting a potential useful inspection methodology for post-fire damage assessment to identify the source of firebrands.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Manzello, S. L., Blanchi, R., Gollner, M., McAllister, S., Planas, E., Rein, G., Reszka, P., & Suzuki, S. (2017). Summary of workshop large outdoor fires and the built environment. NIST SP 1213.
Maranghides, A., McNamara, D., Vihnanek, R., Restiano, J., & Leland, C. (2015). A case study of a community affected by the Waldo fire—Event timeline and defensive actions. NIST TN1910.
National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster. (1977). Fire spread behaviors of the Sakata Fire. Technical Report of National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster, No. 11. (In Japanese).
Albini, F. (1983). Transport of firebrands by line thermals. Combustion Science and Technology, 32, 277–288.
Muraszew, A., & Fedele, J. F. (1976). Statistical model for spot fire spread. The Aerospace Corporation Report No. ATR-77758801, Los Angeles, CA.
Tarifa, C. S., del Notario, P. P., & Moreno, F. G. (1965). On the flight paths and lifetimes of burning particles of wood. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 10, 1021–1037.
Anthenian, R., Tse, S. D., & Fernandez-Pello, A. C. (2006). On the trajectories of embers initially elevated or lofted by small scale ground fire plumes in high winds. Fire Safety Journal, 41, 349–363.
Woycheese, J. P. (2000). Brand lofting and propagation for large-scale fires. Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
Knight, I. K. (2007). The design and construction of a vertical wind tunnel for the study of untethered firebrands in flight. Fire Technology, 37, 87–100.
Wang, H. H. (2011). Analysis on downwind distribution of firebrands sourced from a wildland fire. Fire Technology, 47, 321–340.
Fernandez-Pello, A. C. (2017). Wildland fire spot ignition by sparks and firebrands. Fire Safety Journal, 91, 2–10.
Manzello, S. L. (2014). Enabling the investigation of structure vulnerabilities to wind-driven firebrand showers in wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. Fire Safety Science, 11, 83–96.
Vodvarka, F. J. (1969). Firebrand field studies—Final report. IIT Research Institute, Chicago, IL.
Vodvarka, F. J. (1970). Urban burns-full-scale field studies– Final report. IIT Research Institute, Chicago, IL.
Yoshioka, H., Hayashi, Y., Masuda, H., & Noguchi, T. (2004). Real-scale fire wind tunnel experiment on generation of firebrands from a house on fire. Fire Science and Technology, 23, 142–150.
Hayashi, Y., Jaishi, T., Izumi, J., Naruse, T., Itagaki, N., Hashimoto, R., et al. (2014). Firebrands deposition and measurements of collected firebrands generated and transported from a full-scale burn test using a large wooden building. AIJ Journal of Technology and Design, 20, 605–610 (in Japanese).
Suzuki, S., Fujisaki, S., & Manzello, S. L. (2017). Characteristics of firebrands collected from urban fire—Niigata Fire, December 22nd 2016, 12th IAFSS Poster Session, Lund, Sweden.
Suzuki, S., Manzello, S. L., Lage, M., & Laing, G. (2012). Firebrand generation data obtained from a full-scale structure burn. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 21, 961–968.
Suzuki, S., Brown, A., Manzello, S. L., Suzuki, J., & Hayashi, Y. (2014). Firebrands generated from a full-scale structure burning under well-controlled laboratory conditions. Fire Safety Journal, 63, 43–51.
Suzuki, S., Hayashi, Y., & Manzello, S. L. (2013). The size and mass distribution of firebrands collected from ignited building components exposed to wind. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 34, 2479–2485.
Suzuki, S., & Manzello, S. L. (2016). Firebrand production from building components fitted with siding treatments. Fire Safety Journal, 80, 64–70.
Acknowledgements
Mr. Marco Fernandez, an Engineering Technician at NIST, worked to support the experiments described in this paper, and his help is indispensable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Manzello, S.L., Suzuki, S., Naruse, T. (2020). Influence of Base Sheathing Material on Wind-Driven Firebrand Production During Real-Scale Building Component Combustion. In: Wu, GY., Tsai, KC., Chow, W.K. (eds) The Proceedings of 11th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology. AOSFST 2018. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9139-3_50
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9139-3_50
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9138-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9139-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)