Fire Science Show

Episode 50! Time to celebrate, and for this one we have a surprise. A mysterious host takes over the show to interview a wind and fire modelling celebrity...

Ok, this should be enough to not reveal everything once the show notes get auto-posted on all social media :) I am super happy for multiple reasons. You guys were with me 50 times on my way to share fire science with everyone who wants to listen. You have downloaded my content 25.000 times. And finally, I get to share with you some of my own science. Could not be happier! Thank you so much to Guillermo Rein for creating this opportunity for me.

I hope that the subject of my work is interesting to you. I have some papers to share, along with the most important ones that were mentioned in the episode. Psst...some of them are behind a paywall but I am MORE THAN HAPPY to share the copies with you, just send me a request through my ResearchGate profile :)

• Wind and Fire Coupled Modelling part 1 - Literature Review
• Wind and Fire Coupled Modelling part 2 - Best Practice Guidelines
• Hala Koszyki Case Study
• Worked out example of wind and fire study for SFPE PBD 2016
• Roof aerodynamics and natural ventilators
• Our first real wind and fire study! How wind changes performance of natural vents.

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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.

So we all know batteries burn... but do we know what exactly does burn? What is inside this tiny metal cylinder that scares so many of us? We try to understand it a bit more with Dr Francesco Restuccia of Kings College London, who is an expert in battery fire safety and self-heating. And this combination of skills gave him a unique view of the challenges of fire safety of batteries - especially the ones that are stored in warehouses and not fueling anything. Francesco takes me on a journey into the world of cathodes, anodes and electrol... I mean battery juice.  Knowing what is inside and why it burns is fundamental to understanding how can we protect the world from the risks arising from Li-ION batter technology. And I hope this podcast episode is a concise introduction to this!

And here is a paper choice curated by Francesco, containing the important papers discussed within the episode (because we discuss real science here! :))

1. X. He, C. Zhao, Z. Hu, F. Restuccia, F. Richter, Q. Wang, G. Rein. The effects of heat transfer on accelerating rate calorimetry of thermal runaway of Lithium-ion batteries, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, VVol 162, 2022, pp
   684-693. 
2. X.He, Z. Hu, F. Restuccia, H. Yuan, G. Rein. Self-heating ignition of large ensembles of Lithium-ion batteries during storage with different states of charge and cathodes, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol 197,  2021, 117349.
   
   
3. Z. Hu, X. He, F. Restuccia, G. Rein. Anisotropic and homogeneous model of heat transfer for self-heating ignition of large ensembles of Lithium-ion batteries during storage, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol 197, 2021, 117301. 3
4. P. Christensen, Z. Milojevic, M.S. Wise, M. Ahmeid, P.S. Attidekou, W. Mrozik, N.A. Dickman, F. Restuccia, S.M. Lambert, P.K. Das. Thermal and mechanical abuse of electric vehicle pouch cell modules, Applied Thermal Engineering,
   Vol 189 2021,116623
5. L. Diaz Bravo, X. He, Z. Hu, F. Restuccia, M. Marinescu, J. Barreras, Y. Patel, G. Offer, G. Rein. Meta-review of fire safety of Lithium-ion batteries: industry challenges and research contributions, Journal of the Electrochemistry
   Society Vol 167 090559, 2020. 
6. X. He, F. Restuccia, Y. Zhang, Z. Hu, X. Huang, J. Fang, G. Rein. Experimental study of self-heating ignition of lithium-ion batteries during storage: effect of the number of cells, Fire Technology, Vol 56, 2020, pp 2649–2669

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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.

Did you know first car parks were built for electric vehicles? Or what clever techniques can be used to model the spread of fire between vehicles? Or what challenges scientists meet burning vehicles, and why pneumatic suspension makes stuff more interesting... These (and much much more) are the things you learn by inviting Mike Spearpoint of the OFR for a lovely chat about design fires in car parks, and car parking infrastructure in general. 

But wait for it, there is much more. The hidden underlying message about the broadness of fire science, and the holistic view on how certain compartments are used today (and how it differs from their past use). Delightfully refreshing point of view! Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

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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.

Pressurization is a common strategy for protecting spaces against the infiltration of smoke. However, the solution has a kind-of bad press as "not-working" or "incapable to meet its design goals". We know, that the systems are as good as their design, and in this episode with my guest, Grzegorz Sypek, we try to bust some myths around PDS systems. We touch on the important design points and the properties of modern solutions available in the market. We also discuss the standardization of PDS systems in Europe, giving a glimpse into incoming EN 12101-6 and EN12101-13.

If you seek help with the design of pressurization systems for your buildings, feel free to contact Grzegorz @ [email protected] 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teknolink-gsypek/

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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 week we do something funny - a crossover episode with the host of the Fire Code Tech podcast - Gus Gagliardi. We end up discussing the paths of fire safety engineers, from school to specialized roles in engineering companies, and the challenges associated with that.  

We hope you liked this twist to the podcast, and maybe discovered a new show to follow up!
If you want to hear a familiar voice, you can start with this episode https://firecodetech.com/research-smoke-control-systems-and-cfd-with-wojciech-wgrzyski featuring yours truly :)

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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.

How does one decide when a building is fire safe? That is a real hell of a question to answer! Is it when no harm can occur? But such a condition can never be fulfilled... there is always a meteor waiting around the corner to fall into your building! So if some situations can occur for which we cannot prepare, when do we decide we are 'safe enough'? 

This is the tough question we try to decipher together with prof. Ruben van Coile and prof. Danny Hopkin. It is an inspiring journey, and you can trust me on this - at the end the episode gets even better!

