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Published 9 years ago by TNY with 1 Comments

Wildfire simulator seeks the weak spots in a home’s defenses

Four decades of studying fires have led Jack Cohen of the U.S. Forest Service to one conclusion: When it comes to wildfires, the greatest threat to homes isn’t from walls of flame sweeping through residential areas. It’s from the houses themselves—their construction, materials, even landscaping—and their susceptibility to embers, the tiny bits of burning material he calls firebrands.

  • Cohen has seen thousands of homes succumb to fire, including some of the approximately 5,500 consumed in the California infernos of 2003 and 2007. The following year the Department of Homeland Security agreed to fund development of software that will eventually enable homeowners and fire agencies to evaluate vulnerabilities in houses and other structures. This, says Cohen, is a vital step toward preventing disaster. To prove his point, he’s enlisted an impressive tool: a fullscale house that can be set afire, refitted with different materials, and then set aflame again.

    Call it playing with fire for a purpose. The simulations take place in a giant facility situated on 90 acres in the South Carolina countryside. Here the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, with funding from some 60 insurance companies, re-creates the conditions of wildfires, hurricanes, and the like in order to study their impact on buildings and to develop protection guidelines.“There’s nothing else like this lab,” says President and CEO Julie Rochman. “Our number one obsession is that the science be right.”

    The challenges are enormous. Fire chiefs and forestry experts attest to the scientific accuracy of the fire simulations, but in the course of that achievement, ember machines have burst into flames, and metal pipes have buckled. The 105 “wind” fans devour so much energy that the nearly year-old facility has its own power substation. The tests, however, have yielded valuable information that is documented on video and in photographs. To isolate vulnerable spots on a building in the midst of a blaze, the 1,400-square-foot test house is bombarded with embers generated by igniting bins of mulch. The structure can be fitted with different kinds of siding, windows, gutters, and roofs. Among the lessons learned: Vinyl gutters readily melt, and embers can infiltrate homes through vents, windows, and roofs. “We were a little surprised how quickly things happened once embers blew onto the roof,” says Rochman. “We saw ignition in seconds.”

    More at the source.

 

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  • hxxp
    +3

    This is actually really cool.

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