NEW VARIATION ON AN OLD THEME. What is Fire Safety Engineering?
Opening and concluding paragraphs of the Inaugural Lecture presented by Professor D. J. Rasbash on 14 November 1974 at Appleton Tower, The University of Edinburgh.
Opening Paragraph
Well, my Department is called the Department of Fire Safety Engineering. It is a very rare department indeed in a University. Nowhere else in Europe is there a similar animal. There are a few close relatives in North America, but, you might say, many exotic flowers blossom there. Perhaps I imagine a tendency to turn with a sympathetic but questioning eye, asking-"What is this peculiar specimen cast up on the beautiful beach that compromises the academic world of this ancient university?" As Trincolo exclaimed in The Tempest when he stumbled across Caliban on the beach, "Is it man or fish? Methinks it has a very ancient and fish-like smell!"
Concluding Paragraph
Could it be that my subject is neither man nor fish but a gawky representative of a new species? This species could have as its discipline the understanding and thence the bringing of a modicum of control to the hitherto intractable quality called "Safety", a word whose aura must surely extend beyond ourselves to our fellows, to those that follow us and even to mankind. And in the shadow of Safety there is always Risk which comes strongly into the light when the emphasis of our studies turns to the adventurous journey of mankind through time, space and such as might lie between. In pursuit of gaining the measure of Safety and Risk we could well find ourselves ranging unashamedly from Physics to History, why even beyond. For will we not be concerned with bringing what has been called "Acts of God", amongst which Fire has had such a terrible ranking, into the regime under man's control? What impudence, but if true it would be New Variation on an Old Theme indeed!
(This text has been extracted from the "Sabbatical Report" of Dr Jack Watts written while visiting Edinburgh in 1979-1980 describing the rara avis of the Department/Degrees of Fire Safety Engineering in order to draw suggestions for a similar programme in the USA)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
'International Science Grid This Week' features article on FireGrid
The article on FireGrid that was produced for EPCC News magazine has been adopted by iSGTW (International Science Grid This Week), as their lead article on 29 July 2009:
Feature - Burning down the house (with FireGrid)
http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001917
iSGTW, a weekly newsletter promoting grid computing, has an audience of 15,000 people and is jointly funded by the US Department of Energy, the US National Science Foundation, and by the European Commission.
Feature - Burning down the house (with FireGrid)
http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001917
iSGTW, a weekly newsletter promoting grid computing, has an audience of 15,000 people and is jointly funded by the US Department of Energy, the US National Science Foundation, and by the European Commission.
Monday, July 27, 2009
New International Master in Fire Safety Engineering between Edinburgh, Ghent and Lund approved by Erasmus Mundus
The new International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering has been approved by Erasmus Mundus (the European commission's cooperation and mobility programme in the field of European higher education). The joint degree starts in Sept 2010 and involves the universities of Edinburgh (UK), Ghent (Belgium) and Lund (Sweden).
The curriculum concerns a two-year program in four semesters in total. The structure is such that the students benefit from the expertise of each of the partners. The first semester, covering basic topics in fire safety engineering, is taught in Ghent or Edinburgh (student's choice). All students spend the second semester in Lund, with emphasis on enclosure fire dynamics, risk analysis and human behaviour. The third semester is again taught in Ghent (focus on general fire safety engineering) or Edinburgh (focus on fire and structures). The fourth semester is devoted to the Master’s thesis, hosted by one or more of the three institutions.
A number of scholarships would be available for EU and non-EU students.
NOTE: this blog entry has been related to a later entry in the SFPE blog.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Review of the 6th Mediterranean Combustion Symposium
The 6th Mediterranean Combustion Symposium was held in Porticcio, Corsica (7 – 11 June 2009 and was organised by the Universitiá di Corsica Pasquale Paoli.
The conference was well attended by 197 (mostly academic) delegates from institutions all around the world. Topics included many of the usual in combustion science including turbulent combustion, solid fuels, propulsion and engines, pollutant formation, reaction kinetics and new combustion technologies. There were also sessions on applied research in the fields of fire and explosions and forest fires. There was a strong emphasis during the conference on bridging the gap between fundamental combustion research and applied forest fire research.
This was realised by a special workshop session as well as 3 sessions of talks on forest fire research throughout the week. These brought together the combustion, forest fire and fire safety communities to address some of the open questions in the field. The workshop included talks from the leaders in the communities who detailed their concerns and their views on the direction in which they felt the field should be taken. It focussed heavily on the work needed to create robust models to predict wildfire spread. The key aspect that came from this session was the need for the research to unite and determine a common framework within which individual research could be undertaken. However, it seems a leader has yet to emerge.
