U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Search Publications by: William M. Pitts (Assoc)

Search Title, Abstract, Conference, Citation, Keyword or Author
Displaying 26 - 50 of 257

Evaluating Smoldering Behavior of Fire-Blocking Barrier Fabrics

January 29, 2015
Author(s)
Shonali Nazare, William M. Pitts, Szabolcs Matko, Rick D. Davis
This study reports on the smoldering propensity of commercially available barrier fabrics (BFs) in a small-scale upholstered seating mock-up configuration. Most commercially available BFs are smolder resistant when tested alone over a standard flexible

Response to Comments on the National Institute of Standards and Technology Investigation of the 2001 World Trade Center Fires

April 15, 2014
Author(s)
Richard G. Gann, Anthony P. Hamins, Therese P. McAllister, Kevin B. McGrattan, William M. Pitts, Kuldeep R. Prasad
The editor of a special issue of Fire Technology invited the NIST authors to address the NIST Investigation of the WTC disaster and associated practice and research progress in the 10 years since then. The three published papers are a summary of the

Evaluating Fire Blocking Performance of Barrier Fabrics

October 15, 2013
Author(s)
Shonali Nazare, William M. Pitts, Shaun M. Flynn, John R. Shields, Rick D. Davis
The purpose of fire blocking barrier materials is to reduce the flammability of soft furnishings ( mattresses and upholstered furniture) by preventing or delaying direct flame impingement from open flames and/or heat transfer from smoldering ignition

Measurements of effective diffusion coefficients of helium and hydrogen through gypsum

July 3, 2013
Author(s)
Jiann C. Yang, William M. Pitts, Marco G. Fernandez, Kuldeep R. Prasad
An experimental apparatus, which was based on the ¿-scale garage previously used for studying helium release and dispersion in our laboratory, was used to obtain effective diffusion coefficients of helium and hydrogen (released as forming gas for safety

Guidelines for Evaluating Fire Blocking Barrier Fabrics

April 18, 2013
Author(s)
Shonali Nazare, William M. Pitts, Shaun M. Flynn, Rick D. Davis, John R. Shields
This document provides guidelines to quantify fire performance properties of fire blocking barrier materials used in soft furnishings. In an attempt to enable a priori selection of fire barrier materials such that the final upholstered product complies

Reconstruction of the Thermal Environment in the Tall World Trade Center Buildings

January 11, 2013
Author(s)
Richard G. Gann, Anthony P. Hamins, Kevin B. McGrattan, Thomas J. Ohlemiller, Kuldeep R. Prasad, William M. Pitts, Harold E. Nelson
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted an extensive investigation of the collapse of the three tall World Trade Center (WTC) buildings. This paper describes the reconstruction of the fires, the thermal environment they created

Helium Dispersion in an Attached Single-Car Residential Garage with and Without Vehicle

October 2, 2012
Author(s)
William M. Pitts, Jiann C. Yang, Marco G. Fernandez, Kuldeep R. Prasad
The dispersion and loss of helium inside a single-car residential garage attached to a single-family house was experimentally characterized by recording time-resolved helium concentrations at multiple locations in the garage and at a single location in the

MEASUREMENTS OF EFFECTIVE DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT OF HELIUM AND HYDROGEN THROUGH GYPSUM

September 14, 2011
Author(s)
Jiann Yang, William M. Pitts, Marco Fernandez, Kuldeep Prasad
An experimental apparatus, which was based on the ¿-scale garage previously used for studying helium release and dispersion in our laboratory, was used to obtain effective diffusion coefficients of helium and hydrogen (released as forming gas for safety