Meetings with the majority of the Technical Panel for the Development of an Interactive Database of Contemporary Material Properties for Fire Modeling project were held on June 29 and June 30, 2020. The major subjects of discussion included the list of proposed materials to be tested and characterized, the properties for the database, and the experimental and analytical methods to determine the properties for the database. A list of 101 materials divided into 11 categories were identified for inclusion in the database. The topics of variability in materials and aging of products and furniture items was discussed and it was concluded that investigating these variations is outside the scope of the project in this phase.

The list of properties to be stored in the database for each material as well as proposed experimental methods to determine each property were discussed in the Technical Panel meetings. The discussion emphasized that the priorities for the properties represented in the database are dependent on the expected users for the database. Three potential user groups and the sets of properties that each group would likely require were identified. To ensure that the data contained in the database is useful for modeling, it was determined that prioritization would be given to complete sets of properties to be measured and stored in the database.

Over the course of the two meetings, several tools were proposed to make the database easier for model practitioners to use. Once such tool included functionality to output lines of code for the models or entire model input files to simplify the process of inserting the properties into computa- tional fire models. Another tool that was discussed would involve automatically extracting derived properties from data sets or translating between complex and simple representations of burning.

The next phase of the project includes conducting research to finalize the structure of the database and finalizing experimental procedures and protocols to populate the database.

Research Project: Development of an Interactive Database of Contemporary Material Properties for Fire Modeling
Report Title: Development of a Database of Contemporary Material Properties for Fire Investigation Analysis - Materials and Methods
Report Authors: Mark McKinnon, Daniel Madrzykowski, and Craig Weinschenk
Download the Report: https://dx.doi.org/10.54206/102376/ZMPA6638
Release Date: July 20, 2020