Many of the presentations in the forest fires sessions were the highlight of the symposium presenting new approaches to modelling. Of particular originality was the paper by Rossi et al. on the use of stereovision to determine geometric fire front characteristics imaging of wildfires. Another excellent paper was written by Pérez et al. on the use of infrared data to determine the effectiveness of aerial forest fire suppression.
The plenary lectures generally focussed on detailed research on the state of the art of combustion research. An excellent talk was given by Prof. Hai Wang of the University of Southern California in which he presented a novel use of combustion in the production of dye sensitised solar cells. Such work provides an accessible and novel contribution of combustion science to relevant problems.
It was reassuring to see some papers presented by young researchers in the early stages of their careers. I hope that this continues to allow new ideas to propagate through the field and allow new collaborations between many research groups. Young researchers were again well represented in the poster session which gave a broad insight into the early stages of a wide range of combustion research.
In general, the conference was a success. Though very academic in nature with few delegates from industry, strengthening these links could allow for more novel applied research to be undertaken allowing the community to grow. The location and hospitality were excellent (especially the food) and the timetable was well designed allowing plenty of time between sessions to allow discussions and networking (as well as trips to the beach!).
The conference was well attended by 197 (mostly academic) delegates from institutions all around the world. Topics included many of the usual in combustion science including turbulent combustion, solid fuels, propulsion and engines, pollutant formation, reaction kinetics and new combustion technologies. There were also sessions on applied research in the fields of fire and explosions and forest fires. There was a strong emphasis during the conference on bridging the gap between fundamental combustion research and applied forest fire research.
This was realised by a special workshop session as well as 3 sessions of talks on forest fire research throughout the week. These brought together the combustion, forest fire and fire safety communities to address some of the open questions in the field. The workshop included talks from the leaders in the communities who detailed their concerns and their views on the direction in which they felt the field should be taken. It focussed heavily on the work needed to create robust models to predict wildfire spread. The key aspect that came from this session was the need for the research to unite and determine a common framework within which individual research could be undertaken. However, it seems a leader has yet to emerge.
Many of the presentations in the forest fires sessions were the highlight of the symposium presenting new approaches to modelling. Of particular originality was the paper by Rossi et al. on the use of stereovision to determine geometric fire front characteristics imaging of wildfires. Another excellent paper was written by Pérez et al. on the use of infrared data to determine the effectiveness of aerial forest fire suppression.
The plenary lectures generally focussed on detailed research on the state of the art of combustion research. An excellent talk was given by Prof. Hai Wang of the University of Southern California in which he presented a novel use of combustion in the production of dye sensitised solar cells. Such work provides an accessible and novel contribution of combustion science to relevant problems.
It was reassuring to see some papers presented by young researchers in the early stages of their careers. I hope that this continues to allow new ideas to propagate through the field and allow new collaborations between many research groups. Young researchers were again well represented in the poster session which gave a broad insight into the early stages of a wide range of combustion research.
In general, the conference was a success. Though very academic in nature with few delegates from industry, strengthening these links could allow for more novel applied research to be undertaken allowing the community to grow. The location and hospitality were excellent (especially the food) and the timetable was well designed allowing plenty of time between sessions to allow discussions and networking (as well as trips to the beach!).
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
D. Peter Lund Award 2009
Prof Dougal Drysdale has been named as a recipient of the SFPE's 'D. Peter Lund Award' for 2009. The award presentation will take place at the SFPE annual meeting in Arizona on October 19th.The D. Peter Lund Award was established in 1997 to recognise 'significant contributions to the advancement of the professional recognition of the fire protection engineer'.
The award this year is shared between the seven editors of the SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
International excellence in consultancy in fire safety
Edinburgh Global profiles the Fire Group work as "world class expertise that puts Edinburgh on the map as a leading centre for consultancy in fire safety".
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Short Review of 20th BCC Flame Retardancy Conference, Stamford, June 2009
by Nicolas Bal and Guillermo Rein, University of Edinburgh.
