The UK's Building Safety Act requires high-risk buildings to maintain comprehensive fire safety cases - living documents that identify hazards, mitigate risks, and establish clear accountability for building safety. This is the subject of my discussion with Chris Mayfield and Martyn Ramsden from OFR.

• Safety cases differ from fire strategies by being owned by the building's accountable person rather than consultants
• The Principal Accountable Person must take responsibility for preventing fire spread and structural failure
• Safety cases must document hazards, protective measures, and management systems
• The approach draws from lessons in high-hazard industries following disasters like Piper Alpha
• Safety cases should follow a logical structure: building description, safety management, hazard identification, safety measures, emergency procedures, and conclusions
• Bow tie diagrams help visualise threats, consequences, and barriers in a way all stakeholders can understand
• For new buildings, safety cases integrate with the "gateway" approval system
• Existing high-risk buildings (over 18m/7 stories with 2+ dwellings) must have safety cases ready for inspection
• When properly implemented, safety cases create cultural change by helping everyone understand their role in safety

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Professor Xinyan Huang from Hong Kong Polytechnic University shares his expertise on battery fires and the various experimental methods researchers use to trigger thermal runaway events under controlled conditions.

• Terminology matters - "thermal runaway" more accurately describes battery failure than "ignition" as the critical reactions occur inside the cell
• Nail penetration testing is widely used but contains surprising complexities, including nail material, penetration depth, velocity and battery orientation
• Mechanical abuse tests (crushing, dropping, squeezing) simulate real-world accidents but often lack repeatability
• Thermal abuse via heating typically targets 200°C surface temperature using methods including flame exposure, electrical coils, and laser heating
• Electrical abuse through overcharging (150-200% SOC) significantly increases risk, while poor-quality charging equipment creates additional hazards
• State of charge plays a crucial role in how batteries respond to abuse tests
• New research aims to bridge the gap between micro-scale material testing and cell-level testing

Professor Huang is organising the 4th International Symposium on Lithium Battery Fire Safety (ISLBFS 2025) in Hong Kong from October 30th to November 2nd - the largest battery fire safety conference in the world.

I intended to link Xinyan's papers on batteries, but there is 19 of them!?! Let me link the most recent ones:

• Dynamic thermal runaway evolution of Li-ion battery during nail penetration
• Modeling liquid immersion-cooling battery thermal management system and optimization via machine learning
• Laser-induced thermal runaway dynamics of cylindrical lithium-ion battery
• Effect of thermal impact on the onset and propagation of thermal runaway over cylindrical Li-ion batteries
• A Review of Battery Fires in Electric Vehicles
• Alleviation on battery thermal runaway propagation: Effects of oxygen level and dilution gas

Cover image source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2024.111337

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Welcome to another Fire Fundamentals. This time the episode is focused on various extinguishing technologies. Invited guest - Bogdan Racięga, Director at Baltic Fire Laboratory and expert in fire protection systems breaks down the fundamental differences between suppression and extinction technologies and how they work in real-world applications.

• Clear distinction between suppression systems (control fires while meeting temperature criteria) and extinction systems (must completely extinguish fires)
• Types of fire protection systems including water-based (sprinkler, water mist), foam, aerosol, and gas systems (no fire-balls :))
• Technical parameters affecting performance: K-value, nominal working pressure, RTI, discharge areas
• Areas of application, eg. why water mist systems can often be preferred for high-rise buildings due to smaller piping and reduced weight
• How temperature ratings and RTI affect sprinkler activation timing and performance
• Challenges with concealed sprinklers including maintenance issues and delayed activation
• Testing procedures for water distribution patterns and certification processes
• Differences between high-pressure and low-pressure systems in various applications
• nuances related to the role of an accredited laboratory (ISO 17025) and a certification body (ISO 17065)

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Jet-fan systems effectively control smoke in car parks by creating directed airflows that transport smoke from one point to another, similar to how longitudinal ventilation works in tunnels. These systems offer cost-effectiveness and simplicity by eliminating ductwork while providing powerful smoke management capabilities when properly designed and understood.

