To protect suburban homes located in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) from wildfires, large-scale structure-wrapping fire blankets are being considered. In order to properly evaluate the fabrics' thermal protective performance, samples of each material are exposed to a predominantly convective or radiant heat flux to determine characteristic response times and heat-blocking efficiency of each fabric type. Proof-of-concept testing was conducted by exposing instrumented wall-and-roof wooden structures, wrapped with different fire blanket materials, to a wildfire in a prescribed-burn. Aluminized fiberglass and other fabrics materials were investigated. A numerical model, developed based on the laboratory experiments, was applied to the field fire test conditions to capture the trends of the transient response of the blankets.
展开▼