The 20th Annual Recent Advances in Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials, was held in Stamford, Connecticut, on June 1-3, 2009. The venue was well chosen (as had been in previous years), specially for its good location near NYC, and nearby airports. The organization was flawless. In total, 35 papers were presented arranged in six sessions (General Papers, Halogen Flame Retardants, Nanocomposites, Industrial Applications, Environmental and Toxicity Issues, and Testing). The audience, about 70 people, came primary from the USA and Europe and a significant fraction were industry representative.
The conference had its two main strengths in the emphasis on the needs of industry, and the diversity of speakers, which allowed to see a broad range of points of view on flame retardants' future (fire, chemistry, new polymer formulas, regulations, toxicity...). However, the majority of the presentations focused on the detailed decomposition chemistry of retardant formulas in small samples (miligrams to grams) rather than on the burning behaviour at the real scale (~kilograms). Maybe, this is partially due to the historical focus of the retardant industry on passing the flammability tests rather than on real-world behaviour, which unfortunately seem to be significantly different.
The Fire Group at Edinburgh was represented by a invited paper (written by Guillermo & Nicolas) in the first session “General papers and reviews”. The talk, entitled “Solid ignition at high fluxes”, presented the numerical results of solid ignition to explain the unexpected trend in the time to ignition at high heat fluxes (up to 200 kW/m²) in PMMA samples. Results support that the mechanism causing this is in-depth radiation absorption.
The 20th Annual Recent Advances in Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials, was held in Stamford, Connecticut, on June 1-3, 2009. The venue was well chosen (as had been in previous years), specially for its good location near NYC, and nearby airports. The organization was flawless. In total, 35 papers were presented arranged in six sessions (General Papers, Halogen Flame Retardants, Nanocomposites, Industrial Applications, Environmental and Toxicity Issues, and Testing). The audience, about 70 people, came primary from the USA and Europe and a significant fraction were industry representative.
The conference had its two main strengths in the emphasis on the needs of industry, and the diversity of speakers, which allowed to see a broad range of points of view on flame retardants' future (fire, chemistry, new polymer formulas, regulations, toxicity...). However, the majority of the presentations focused on the detailed decomposition chemistry of retardant formulas in small samples (miligrams to grams) rather than on the burning behaviour at the real scale (~kilograms). Maybe, this is partially due to the historical focus of the retardant industry on passing the flammability tests rather than on real-world behaviour, which unfortunately seem to be significantly different.
The Fire Group at Edinburgh was represented by a invited paper (written by Guillermo & Nicolas) in the first session “General papers and reviews”. The talk, entitled “Solid ignition at high fluxes”, presented the numerical results of solid ignition to explain the unexpected trend in the time to ignition at high heat fluxes (up to 200 kW/m²) in PMMA samples. Results support that the mechanism causing this is in-depth radiation absorption.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Marianne Foley on BBC Woman's Hour
On Monday 8th June, the day before she and her team won the 40th MacRobert Award, Fire Group alumnus Marianne Foley was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
You can listen to the interview here [mp3 | 8 minutes | 3.7 Mb].
Many Congratulations!
Many congratulations to Dr Guillermo Rein (the main contributor to this blog!) and Dr Blanca Antizar-Ladislao (our colleague who works in Environmental Engineering) who are both getting married next month; though not to each other! Guillermo and Cecile are getting married in Edinburgh on the 4th of July, while Blanca and Juan are getting married in Spain a week later.
Blanca & Guillermo at the IIE end of term celebration, Wednesday 17th June 2009.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Alumnus wins UK's biggest engineering prize
Former Univ. of Edinburgh Fire Group member Dr Marianne Foley is part of the team that wom the 40th MacRobert Award, the UK's biggest prize for engineering innovation in Arup's visionary Beijing Aquatic Centre, known as the Water Cube.
Dr Marianne Foley is now a Senior Associate and Fire Safety Specialist in the Arup's Sydney Office. She has been awarded for her innovative work on the Water Cube by the National Association of Women in Construction, the Fire Prevention and Fire Engineers Journal in the UK, and also internally within Arup (the Margaret Law Award for Excellence in Fire Engineering).
Marianne graduated with an MEng at the University of Leeds and then joined the University of Edinburgh to do a PhD in Fire Safety Engineering under the supervision of Prof Dougal Drysdale - thesis entitled "The use of small scale fire test data for the hazard assessment of bulk materials". The project was supported by EPSRC and HSE (the Buxton Laboratory). After graduation in 1995, Marianne stayed on for a couple of years as an Research Associate, continuing with the project.
Follow this link to hear Marianne’s interview on BBC Woman’s Hour.
