Fire Science Show

It's time to learn about "the evacuation equation" from one of its creators. This week I interview prof. David Purser about the elements that go into the evacuation process that help us determine the fire safety of buildings. We go through the components of the Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET) one by one:

• detection time
• alarm time
• pre-movement
• occupant movement and congestion.

We discuss how those were initially defined, what the assumptions behind establishing them as a part of the framework were, and what engineering scenarios they responded to. Prof. Purser explains the similarity behind the "human behaviour scenario" and the "design fire scenario" as both being inaccurate descriptions of the real world but valuable for design.

We also discuss cases in which those simple assumptions perhaps did not hold, such as the complex case of the Grenfell Tower evacuation. We confront the harrowing reality of communication breakdowns and delayed responses, dissecting how they can dramatically alter the outcome of an emergency. This highlights that the methodology is not "ultimate" and it is up to the engineer to understand the complexities of the process and the weak aspects of it.

The method described in this episode forms the core of PD 7974-6:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Human factors. Life safety strategies. Occupant evacuation, behaviour and condition (Sub-system 6). The method has been implemented in many local codes throughout the world and can today be considered a standard approach in the fire-safe design of buildings.

In the episode, prof Purser mentioned "new data" on pre-evacuation time. In his IAFSS lecture, he mentioned some sources, including this paper by Lovreglio et al. 

Cover image based on a figure presented in paper 10.3390/buildings13123038

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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.

As we close the curtains on 2023, take a walk with me through the unforgettable milestones that have shaped the Fire Science Show. This isn't just a recap; it's a treasure trove of insights and a roadmap to the innovations just over the horizon. We've come so far together, with download numbers soaring and our influence deepening within the fire science community. My gratitude overflows for the steady support from OFR Consultants in 2023, and the future looks very bright with this collaboration continuing into 2024.

I wish you a great 2024!

Oh. The three big things.
The two of them, you can access right now.

Reach the Book of Fire (newsletter signup)

Access the Fire Science Show community at Circle (and reach the Book of Fire there directly!)

And the third one, investigation fire science specials, you will be able to enjoy around Q2 2024!

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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 aboard a journey through the challenges of managing electric vehicle fires at sea with Elena Funk of DBI and Magnus Arvidson from RISE. In this podcast episode, we discuss two large projects devoted to understanding how we can mitigate, suppress and manage EV fires - project Elbas at DBI and project Lash Fire at RISE. Even though the aim of those were ferries and ro-ro ships, the findings are very important and relevant for civil infrastructure like car parks or tunnels.

In the episode, we discuss following technologies:
- fire blankets
- punctuating and injection devices
- water curtains
- low pressure water mist
- drenched systems.

As you can see, we cover a large group of technical solutions used to mitigate and suppress fires. In the episode, you will learn about the challenges related to each of them. We also go into general observations done during the test, also related to the growth and reignition of the fires.

If you would like to learn more, you need to go to the project websites:
ELBAS project at DBI
Lashfire project at RISE

If you want to find Elena's webinar, you can do it here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ms-hansen_firesafety-evparkinggarages-webinar-activity-7134936860115525632-mETf

And also, Elena told me after the recording:
One important aspect of fire extinguishment I did not mention on the podcast yesterday is water toxicity after extinguishment.   

RISE, Jonna and colleagues have shown that when the water is applied directly on the battery you get increase in release of certain elements (e.g. PFAS).

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c08581

I think this is a very important observation, and I need to an entire episode on that.

Cover photo credit: DBI project ELBAS,  DBI-ELBAS-FIXFU21008 

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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 is an important episode. Our guest for today, UK fire engineer Mary Button, who uses a wheelchair herself, shares some of her own stories and feelings describing the reality for many disabled individuals. Drawing from her own experiences, Mary shares invaluable insights into the cognitive complexities individuals with mobility issues face, physical barriers, and psychological burdens related to the fire evacuation process. But most importantly, I think we touch on the essence here of how the building features disable people and how a shift in your mindset can help you design a more human-friendly (in consequence, people with disability-friendly) environment.

