Appeal for FDS/Smokeview References

Last summer, I broadcast a request to the FDS/SMV user community to send us references to journal articles that involved FDS verification or validation. We have literature survey sections in both the Verification and Validation volumes of the FDS Technical Reference Guide

http://fire.nist.gov/fds/documentation.html

that we would like to keep up to date.

Unfortunately, I received only 5 references in over a year, and 3 were from the same person! I'd like to repeat my appeal. Please understand that it is very important that we document FDS V&V work, both the work that we do ourselves and the work done by others. An added benefit is that these papers can help those who are just starting to use FDS understand capabilities and limitations.

For those who have published articles that involve FDS V&V, could you please do the following:

1. Scan the literature survey chapters of either the Verification or Validation Guide to see if your paper is referenced. If it is, please check the reference for accuracy. If it is not, then

2. Send us the reference. To save us some time, it would be very useful to send the reference in this form:

@ARTICLE{Hostikka:FSJ2006,
author = {Hostikka, S. and McGrattan, K.B.},
title = {{Numerical modeling of radiative heat ...}},
journal = {Fire Safety Journal},
year = {2006},
volume = {41},
pages = {76-86}}

We use LaTeX for our documents, and this is the standard format of a reference in the bibliographic database. Even if you do not know LaTeX, getting the information in something close to this format would be a big help.

3. Send an electronic copy of the article, if possible. We cannot post the article because of copyright issues, but it is nice to have the document on file. Plus, it will enable us to write a few sentences in the V&V Guides describing the work. If you could summarize the work in a few sentences, that would be a great help, too. We do not need too much detail. We only want to provide enough information so that the readers can find and read the paper themselves.

For articles that you think appropriate for the FDS Verification Guide, send the information to

randall.mcdermott@nist.gov

For Validation work:

kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov

And let's not forget that Smokeview is subject to V&V too:

glenn.forney@nist.gov

Thanks!

Release of FDS 5.4.2

A new maintenance release of FDS, version 5.4.2, is available at

http://code.google.com/p/fds-smv/downloads/list

This release contains a number of bug fixes related to experimental routines known collectively as "FDS 6". These changes should not affect the current FDS 5 default functionality. We are gradually working in these improvements to FDS while continuing to maintain the current capabilities. This should make the transition to the new routines smoother once they have been thoroughly shaken down. Many thanks to those of you who have been playing with the new routines. It is only through this process that we can work out the kinks.

NIST Building and Fire Research Division Postdoctoral Opportunities

BFRL postdoctoral positions are currently available for Ph.D. engineers, mathematicians, and physical scientists. Proposals are solicited on the following topics: Fire Metrology, Combustion Fundamentals, Fire Simulations, Flammability and Material Behavior in Fire, Fires at the Wildland-urban Interface (WUI).

There is a PDF flyer with more information about the positions available here:
http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/866/FireDiv_Postdoc_Opportunities.pdf

For information about working in the Building and Fire Research Laboratory see the “careers” page: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/careers/

Persons interested in any of these opportunities or with career questions may contact or submit a CV/Resume to bfrlcareers@nist.gov.

Building and Fire Research Laboratory
NIST
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8600
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8600
(301) 975-5900, TTY (301)975-8295
FAX (301) 975-4032

Computational Wind Engineering 2010

Professor Robert Meroney of Colorado State University asked us if we would post the following information:

We are setting aside a special session during the Fifth International Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering next spring in Raleigh, N.C., May 23-27, 2010 (Web site is http://www.cwe2010.org/index.html ). This symposium draws participants from architects, engineers, city planners, environmental responders, etc. Unfortunately, we have not had much response from the many fire modelers I know are active. Although the official deadline for abstract submission (1 page) is October 1, 2009, we intend to extend the deadline a couple weeks further into October. Below is a description of the special session:

Fire modeling

Although fire modeling in general can include conceptual, physical, or analytical models, the computational wind engineering focus is on how numerical methods (CFD) can be used to interpret how forest, brush, and/or building fires interact with local meteorology. Examples are the influence of local wind and atmospheric conditions on the spread and intensity in structure fires, wild land/urban interface fires, fires in urban street canyons, and forest/brush fires aggravated by local environments such as vegetation, canyons, or topographical channeling.

Robert N. Meroney, PhD, PE
Colorado Professor Emeritus
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Colorado State University
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~meroney/index.html