Dr Marianne Foley is now a Senior Associate and Fire Safety Specialist in the Arup's Sydney Office. She has been awarded for her innovative work on the Water Cube by the National Association of Women in Construction, the Fire Prevention and Fire Engineers Journal in the UK, and also internally within Arup (the Margaret Law Award for Excellence in Fire Engineering).
Marianne graduated with an MEng at the University of Leeds and then joined the University of Edinburgh to do a PhD in Fire Safety Engineering under the supervision of Prof Dougal Drysdale - thesis entitled "The use of small scale fire test data for the hazard assessment of bulk materials". The project was supported by EPSRC and HSE (the Buxton Laboratory). After graduation in 1995, Marianne stayed on for a couple of years as an Research Associate, continuing with the project.
Follow this link to hear Marianne’s interview on BBC Woman’s Hour.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Short Review of 4th European Combustion Meeting, Vienna, April 2009
by Dr Albert Simeoni, University of Corsica and University of Edinburgh.
The 4th European Combustion Meeting (ECM) was held in Vienna on 14-17 April 2009, organised by the Vienna University of Technology.
It covered most aspects of combustion science and technology, from fundamental physics and chemical kinetics (laminar and turbulent flames, combustion diagnostics, gasification, spray and droplet combustion) to energy systems and technological topics (burners, coal & biomass combustion, oxyfuel combustion, fires, fluidized bed combustors).
The conference was attended by more than 300 delegates, including many students. The conference was structured as the previous ECM meetings around poster presentations and plenary lectures only (no paper presentations). Plenary lectures were given on the following topics:
• Co-firing biomass with coal in fluidized bed combustion systems (Prof. Nevin Selcuk).
• High power density engines - combustion diagnostic challenges and solutions in the industrial engine development process (Dr. Ernst Winklhofer).
• Developments and Applications of Laser Techniques for Combustion Diagnostics (Prof. Marcus Alden)
• Detailed Chemical Kinetic Mechanisms for Combustion (Dr. Henry Curran).
• Chemical Looping Combustion: The Answer to Sequestering Carbon Dioxide (Dr. John S. Dennis).
I found two main advantages in this meeting: the number of delegates and the discussions in front of the posters. The number of delegates – covering almost all topics and research groups involved in combustion in Europe and aboard – made the work presented very diverse and of high quality. The 2:30 long posters sessions, with the possibility to walk around six different exhibitions classified by topic, allowed having good discussions with new and fresh ideas as the work was often presented by PhD students.
The Group in Edinburgh was represented by the work on forest fires conducted in collaboration with the University of Corsica. At the beginning of the fire session, few people stopped at the poster and of these, many were surprised to see such an original topic (forest fires) in ECM. However, after an hour, when people seemed to had seen what was presented in their own topics of expertise, they came back with plenty of questions on our poster and we had good discussions until the end of the session.
This meeting allowed us to have a global and updated view on the work conducted in Europe and very good interactions. The only regret is related to the organisation as some aspects of it, for example the registration procedures and the catering, did not match our expectations.
The 4th European Combustion Meeting (ECM) was held in Vienna on 14-17 April 2009, organised by the Vienna University of Technology.
It covered most aspects of combustion science and technology, from fundamental physics and chemical kinetics (laminar and turbulent flames, combustion diagnostics, gasification, spray and droplet combustion) to energy systems and technological topics (burners, coal & biomass combustion, oxyfuel combustion, fires, fluidized bed combustors).
The conference was attended by more than 300 delegates, including many students. The conference was structured as the previous ECM meetings around poster presentations and plenary lectures only (no paper presentations). Plenary lectures were given on the following topics:
• Co-firing biomass with coal in fluidized bed combustion systems (Prof. Nevin Selcuk).
• High power density engines - combustion diagnostic challenges and solutions in the industrial engine development process (Dr. Ernst Winklhofer).
• Developments and Applications of Laser Techniques for Combustion Diagnostics (Prof. Marcus Alden)
• Detailed Chemical Kinetic Mechanisms for Combustion (Dr. Henry Curran).
• Chemical Looping Combustion: The Answer to Sequestering Carbon Dioxide (Dr. John S. Dennis).
I found two main advantages in this meeting: the number of delegates and the discussions in front of the posters. The number of delegates – covering almost all topics and research groups involved in combustion in Europe and aboard – made the work presented very diverse and of high quality. The 2:30 long posters sessions, with the possibility to walk around six different exhibitions classified by topic, allowed having good discussions with new and fresh ideas as the work was often presented by PhD students.