As we venture deeper into this enlightening conversation, we uncover the role of accessible building design in fire safety. Learn how technical aspects such as ramps, door widths, and pressurization systems can make a difference in ensuring safe evacuation. We also question the reliance on evacuation lifts and trained personnel, emphasizing the need for more independent and equal access solutions. 

 By the end of this episode, you’ll have a broader understanding of the importance of inclusive fire safety planning and strategies and the need for greater awareness and empathy towards individuals with disabilities. 

Mary was also very kind to send me some materials. Here they are with her short comment:
The post below discusses why giving a number of potentially disabled people in the population is complicated but also provides a figure from the WHO. I've also linked to the UK government report, which links to statistics on disability prevalence by type in the UK population. Hopefully, these are useful starting points. I've also linked to Erik's Egress Enabler Tool and the accompanying paper.

• https://www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/how-many-disabled-people/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2021-to-2022
• https://zenodo.org/records/7075501#.Y5x-9OzP0bm
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36372652/

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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 part 8 of Experiments that changed fire science series we revisit Cardington (previously covered in part 2 - https://www.firescienceshow.com/078-experiments-that-changed-fire-science-pt-2-bre-cardington-with-tom-lennon/), but this time from the perspective of modeling the structure. My guest prof. Asif Usmani of the HK PolyU takes us on how simplifying the model led them to some fundamental discoveries on the thermo-mechanical response of structures to fires.

We discuss material properties and perhaps their overestimated role in structural modelling. We go into membrane actions and the role of restraints in shaping the response of beams and slabs to thermal loads. And Asif explains to me what this means at a scale of a building frame. Some truly remarkable insights - things that today are perhaps obvious to any structural engineer, but at that time were an unknown fire behaviour. 

Here are some links to the papers related to today's episode:
Cardington
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379711201000376
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143974X01000049
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379711204000116

WTC
https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/1562

OpenSees
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10694-021-01184-0
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xu-Dai-4/publication/283796522_OpenSees-based_integrated_tool_for_modelling_structures_in_fire/links/5647a6b108ae451880ac4f18/OpenSees-based-integrated-tool-for-modelling-structures-in-fire.pdf

Picture credit: British Steel, after "Newman G, Robinson JT and Bailey CG, Fire safe design: A new approach to multi-storey steel-framed buildings, The Steel Construction Institute, Berkshire, 2006" 
Accessed through:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303531122_Shear_panel_component_in_the_vicinity_of_beam-column_connections_in_fire [accessed Dec 06 2023]. 

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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, I am joined by Dr. Carmen Górska from OFR Consultants, the recent IAFSS Phillip Thomas Award recipient for the best paper at the previous IAFSS Symposium. In this interview, we touch on preconceived notions about fire dynamics in timber compartments, and Carmen explains how she has learned the intricate physics behind it. 

The research discussed covers dozens of medium-scale timber (CLT) compartments with different amounts of exposed timber.  The findings relate to the conditions inside (temperatures, heat fluxes), the spatial distribution of the temperature and oxygen within the compartment, charring rates, self-extinction conditions, and external venting fires. 

If you would like to learn more from Carmen, here is her TEDx talk on mass timber, where she explains WHY we need research like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXnKRD2EU4&t=1s
And here is the award-winning paper: https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85084762058&origin=resultslist
And here is Carmens' PhD Thesis, which goes much deeper into the topic:  https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_ec263ab/s4408332_final_thesis.pdf

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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 today's episode, we go into the practical consequences of having an underventilated fire - that is the possibility of backdraught or other similar smoke explosion phenomena. My guest Dr Ricky Carvel from the University of Edinburgh, touches on the chemistry of combustion, explaining why the underventilated fire is different than the oxygen-rich one, and how flammability limits are critical in understanding dynamic phenomena that may occur in a fuel-rich environment. We go into conditions in which backdraughts occur, and how establishing flow-path or reducing smoke layer temperatures may be a way to mitigate the risk. Finally, Ricky shares on some future plans on how to give firefighters a real tool to assess the risk of backdraught.

And of course, we had a ton of fun with the movie Backdraft, and to some extent the American spelling of the word.

