Transcript The Hot Challenges of Fire and Its Simulation

Recent Trend in Fire Research
by
Professor Jennifer X Wen
School of Engineering
Kingston University
Mankind has learnt to make use of fires
more than 1.7 million years ago, far
earlier than many scientists have
assumed……
(Science News, April 29, 2000)
The Firewalks
Are human
mind and body
more powerful
than the fire?
The Kings Cross Fire
- Wednesday 18th November 1987
The Bush Fires in Australia
The World Trade Centre Fire
“It takes a disaster to make one
cautious”
(Eddie Foy, 1903) -
a well-known entertainer who
made this remark after witnessing the Iroquois Theatre Fire in
Chicago which killed 602 people in just 8 minutes.
Relative impact of fire among
different nations (Richardson 2000)
Impact of Global Fire Problem
Country
United States
Canada
Japan
Sweden
United Kingdom
Fire Costs as % of
GDP*
0.80
0.91
0.78
0.63
0.66
Some further statistics for USA
from a 1991 survey

The total loss of life and injury to fire had
decreased over recent decades;

Still high with 4000 deaths, including about 100
fire fighter deaths, annually;

100,000 debilitating fire injuries;

Direct fire losses to property today are over $10
billion

The total economic burden of fire turned out to be
a whopping $128 billion.
Brief History of Fire Research





World war II
The National Bureau of Standards (USA) was
founded in 1901 and its Fire Research Program
started shortly after that.
The Building Research Establishment’s (UK)
Fire Research Station established in 1948
The 1st Int. Symp. on Fire Safety Science held
in 1986
– The Int. Association for Fire Safety Science was
founded at the Symp.
The 8th Int. Symp. to take place in China 2005
Definition of Fire
by the International Standards Organisation (1987)

A process of
combustion
characterized by
the emission of
heat accompanied
by smoke or
flame, or both.

Combustion
spreading
uncontrolled in
time and space
The Fire Triangle
H W Emmons (Harvard University 1973)
FUEL
Transfer
Processes
HEAT
Oxygen
Fire Physics and Chemistry

Materials - ignition, fire retardant properties,
flame spread…

Smoke - toxicity and toxic hazard, visibility
through fire smoke, smoke spread …

Risk, hazard and statistics

Suppression

People and fires - Human reactions
The Forum for International
Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM

Established in 1985.

15 members

The FORUM meets annually and co-hosts a national
symposium for bringing international attention and
expertise to issues concerning the advance of fire safety
engineering in the host’s country.

Past symposia have addressed issues such as advancing
fire safety engineering, performance- based codes, and
developing fire research capacity.
from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan,
New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the
United States and 24 corresponding members.
The Forum for International
Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM

GOAL
– Reduce the human and economic losses to
fire,
– Reduce the burdens of fire and fire safety on
business and multi-nationals,
– Open access to global markets for product
manufacturers,
– Reduce risk exposure,
– Enable deregulation/reform, and leverage
scarce resources,
– Enhance the public good and quality of life.
A GLOBAL AGENDA FOR
FIRE RESEARCH

The FORUM proposes as a strategy for
accomplishing this goal the following
steps:
– Form Global Network and organization
to service it.
– Develop the Global Fire Research
Agenda.
– Develop participation in and financial
support of it.
– Form collaborative teams to carry out
the research and deliver results.
Objectives of Research Agenda and
Major Research Topics

1. Incident and risk data, and supporting
infrastructure
– Web-based data - incident, denominator, and cost;
– Risk modeling tools;. . .

2. Facilitate development of innovative products
and services
– Better, lower cost, lower loss, e.g. designer polymers,
advanced composites, with demonstrated value added,.
..

3. Develop tools for product acceptance and
differentiation
– Test methods and standards that are scientificallybased, harmonized, and with legacy links;
Objectives of Research Agenda and
Major Research Topics

4. Develop improved fire protection and fire
fighting technologies
– Advanced suppression, sensing, control; Suppressant
delivery; Fireground tools & electronics, advanced
equipment.. .

5. Enable and promote performance- based codes
and regulations.
– Verified quantitative tools and models, data,
demonstrations, value added, consistency.. .

6. Provide human objectives and behavioural data
and tools
– Desired/acceptable levels of risk, values
– Fire & risk perceptions; behaviors, tenability, motivation,. . .
Objectives of Research Agenda and
Major Research Topics

Conduct use-inspired fundamental fire
research to support above.
– Mechanisms, Fire dynamics,
Consequences, ...
The Forum for International
Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM

SOME NOTABLE PRODUCTS
– A survey of computer-based fire model written by Ray
Friedman of Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FMRC)
in 1990/1
– Initiated cooperative research projects involving a number
of member institutes, e.g. Heat flux measurement (NIST)
– International Council for Research and Innovation in
Building and Construction (CIB) Working Commission W14
on Fire
– International Organization for Standardization (EO)
activities
The Forum for International
Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM

Past Chair (1984-2001)– Jack
Snell, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA

Current Chair (2001 onwards) –
Paul Croce, Factory Mutual Global, USA.
Technical Basis for Performance Based Fire
Regulations - A Discussion of Capabilities, Needs and Benefits
of Fire Safety Engineering January 7-11,2001, San Diego, CA.