Also, Danny was kind enough to curate this fantastic list of resources for you to read, if you would like to build a more complete idea on the concepts of risk and safety:

1. D. Hopkin, R. Van Coile, and L. David, ‘Certain Uncertainty-Demonstrating safety in fire engineering design and the need for safety targets.’, SFPE Europe, 2017
2. R. Van Coile, D. Hopkin, D. Lange, G. Jomaas, and L. Bisby, ‘The Need for Hierarchies of Acceptance Criteria for Probabilistic Risk Assessments in Fire Engineering’, Fire Technol, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 1111–1146, Jul. 2019
3. R. Van Coile, D. Hopkin, and D. Lange, Guest Editorial: Probabilistic Methods in Fire Safety Engineering. Springer US, 2019
4. R. Van Coile, N. Elhami Khorasani, D. Lange, and D. Hopkin, ‘Uncertainty in Structural Fire Design’, in International Handbook of Structural Fire Engineering, K. LaMalva and D. Hopkin, Eds. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021, pp. 323–411
5. D. Hopkin, I. Fu, and R. Van Coile, ‘Adequate fire safety for structural steel elements based upon life-time cost optimization’, Fire Safety Journal, p. 103095, May 2020
6.  R. Van Coile, G. Jomaas, and L. Bisby, ‘Defining ALARP for fire safety engineering design via the Life Quality Index’, Fire Safety Journal, vol. 107, pp. 1–14, Jul. 2019
7.  D. Hopkin, M. Spearpoint, and R. Van Coile, ‘The J-Value and Its Role in Evaluating Investments in Fire Safety Schemes’, Fire Technol, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 1547–1564, Nov. 2018

Also, keep your eyes open for the next edition of SFPE Handbook where my guests are publishing a new chapter on "Economics and Decision Making in Fire Risk Analysis"

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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.

Since Episode 6, the fire safety of battery systems was not very much visible in the show - a good time to change that! And we do this with a  true legend of fire safety - Ofodike Ezekoye. In the last year, I have learnt a lot about battery systems, which did not make me more afraid. Entirely opposite - the more I know, the more confident I am in fire science and engineers finding solutions for any outstanding issues with this emerging technology. In this episode, we go through the challenges at different scales of the battery system - from the chemistry of cathode, anode and electrolyte, through challenges in manufacturing and quality control, battery management systems up to the scale of whole off-grid systems. Each presents unique challenges. Each is a place of ongoing innovation. 

But the most important, IMHO, is to look at the threat holistically. Even if we remove all the intrinsic dangers of energy storage, the batteries may still be there when a fire starts for other reasons... We may be able to contain the 'thermal' threats, but are we looking for solutions to the smoke? And what to do with billions of already existing batteries that we deal with everywhere in our lives... All these questions got answered here, so you don't want to miss this episode!

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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.

It is always a pleasure to interview a true legend of fire safety. And when the topic of the interview is their thoughts on neglected areas of our discipline, based on almost five decades of experience? This must end up great! And it did (IMHO).

Please join me and prof. Vyto Babrauskas in discovering what are the parts of fire science that are in need of research. What are some obvious solutions, that I think we all acknowledge, but for some reason, we do not have? What are the dead ends and missing links... And how many of the ideas go to sleep for decades, just to be rediscovered as the field matures.

Please learn more about prof. Babrauskas on his webpage: www.doctorfire.com and his scientific paper repository at ResearchGate

The paper mentioned by Vyto - Some Neglected Areas in Fire Safety Engineering  

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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.

We all understand the dangers of smoke inhalation in fires. But what about the site of the fire a few days after it was put out? It looks clean, maybe even lost the smell... Is it something to worry about, or you can rush straight in, wearing your shorts and a t-shirt? Well, I guess I would not be that reckless, but if I can be honest - I don't think I would care that much about protecting myself either... At least that was me before the talk to dr Gavin Horn from UL FSRI.

Gavin spent more than a decade investigating the environment of post-fire scenes. And these places are where many of us work, almost on daily basis. Firefighters, investigators, fire researchers, constructors and demolished... And the scenes do certainly hide some threats within. In this episode you will learn a lot about them, and how these threats change as the environment evolves. More than that, Gavin is a pretty down-to-earth guy and does not imply you should dress for an investigation in a NASA space suit. You have to balance the risks related to contamination through inhalation and absorption, with risks of overheating, falling or cutting yourself, and as well with the capability to do the actual work wearing PPE. That is not the kind of discussion I get with my own H&S experts, and I appreciate this smart and holistic view a lot.

To learn more about the environment of fire scenes, you MUST read this excellent paper by Gavin Horn et. al. Airborne contamination during post-fire investigations: Hot, warm and cold scenes

You may also want to enter the gold mine of resources that Gavin has shared with me:

• UL FSRI resources on fire investigations
• University of Illinois Fire Service Institute
• Online training resources at UL FSRI

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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.

How reliable are sprinkler systems? Is it 100%? Is it 95%? Maybe it is 88%... actually, whatever the number is, do we truly understand what does it represent? What does it mean that a sprinkler has succeeded and what does it mean it failed. These are the questions that were behind my today's interview with Arnstein Fedoy.  You may remember Arnstein from his short appearance in episode 26 . This time, we've had the whole episode for this discussion, and I must say it was well invested hour on my side.

If you would like to learn more about sprinkler reliability, Arnstein also wrote a book exclusively on this topic:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9780429287503/reliability-data-fire-sprinkler-systems-arnstein-fed%C3%B8y-ajit-kumar-verma

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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.