• Jet Fans create momentum transfer through air entrainment rather than directly moving smoke
• Two distinct operational modes exist: smoke clearance (reducing thermal stress) and smoke control (maintaining clear firefighter access)
• Systems require careful balancing of extraction capacity with Jet Fan thrust force
• Optimal design typically requires CFD modeling followed by hot smoke testing for verification
• Jet Fan activation timing presents challenges for evacuation - usually delayed until occupants exit
• Systems excel in tunnel-like geometries but struggle with complex layouts (the "Tetris rule")
• Particularly effective against heavier-than-air gases like LPG or EV battery fire emissions
• European standards now available through EN 12101 family for design guidance

If you need design assistance with Jet Fan systems for your projects, email me directly at [email protected]. 

Further reading:

- Jet-Fan Systems in Car Parks Design Methods: an Overview and Assessment of Performance

- Our in-depth multiparametric study on car park ventilation

- A. Król and M. Król, Study on numerical modeling of jet fans

- Thunderhead's guide to modelling jet-fans in FDS

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

This episode explores the invaluable contributions of community participation in fire safety technical committees. Joining committees is not just about sharing expertise; it’s a journey that transforms careers and fosters growth. Our guests, Birgitte Messerschmidt and Kees Both, reveal how their experiences in various committees, including the NFPA, ISO, ASTM and CEN, have shaped their professional paths. 

As we dive deeper into the intricacies of committee politics, our guests candidly share the challenges and rewards of engaging in this important work. They emphasize how participating in committees enhances one's career and contributes to the greater good by improving fire safety standards. This is an essential discussion for any engineer, especially those starting their careers, as they navigate the complexities of working with diverse stakeholders.

If you just felt inspired to join a committee, please look here:

• https://www.sfpe.org/membership-communities/standingcommittees
• https://www.nfpa.org/for-professionals/codes-and-standards/standards-development/technical-committees/committees-seeking-members
• https://www.cencenelec.eu/get-involved/small-and-medium-enterprises-smes/tools-for-smes/getting-involved/

Or just shoot us an email, or reach out at LinkedIn. We will help you out!

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

With the emergence of electric vehicles, fire safety and dynamics have entered a new domain, raising crucial questions about existing protocols, design fires and data gaps. Today, our Wojciech Wegrzyński welcomes Zahir, Associate Prof. at University Putra Malaysia, to discuss the findings from their latest papers, compare methodologies, and highlight the differences between traditional combustion engines and electric vehicles. 

The conversation covers various topics, from the nuances of fire dynamics to the importance of context in risk assessment. Zahir shares his extensive experience studying vehicle fires, including the evolution of electric vehicle dynamics that users should never ignore. With thought-provoking insights, this episode emphasises the increasing need for robust, comprehensive data regarding car fires and the unique challenges posed by electric vehicles. 

Join us in this engaging exploration of fire safety science, and don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review!

Papers! PAPERS:

Miechówka & Węgrzyński: Systematic Literature Review on Passenger Car Fire Experiments for Car Park Safety Design

Zahir & César Martín-Gómez: Evaluating Fire Severity in Electric Vehicles and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles: A Statistical Approach to Heat Release Rates

Podcast episode 135 - Contemplating a car park design fire

(and the paper by J. Hodges from last year is here)

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Badania przedstawione w odcinku podcastu omawiane przez dr Wojciecha Węgrzyńskiego przeprowadzono w projekcie realizowanym an podstawie umowy UMO-2020/37/B/ST8/03839 do projektu badawczego nr 2020/37/B/ST8/03839 pt. Skutki oddziaływania wiatru na pożary budynków w wieloparametrycznej ocenie ryzyka z wykorzystaniem metod numerycznych.