The Group in Edinburgh was represented by the work on forest fires conducted in collaboration with the University of Corsica. At the beginning of the fire session, few people stopped at the poster and of these, many were surprised to see such an original topic (forest fires) in ECM. However, after an hour, when people seemed to had seen what was presented in their own topics of expertise, they came back with plenty of questions on our poster and we had good discussions until the end of the session.
This meeting allowed us to have a global and updated view on the work conducted in Europe and very good interactions. The only regret is related to the organisation as some aspects of it, for example the registration procedures and the catering, did not match our expectations.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Fire Engineers' Car Fire up in Flames: a case study
...and on a more personal note, a car fire. The car I was driving last night 'spontaneously ignited' (we think it was a short-circuit - even though that's the general flimsy excuse for when people don't know how fires started, in this case, it IS highly plausible!).
I started by seeing smoke coming off the bonnet. We opened the window and it smelt like smoke. We got out and through the side slit I could see flaming inside the bonnet (I think it started behind the left head light). Luckily we had lots of water in the boot. We started dowsing the bonnet in water but the handle for opening the bonnet was broken so I couldn't get it open.
After two 5 litre bottles of water and no apparent change to the fire, I stood back to call the fire brigade while Dr. Cowlard braved the fire and continued emptying bottle after bottle of water over the hood...nevertheless, he soon spotted flames 'licking' out of the left tyre cap and told me to "get away from the car, now!". Since we were far down a winding dirt track we had to run down and station ourselves at two main turn-offs along the route from the main road to show the fire trucks where to go...I stayed at the closer turn-off and soon saw Dr. Cowlard whiz past, hanging out of a fire truck window. Apparently, by the time the fire crew got to the car, the flames were ~1.5m high off the bonnet. Luckily the fire was extinguished within minutes and hadn't spread past the bonnet and left tyre, but they had to open the hood with a crow bar!
I've attached photos of the 'aftermath'. The poor car is a right-off...luckily the fire brigade arrived when they did as the fields around there are all dry undergrowth!!! We thought we might have to resign from our 'profession', had we started a bush fire!
Anyway - I copied you in on this as before I get rid of the car I was wondering if any more specific photos of it would be useful for anything? Perhaps for the 'fire investigation' course?
Cecilia Abecassis Empis
PhD Student
I started by seeing smoke coming off the bonnet. We opened the window and it smelt like smoke. We got out and through the side slit I could see flaming inside the bonnet (I think it started behind the left head light). Luckily we had lots of water in the boot. We started dowsing the bonnet in water but the handle for opening the bonnet was broken so I couldn't get it open.
After two 5 litre bottles of water and no apparent change to the fire, I stood back to call the fire brigade while Dr. Cowlard braved the fire and continued emptying bottle after bottle of water over the hood...nevertheless, he soon spotted flames 'licking' out of the left tyre cap and told me to "get away from the car, now!". Since we were far down a winding dirt track we had to run down and station ourselves at two main turn-offs along the route from the main road to show the fire trucks where to go...I stayed at the closer turn-off and soon saw Dr. Cowlard whiz past, hanging out of a fire truck window. Apparently, by the time the fire crew got to the car, the flames were ~1.5m high off the bonnet. Luckily the fire was extinguished within minutes and hadn't spread past the bonnet and left tyre, but they had to open the hood with a crow bar!
I've attached photos of the 'aftermath'. The poor car is a right-off...luckily the fire brigade arrived when they did as the fields around there are all dry undergrowth!!! We thought we might have to resign from our 'profession', had we started a bush fire!
Anyway - I copied you in on this as before I get rid of the car I was wondering if any more specific photos of it would be useful for anything? Perhaps for the 'fire investigation' course?
Cecilia Abecassis Empis
PhD Student
BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Fire is a serious natural disaster but not worth much attention??
A survey commissioned by the Society for Fire Protection Engineers and conducted in Feb 2009 reveals that Americans ranked building safety, comfort and amenities higher than fire safety. Only environmental friendliness was ranked below fire.
The survey reveals that 45% believe fire is the natural disasters that will most likely cause harm to them or their family. Included in this list were lighting strikes (18%), hurricanes (15%), earthquakes (12%) and floods (10%).
58% worry about the dangers of fire less than once a year. At the same time, wealthy Americans think about the risk of fire less frequently than those with lower incomes.