Paul Croce made a speech on the future of fire
research in which he called for
“USE-INSPIRED APPLIED RESEARCH”
Fire Research Networks

United Kingdom
– Fire Engineering Research Networks (FERN, led by
Prof. Jim Shields of Univ. of Ulster)
– Human Behaviour Fire Engineering Research
Networks (HUBFERN, also led by Prof. Jim Shields)
– Fire Chemistry Research Networks, led by Dr.
Richard Hull of Bolton Institute)

Europe
– Research Training Networks in Under-Ventilated
Compartment Fires (FIRENET, led by Prof. Jennifer
Wen, Kingston University)
Some outcome from these
networks

A joint research proposal on Fire-Safe
Composite Materials by Design - a Feasibility Study
– Bolton Institute, Kingston University, University of Edinburgh and
University of Ulster

Another joint platform proposal is under preparation.
Backdraft Experiments at Lund University
(sub-contractor in EC funded FIRENET project)
Under-ventilated Compartment Fires
- 1.5 m Euro EC Funded Project
Participants
Institution/Company
Town and country
Person in charge
Kingston University
London,United
Kingdom
Prof. JX Wen
(Co-ordinator)
Iceland Fire Authority
Reykjavik, Iceland
Dr. B Karlsson
University of Ulster
Belfast, United
Kingdom
Prof. TJ Shields
CNRS – ENSMA - Poitiers
Futuroscope,
France
Dr. JM Most
Universita of Napoli
“Federico II”
Napoli, Italy
Prof. CD Blasi
University of Liege
Liege, Belgium
Prof. JM Franssen
National Technical
University of Athens
Attiki, Greece
Prof. NC Markatos
AEA Technology
Oxfordshire, United
Kingdom
Lund, Sweden
Dr. I P Jones
Lund University
Sub-contractor for
IFA
Compartment Fire Experiments at LCD-CNRS
(Ensma-Poltiers, Partner in FIRENT)
Class ification of the behavior s
PERMANENT JET FLAM ES
l at er al v ie w
( ca me ra 1 )
CYCLIC FLAM ES
l at er al v ie w
( ca me ra 1 )
ce il ing
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
ce il ing
d oo r
b urner
d oo r
b urner
d oo r
b urner
Permanent J et Flame
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
ce il ing
l at er al v ie w
( ca me ra 1 )
b urner
b urner
f ro nt v iew
( ca me ra 2 )
Cyc lic Flame Behavior
d oo r
Jet Flame and
Cloud of Flame
EXTINCTION
INTERF AC E FLAM ES
d oo r
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
b urner
b urner
d oo r
Ghost Flame
Inte rfac e yellow -blue Flame
d oo r
bo tt o m vi ew
( ca me ra 3 )
l at er al v ie w
( ca me ra 1 )
ce il ing
b urner
b urner
Permanent C loudy
Flame between
burner and aperture
f ro nt v iew
( ca me ra 2 )
b urner
d oo r
Clouds of Flame with
Yellow Interface Flame
Sporadic Flame Propagation
in the e nclosure bac kground
3rd International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazar ds
Behaviour of Glazing Systems in Enclosure Fires
(FireSERT, University of Ulster - partner in FIRENET)

Galzing response
experiments

New £6 m Fire Safety
Engineering Research Facility
The World Trade Centre Fires
11 September 2002

NIST (USA) was given $6M to investigate the
resulting fires from the aircraft impact and the
collapse of the towers
Recovered World Trade Center Steel
from NIST Investigation of the World
Trade Centre Fire

Key Findings (1) –
Innovative Structural System

The fire protection of a truss-supported floor system by
directly applying spray-on fireproofing was innovative
and not consistent with prevailing practice at the time
of construction.

The fireproofing thickness (specified to meet a 2-hour
fire endurance rating) was 1/2 inch at construction and
was upgraded on some floors to 1-1/2 inches prior to
Sept. 11, 2001.

Unrelated to the WTC buildings, a model code
evaluation system service recommended in June 2001 a
minimum thickness of 2 inches for a similar floor
system to achieve the 2-hour fire rating.
Key Findings (1) –
Innovative Structural System (cond.)



The three-to-four-fold difference (between 1/2 inch and 2
inches) in specifying the fireproofing thickness to meet the
required fire rating is extraordinarily large and confirms
the lack of technical basis in selecting a thickness.
While the building designers recognized the benefits of
conducting a full-scale fire endurance test to determine the
required fireproofing thickness, no such tests were
conducted on the floor system used in the WTC towers
(NIST will be conducting this test later this summer).
If a “structural frame” approach (considering that the floor
truss was connected to the interior and perimeter columns,
essentially forming a single structural unit) had been used,
the needed fire rating would likely have been 3 hours, as it
was for the perimeter columns alone.
Computer Simulations of World Trade
Center from NIST Investigation of the
World Trade Centre Fire

Key Findings (2) –
NIST computer simulations

Flames in a given location lasted about 20 minutes
before spreading to adjacent, yet unburned combustibles,
and that this spread was generally continuous because of
the even distribution of combustibles throughout the
floors and the lack of interior partitions.
Key Findings (3) –
NIST commissioned wind tunnel tests

The results of two sets of wind tunnel tests on
the WTC towers conducted by independent
laboratories in 2002 show 40% differences in
resultant forces on the structures.

NIST is conducting an independent analysis to establish
the baseline performance of the WTC towers under the
original design wind loads and will compare those wind
load estimates with the then-prevailing code
requirements.
More findings can be found at the
NIST web site
 http://www.wtc.nist.gov
