Fire Behavior & Combustion

The book is primarily intended for fire service personnel pursuing a degree in fire science as well as anyone else interested in learning more about fires. The goal of the book is to give readers a thorough understanding of fire behavior and to provide just enough fire behavior knowledge to enable firefighters to make more educated decisions.

Hopefully, as the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Fire Safety Research Institute continue to investigate fires, the fireman will be able to understand the material more easily because it is also meant to provide adequate science and extra physics. The book serves as a transitional resource between the overly basic studies of fire behavior and the rigorous, calculus-based, deep physics textbooks.

Case studies provide real-life fire behavior situations. It is important to note that the event in a case study does not necessarily correspond to the chapter topic.

1. Introduction to Fire
2. Science of Fire
3. Forms of Fire
4. Conduction & Convection
5. Radiation
6. Ignition
7. Heat Release Rate
8. Fire Plumes
9. Compartment Fires
10. Compartment Fire Dynamics
11. Extinguishment
12. Smoke & Products of Combustion
13. NIST and Fire Models