Flames, Quakes, & Ballistics: A Day in the Natural Disaster Lab

Some materials are great for roofing, especially if they're sufficiently resistant to fire that any flame spreads slowly across the expanse. This is not one of those materials.

The roofing deck in this video is made of expanded polystyrene (EPS). It's a packaging foam. With the best roofing materials?those that receive an A rating?flames spread no more than 6 feet in 10 minutes during FM Global's test. But the folks here wanted to put on a show for the cameras, and so they lit up some EPS, which burns all of its 8-foot length in just 2 minutes.

The machine off to the right simply contains a fan that the workers blow toward the flame at about 12 mph, which simulates fire and embers blowing onto a roof during a wildfire.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/gonzo/flames-quakes-ballistics-a-day-in-the-natural-disaster-lab?src=rss

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