More information at "Society of Fire Protection Engineers Release Results of Public Opinion Poll".
The survey reveals that 45% believe fire is the natural disasters that will most likely cause harm to them or their family. Included in this list were lighting strikes (18%), hurricanes (15%), earthquakes (12%) and floods (10%).
58% worry about the dangers of fire less than once a year. At the same time, wealthy Americans think about the risk of fire less frequently than those with lower incomes.
More information at "Society of Fire Protection Engineers Release Results of Public Opinion Poll".
Monday, May 11, 2009
Congratulations to Dr Fletcher for his PhD thesis defense
Ian Fletcher successfully defended his PhD thesis on the 11th of May 2009.
The external examiner was Prof. Ali Nadjai from University of Ulster and the internal was Prof Asif Usmani. The PhD supervisor of Ian is Dr Stephen Welch.
The thesis title is "Tall concrete buildings subjected to vertically moving fires - a case study approach". Ian has published five papers; one review on the behaviour of concrete structures in fire), three papers on the 2005 Windsor Tower fire (2006 SiF, 2006 Fire Safety in Tall Buildings and 2007 Fire Computer Modelling) and a chapter in the book The Dalmarnock Fire Tests: Experiments and Modelling.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Asteroids, Oxygen, Mass Extinctions and Fires
Dr Claire Belcher, Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Plant Palaeoecology and Palaeobiology Group in University College Dublin, is spending two weeks with the fire group to collaborate on the study of the smouldering and flaming behaviour of biomass under low oxygen atmospheres.
Claire’s research interests include mass extinction events, fire ecology and ancient atmospheres with particular interest in using wildfire as a proxy for atmospheric oxygen.
She will give the seminar "Asteroids, Oxygen, Mass Extinctions and Fires" on Tuesday 12 May at 4 pm in the Alexander Graham Bell Bldg. Seminar room (3rd floor).
Abstract:
Fire has been a major influence on Earth’s systems for ~380 million years. Throughout this long history fire has played the role of cause, consequence and catalyst to the development of terrestrial life on Earth. The study of palaeofire can provide a powerful tool to understanding past environmental change. Claire has been working on palaeofire since 2001 where her work has used palaeofire to address a broad diversity of questions. Her talk promises to show how fossil fire can be used to inform us about:
- Ancient fire activity
- Earth’s mass extinction events
- Ancient atmospheric pollutants
- Levels of thermal radiation delivered by asteroid impacts
- Palaeoatmospheric oxygen levels
- Ancient ecosystems responses to global warming
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Short Review of 2nd International Tunnel Safety Forum, Lyon, April 2009
The 2nd International Tunnel Safety Forum for Road and Rail was held in Lyon, France on the 2oth and 21st April 2009. The conference was organised and sponsored by Tunnel Management International.
This conference marked (almost) the tenth anniversary of my first tunnel safety conference, which was the 1st Int Tunnel Fires Conference in May 1999, also held in Lyon and also organised by TMI. That conference fell two months after the fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel and was attended by about 300 delegates. This year's conference was attended by about 110 delegates.
The conference dealt with many topics relating to tunnel safety, split into the following themed sessions: "Standards", "Materials", "CFD", "Smoke & Modelling", "Operations", "Safety", "Fire", "Detection", "Evacuation" and "Extinguishing".
Presentations came from representatives from five continents (none from Africa) and highlighted differences between approaches to safety in different countries.
While the presentations returned to several of the well discussed topics in the field, such as "Critical Ventilation Velocity" - which has been discussed at every tunnel conference I've been at in the past decade - there were some new discussions. The two new modelling topics which were highlights of the conference were "Multi-Scale Modelling" (mentioned in three presentations) and CFD modelling of airflow which included a moving train.
Two of the most interesting presentations, neither of which is in the proceedings, were presented by Bob Allen from the Sydney Harbour Tunnel company. The first discussed fire tests using extraction and suppression systems in the tunnel (efficiency of smoke extraction is highly dependent on position of the fire relative to the extraction points), while the second presented the "Water Screen" stop signs (see picture) which are routinely used to tell overheight vehicles not to enter the tunnel, and may be used to close the tunnel in an emergency.
The two biggest debates amongst the delegates concerned the issue of 'design fires' for ventilation systems and the utility (or otherwise) of smoke exhaust systems. As is often the case at such conferences, the greatest number of papers were devoted to discussing ventilation strategies and designs for various tunnel projects.
