Online News--NIST Developing Virtual Reality Training Tool for Firefighters
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a virtual reality simulation of fire situations that will enable fire professionals to demonstrate how life-threatening conditions can develop in structures and to test firefighting tactics on computers without risk to life and limb.
To build the most realistic physics-based computer fire simulations to date, NIST experts are reworking the agency's fire modeling software--known as the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS)--and fire imaging program--known as Smokeview. Refinements to FDS will increase the system's ability for simulating the smoke, hot air and other gas flow caused by fire, wind, ventilation and structural conditions. The upgrade also will improve data processing, yielding speedier calculations that will permit even the most complex fires (such as a multistory or multibuilding event) to be portrayed.