UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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2009 - 200912010 - 20151

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    Identification of Precursor Signals to Impending Cooking Related Fires
    (2015) Zevotek, Robin; Milke, Jim A; Fire Protection Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Cooking related fires continue to be the leading cause of fires in homes. In an effort to reduce the number of cooking fires Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the University of Maryland (UMD) partnered to evaluate detection of cooking related fires. An experimental protocol was developed to examine if precursor signals capable of predicting an impending fire can be detected to provide adequate warning prior to flaming fire. A series of eleven different experiments were conducted to acquire signals from sensors located at or near an electric coil range. The data recorded was analyzed to identify element gas temperature, carbon monoxide concentration, optical density and ionization signal as potential indicators of an impending fire. Further work is needed to evaluate sensor threshold values and the algorithms developed for other cooking styles and cooking appliances.
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    Analysis of Underventilated Compartment Fires
    (2009) Wolfe, Andrew John; Mowrer, Frederick; Fire Protection Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Little research has been done to examine full-scale unventilated fires despite their common occurrence and relevance. This project was conducted to characterize the fire dynamics of unventilated and partially ventilated compartment fires. A series of fifteen full-scale fires were performed within an instrumented, four room, apartment style enclosure measuring 41.8 m2 (450 ft2). Three different fuel sources, including sofas, kitchen cabinets, and cotton batting, were tested using different ventilation and ignition schemes to analyze the effect of ventilation on fire growth and tenability. The results of these tests allowed for the examination of the effects of ventilation on: general fire dynamics, including fire growth, smoke and gas production, and vitiation; tenability factors including temperature, heat flux and carbon monoxide FED levels; and the ability to utilize forensic tools to determine the cause and progression of a fire.