I was also expecting a debate on the issue of sprinklers or water mist systems, yet this did not really come to the fore. The session on suppression came at the end of the conference, and many of the delegates were not keen for a big debate at the end.
I came away from the conference with the feeling that there is still plenty more work to be done, but also that we are at a bit of a turning point in tunnel safety practice. We may well have reached the point of highest complexity in tunnel safety systems. On the basis of what I heard at this conference, it wouldn't surprise me if we see a return to simpler safety systems over the next few years - less complex ventilation systems, conventional sprinklers rather than water mists, and systems designed for smaller 'design fires'. but only time will tell.
This conference marked (almost) the tenth anniversary of my first tunnel safety conference, which was the 1st Int Tunnel Fires Conference in May 1999, also held in Lyon and also organised by TMI. That conference fell two months after the fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel and was attended by about 300 delegates. This year's conference was attended by about 110 delegates.
The conference dealt with many topics relating to tunnel safety, split into the following themed sessions: "Standards", "Materials", "CFD", "Smoke & Modelling", "Operations", "Safety", "Fire", "Detection", "Evacuation" and "Extinguishing".
Presentations came from representatives from five continents (none from Africa) and highlighted differences between approaches to safety in different countries.
While the presentations returned to several of the well discussed topics in the field, such as "Critical Ventilation Velocity" - which has been discussed at every tunnel conference I've been at in the past decade - there were some new discussions. The two new modelling topics which were highlights of the conference were "Multi-Scale Modelling" (mentioned in three presentations) and CFD modelling of airflow which included a moving train.
Two of the most interesting presentations, neither of which is in the proceedings, were presented by Bob Allen from the Sydney Harbour Tunnel company. The first discussed fire tests using extraction and suppression systems in the tunnel (efficiency of smoke extraction is highly dependent on position of the fire relative to the extraction points), while the second presented the "Water Screen" stop signs (see picture) which are routinely used to tell overheight vehicles not to enter the tunnel, and may be used to close the tunnel in an emergency.The two biggest debates amongst the delegates concerned the issue of 'design fires' for ventilation systems and the utility (or otherwise) of smoke exhaust systems. As is often the case at such conferences, the greatest number of papers were devoted to discussing ventilation strategies and designs for various tunnel projects.
I was also expecting a debate on the issue of sprinklers or water mist systems, yet this did not really come to the fore. The session on suppression came at the end of the conference, and many of the delegates were not keen for a big debate at the end.
I came away from the conference with the feeling that there is still plenty more work to be done, but also that we are at a bit of a turning point in tunnel safety practice. We may well have reached the point of highest complexity in tunnel safety systems. On the basis of what I heard at this conference, it wouldn't surprise me if we see a return to simpler safety systems over the next few years - less complex ventilation systems, conventional sprinklers rather than water mists, and systems designed for smaller 'design fires'. but only time will tell.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Visit by Dr John Watts and seminar on Fire Risk Analysis
Dr John Watts, Director of the Fire Safety Institute (USA) and Adjunct Professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo (Canada), will give the seminar "Some Aspects of Fire Risk Analysis" on Friday 8 May in the Alexander Graham Bell Bldg. Seminar room.
Dr Watts is a graduate from the University of Maryland and the University of Massachusetts. He has been employed by the fire insurance industry and as a fire fighter, Assistant Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland (USA) and fire investigator. He spent a sabbatical year in 1979-1980 here at the Fire Safety Engineering group at the University of Edinburgh. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Fire Technology and co-editor of the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering.
Seminar:
Some Aspects of Fire Risk Analysis
by Dr Jack Watts
What is fire risk analysis? This presentation will identify concepts of risk analysis with specific application to fire safety engineering. While FSE can be considered an adolescent engineering discipline, there is a hundred year history of fire risk assessment. We will look at some of today’s fire risk models that take many forms ranging from simplistic utilitarian to computationally complex. An example of mathematical modeling of fire risk is presented that integrates stochastic elements into the currently popular engineering approach of performance-based fire safety evaluation. Broad conclusions are drawn that relate to a spectrum of engineering disciplines.
Friday, April 24, 2009
1st Prize at Graduate Lecture in Fire Engineering
Many congratulations to Johan Hjertson and Sam Collins for beening awarded the 1st Prize at the 2009 Graduate Lecture competition of the Institution of Fire Engineers. Their MEng thesis is on the fire safety design for a building at high altitude and enriched oxygen atmospheres and included fire tests conducted in Puno, Peru, at 3801 m altitude.
