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Engineering Laboratory / Fire Research Division

National Fire Research Laboratory

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

The National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) operates calorimeters to measure the heat and combustion products for fires in the range of 50 kW to 20,000 kW. This Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD) contains results of fire experiments conducted at the NFRL. The specimens contained in this database include single burning items, fully furnished rooms, controlled burners, well characterized fuels and real composite fuels of unknown composition. The measurement method is described by Bryant and Bundy, 2019.

FCD User Guide (PDF)

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this database to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

Experiments

Projects

Title	Research Overview	Number of experiments
Structure of Medium-Scale Pool Fires	A series of experiments are reported that characterize key features of the structure of eight medium-scale pool fires (0...	8
Vertical Upward Flamespread on Parallel Panels	Quantitative measurements and visual observations were obtained from a series of 66 full-scale fire growth experiments...	70
Structure Separation Experiments: Shed Burns without Wind	These experiments were conducted during the first phase of project designed to assess structure-to-structure fire spread...	25
Kitchen Room Fire	A furnished kitchen compartment fire was studied to provide a comparison with the design fire scenarios. The compartment...	11
Characteristics of a 1 m Methanol Pool Fire	A series of measurements were made to characterize the structure of a 1 m diameter methanol (CH3OH) pool fire steadily...	2
Stovetop Cooking Pan Fire Safety	A series of experiments was conducted characterizing the flammability properties of small-scale corn oil fires. The oil...	5
Steel-Concrete Composite Floor Systems Subject to Fire, Phase 2	A series of large compartment fire tests was performed to investigate the behavior and fire-induced failure mechanisms...	6
Steel-Concrete Composite Floor Systems Subject to Fire, Phase 1	This study deals with compartment fire experiments on 12.8 m long composite floor beams with various end support...	4
Fire Barriers in Full-Scale Chair Mock-ups	The effectiveness and the failure mechanism of fire barriers in residential upholstered furniture were investigated by...	11
Room Flashover Experiments to Demonstrate the Effectiveness of Barrier Fabrics	A series of three full scale room fire experiments were conducted to demonstrate the potential fire risk of residential...	5
Dry Tree Fire Hazard	These experiments were designed to examine the difference in fire hazard between a dry Christmas tree and a watered...	2
Cross Laminated Timber Compartments	This study quantifies the contribution of CLT building elements to compartment fires and characterizes the effect of...	10
Multiple Item Transient Combustion Calorimetry	Experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between the peak heat release rate (HRR) and the number of...	41
Natural Gas Confirmation Burner	The NFRL operates two systems for calorimetry measurements, one based on oxygen consumption calorimetry and one based on...	18
Transient Combustion Calorimetry (TCC)	An extensive set of fire experiments was conducted to support the development of guidance to improve the realism for how...	107

Bryant, R. and Bundy, M. The NIST 20 MW Calorimetry Measurement System for Large-Fire Research, Technical Note (NIST TN) 2077, 2019
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2077

NIST Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)
https://doi.org/10.18434/mds2-2314

Contacts

Matthew Bundy

matthew.bundy@nist.gov

Created November 19, 2020, Updated November 23, 2020