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

This episode emphasises the value of focusing on simple things in fire safety engineering, something we somehow miss when we go too deep into the technical details of our projects. I've looked at eight different aspects of fire safety - inspired by the CPR requirements, and I've added resiliency, redundancy and suppression to them. By promoting straightforward guidelines like evaluating material combustibility, ensuring effective egress routes, and engaging with rescue services, architects and engineers can significantly enhance building safety practices. 

In this episode, we talk about:
• Simple methods yield effective fire safety solutions 
• Importance of adhering to foundational fire safety principles 
• CPR’s five essential requirements for construction safety 
• Load-bearing capacity and material combustibility considerations 
• Strategies for minimising fire spread between structures 
• Importance of clear egress pathways for building occupants 
• Opportunities for enhancing rescue team safety via communication 
• Emphasis on redundancy and resiliency in fire safety systems 

Each foundational principle allows fire safety practitioners to implement effective strategies that can lead to safer buildings and improved occupant outcomes.

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

In this episode of Fire Fundamentals, together with Dr Sara McAllister, we dwell on how stuff burns... And it is far from an easy question. While the general theme of the episodes is porous fuels, we discuss them from different angles, highlighting the similarities and differences between foamed and permeable materials.

In this episode, we cover:

• role of permeability, entrainment and forced flows through porous fuel beds;
• differences in physical properties between porous materials and their bulk forms;
• ignition (flaming and smouldering) of porous fuels;
• natural and artificial fuels, open and closed cell fuels;
• hazards specific to porous fuels in wildfires and in building fires;

And also a bit of discussion on future research of Dr McAllister along with the need for canonical tests to characterize their flammabaility.

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Can a tiny amount of bio-protective coating completely change the fire behaviour of mass timber logs? If you asked me that some time ago, I would say it would probably be neutral.

Can a 0.5 x 0.5 m free-standing log of timber smoulder through without any external exposure to fire? If you asked me that some time ago, I would say no, and base that on observations of dozens of logs like this.

Yet, in Australia they’ve burned. And the hypothesis was that it has something to do with the preservative treatment.

My guest today, Wenxuan Wu from The University of Queensland was tasked with researching this problem and showed us the workshop used for this. In this podcast episode, we dive deep into measurements carried out in fire laboratories on the material scale and how use of different methods gradually increases our understanding of the problem. Their pursuit also opened new questsions - for example, why if timber would be subject to a very strong heat flux, the smouldering would not work anymore? This was also answered in the discussion.

If you would like to learn more about Wenxuan’s research, please refer to the published papers:

•  Experimental study on the factors affecting smouldering behaviour of CCA-treated wood
• Deactivation of chromated copper arsenate as a catalyst in smouldering of wood

Also, this talk summarises the best poster at ITB-FRISSBE Summer School. What an event that was. Once again, we would like to thank our sponsors for that!

https://www.itb.pl/2024-summer-school/

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

If we truly want to account for the population at a disadvantage in evacuation, there is only this much we can do with the current approach... Pre-evacuation time distributions, walking speeds, and so on only tell us a part of the story - the story of your average person within an average population, with an average walking speed and average response. While these models are undoubtedly useful in engineering, there is perhaps a better way.

My friend and guest Enrico Ronchi is trying to find this way through his new ERC Consolidator grant, "Egressibility: a paradigm shift in evacuation research". In this grant, instead of following the main path, he is focusing on stuff we do not know - how to characterise disabilities and understand them better (also through the lens of health and medicine), how to quantify the disadvantages at large, and how to solve potential issues for those who those at the largest risk.

In this episode, you will learn about Enrico's ideas and the edge of the knowledge we have today. Some key points covered are:

• Insights on paradigm shifts in evacuation science
• Introduction of the concept of "egressibility"
• Importance of understanding functional limitations in emergencies
• Shift from agent-based models to inclusive data-driven models
• Use of technology, like VR, for immersive research experiences
• Need for changes in regulations for better evacuation safety

You may also like to read the paper by Guylène Proulx, which introduced egressibility as a concept - available here.

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.