Fire Modeling Workshop Live Blog and Video Feed.

During the Fire Modeling Workshop at the NIST Annual Fire Conference, we will be live streaming the event. You can find the page for the stream on the FDS-SMV site: http://fire.nist.gov/fds/FireModelingWS2009.html

Before the event, feel free to respond to the information form at the bottom of the live stream page.

There are two components to the stream, a live blogging system and a live video stream. Both components will be integrated and accessible through the same page. The live blog will allow participants, not at the event in person, to post comments or questions to be asked during the workshop, a moderator will be watching the comments stream and selecting some to be asked during the Q&A portion. Attendees who are there in person with a laptop, can also connect to the NIST visitor wireless network and comment and ask questions through the same system.

The video and live blog will be archived and made available on demand after the conference for review by those who cannot participate in real time. Information about how to access the archives will be made available after the event on the same page linked to above. We will then create new threads in the FDS-SMV discussion group to discuss issues raised during the workshop.

We hope that these services lower barriers to the information presented during the conference, and at the same time increases the ability for the Fire Modeling community to participate in the event, even if they cannot attend in person.

Before the event, you can test your computer's connection to the services at a demo site.
http://sites.google.com/site/playgroundforsites/

-Bryan

VTT Evacuation Model in FDS

I have been asked about the Evacuation module that is being incorporated into FDS.

Here is a little more info:
The model is being developed by Timo Korhonen and Simo Hostikka from VTT in Finland.
http://www.vtt.fi/proj/fdsevac/index.jsp?lang=en

A download is available on the VTT website, but note that it is based on FDS_4 source.
It is currently integrated into the FDS_5 source code, but has not been released for FDS_5 officially.
The module is not documented in the NIST user or technical guide, as all documentation and support for the model will be provided by VTT.

You can submit questions and support requests through the FDS-SMV tracker system, as these issues can be assigned to the VTT guys. But, until it is officially released as a part of FDS_5, please do not submit issues to the trackers for the FDS_4 version.

It will be interesting to see how the FDS+Evacuation combination begins to take shape. There are many other groups developing evacuation models integrated into the results of FDS. I will post more on them as the details emerge.

I hope this answers a few questions... and maybe even answers some before they are asked.

-Bryan

First Post of Many...

Welcome to the FDS-SMV "official", unofficial web log.

Hopefully the readers of this blog will find it a valuable repository for information related to FDS and Smokeview.

If you would like to be a member/contributor to this blog, please feel free to send your request to bryanwklein@gmail.com .

There are many new resources available to the FDS-SMV community and this is one more to add to it. Be sure to check out the following links to access more of these resources.

FDS-SMV Website:
http://fire.nist.gov/fds

-Bryan