Some additional resources:

• Polish firefighters and door implosion video (around the 8th minute mark)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztrmC8o2UhU
• The videos we created for firefighters can be found here: https://fire.eng.ed.ac.uk/techtalks
• Our short backdraught video from YouTube:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRoKckpJmE
• The Slo-Mo Guys backdraft (sic) video:
  https://youtu.be/ZyCCWuO0mQo?si=NHKkG82clnPOTPbV
• Two of our papers on backdraught/backdraft (FT uses American spellings!):
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.04.003
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-019-00914-9
  
  
  

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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.

Dear friends of the Fire Science Show, and listeners of the Smart Passive Income Podcast - today is some sort of a special broadcast. As I have just been featured in THE podcast https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/shows/spi/ I've chosen to create a lightweight episode on what Fire Safety Engineering is. I hope this is interesting to people who never heard about the term and a great reflection on what we do to all who practice the world's best job.

I'm unraveling this together with our esteemed guest, Dr. Ricky Carvel from the University of Edinburgh.  

Ever wondered about the role of fire safety engineers in technology? Or maybe you're curious about the future challenges posed by complex structures. This episode addresses these concerns and more, taking you on a journey through the multi-disciplinary nature of this vital field. We highlight the growing demand for fire safety engineers in areas like informal settlements and the wildland-urban interface and discuss the evolution of fire-related education. We also shed light on the success of the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering program. 

If you look for more interesting episodes for a general audience, here you can find them: https://www.firescienceshow.com/category/interesting-for-general-audience/

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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.

Dear friends, I am building something new for you. Something that should be very useful, something that I wish I had when I started my journey as a fresh fire safety engineer. And I’ve reached a point where I’m comfortable sharing it is being built and that the first useful version will be available by the end of the month.

So what is this mysterious thing?

I’ve named it “The Book of Fire” (please let me keep the origin of the name story for another occasion 😊) and it will be an online collection of resources for fire safety engineers. It will be built as an online course, with different types of material spread over different “modules” and “lessons”. This approach allows me for flexible management of the content, and for you - it means easy access to any module at any time you want.

Oh, and did I mention the cost? Thanks to JVVA Fire and Risk cooperation, this resource will be freely available for anyone, as long as it is maintained.

In the podcast episode, you will hear the reasons behind building this resource, as well as some technical aspects of it. And most importantly, the dates. The open beta access is planned to open on November 27th, and the tentative launch date is December 20th. During the beta period, I hope to receive some critical feedback so that the final product is the best version of the course I can make. And hopefully, The Book of Fire will become a handy companion to many fellow fire engineers out there.

If you want to sign up for the beta launch, please use the form at https://thebookoffire.com

Fire Science Show podcast is produced in partnership with OFR Consultants.

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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.

I'm known for my rant about critical velocity concept in tunnel ventilation systems, and I tried to really control myself and not go into podcast with it :) But in recent weeks, when I was enjoying sake at IAFSS in Tsukuba two important things happened. We have received the PASCAL award from the Polish Ventilation Association for the best ventilation design in Poland - our S2 Warsaw Ring tunnel project. The second was the invitation from the Conference of European Directors of Roads to talk about my view on challenges in tunnel ventilation. So it seems our design in this space gets some appreciation, and people want to listen to this...

Here we go. In order to train for my talk in front of Road Administrators of Europe, please let me outline some challenges related to smoke control in tunnels. What are we designing for? How does air travel in the tunnel and what makes it move? What components do we need to consider, and how to turn it into a risk-based approach? And finally, what do we need to advance into the future?

I hope the episode is nice not just for tunnel engineers, but everyone who has to deal with ventilation or design fires, as it has some very fundamental concepts in it. I also promised some links, so make sure to check:
- The car park and tunnel podcast episode collection, where you can find episodes I've been mentioning in the show
- A study on airflows induced by vehicle movement in road tunnels by the analysis of bulk data from tunnel sensors - a grand study with my friends Aleksander & Gosia Król, which gives an explanation for many forces acting on the flow in the tunnel. The good news is that a much more advanced paper is now submitted and pending review. Fingers crossed!!!

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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.