This year the Graduate Lecture was hosted by Arup at their Solihull Campus, Birmingham.
The Graduate Lecture provides a showcase for the excellent research being carried out by Fire Engineering students in their Graduate year, with cash prizes awarded. The event attracts Fire Industry employers seeking to recruit, offering career opportunities for young Fire Engineers.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Short report on the FRT09 Fire Retardant Technologies 2009
By Freddy Jervis, BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Fire Retardant Technologies 2009 (21 - 23 April) hosted more than 120 delegates and was held at University of Central Lancashire in Preston, North West of Manchester, UK. It was organized by Speciality Chemicals and Applied Materials Chemistry Groups of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The 3 day event showed 18 presentations and 22 posters and included optional visits to tour Leighs Paints Intumescent Coating Test Facility, Bodycote Warrington Testing Laboratories and UClan Fire Reasearch laboratories.
As can be inferred from the title, the focus of the conference was current research done and in progress regarding fire retardant technology. The overall organization of the talks was well planned, providing a solid introduction into fire retardant technology following with current and emergent technologies and then focusing on testing and environmental concerns of these materials. The conference focused heavily on the chemical side of fire engineering prioritizing on the interaction of molecules in the gaseous phase in order to prevent ignition and toxicity of these materials. Some descriptions were given on the current testing methods for fire retardant and various materials were presented showing how they perform in these tests.
Judging from the presentations I attended, the majority of the work being undertaken on flame retardants is on studying the effects on ignition of a small size material sample exposed to some sort of heating. There is a fair amount of research carried out on the toxicity of these materials and how these could adversely affect lives of people during a fire but the common consensus seems to be that as long as ignition is prevented, worrying about later effects should be less important. Some of the presentations did go into detail of how new materials are assessed describing this as a long and financially heavy process for new materials to be introduced as well as some aims in order to reduce toxicity, and the banning some of the halogen based materials currently used.
Overall, I did find the conference to be very informative on how fire retardants are currently established and implemented and some of the research undertaken. As I said before; however, due to a large focus being on the chemistry of the fire, little interest seems to be put on assessing the fire behaviour (e.g. looking at the flame spread rate). Although there was some results concerning the evolution of the heat release rate, all work was just at the small scale. There was some presentations that showed inadequacy of certain tests used to assess the fire behaviour of the material and its ignitability; however, little seems to be actually done in this area by the retardant industry.
I appreciate the financial support from BRE Trust and BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering to attend this conference.
Freddy Jervis
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Prof. Torero is new Chair of Fire Safety at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Prof. Jose Torero is the new Chair of the Fire & Safety Working Group at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).
The CTBUH, founded in 1969, is an international not-for-profit organization supported by architecture, engineering, planning, development and construction professionals, designed to facilitate exchanges among those involved in all aspects of the planning, design, construction and operation of tall buildings.
The role of the CTBUH Fire & Safety Working Group is to provide a genuine international cross discipline working party that can review current research and offer guidance and support from the basis of supporting tall building design for the sake of developers, tall building designers and local code enforcement agencies. This is essential under the resurgence of interest in Fire and Life Safety of Tall Buildings following the events of 9/11, but also stimulated by the current vogue in building design to reach greater heights than ever before with schemes of increasing complexity and architectural merit.
The CTBUH profile of Prof Torero says:
José Torero is currently BRE Trust/RAEng Professor of Fire Safety Engineering, Head of the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment and Director of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. José has authored a book in computational methods for fire safety engineering, more than 20 book chapters and more than 300 technical publications in a broad array of subjects associated to fire safety engineering. He has conducted work on prescriptive and performance based design, forensic fire investigation and product development, conducted detailed structural response to fire, fire resistance evaluation, material selection, life safety analysis, smoke evacuation, detection and alarm design as well as standard and advanced fire suppression systems. José was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and awarded the Arthur B. Guise Medal by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (USA) in 2008, both in recognition of eminent achievement in advancing the Science of Fire Protection. He has participated in landmark projects like the NASA Space Shuttle Hangars in Florida, the 80 storey Heron Tower in London, the Clyde and Dartford Tunnel fire safety design, the investigations of the WTC 1, 2 and 7 collapses, the Madrid Windsor Tower Fire, the Texas City and Buncefield Explosions as well as the Ycua Bolanos supermarket fire.
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