A novel study was done using a designed 6.7L chamber for experiments under both enclosed and ventilated conditions. Under enclosed condition, for LIB (li-ion battery) above 0% SOC (state of charge), the cases ruptured. Above 50% SOC, an explosion was even triggered. Though the analysis of collected gas from the enclosed condition, the flammable gas (i.e., CH4, CO) concentration increased as SOC increased

This paper presents a method for determining the optimal (in terms of fire-suppression effectiveness) composition of synergistic binary fire suppressants consisting of a chemically active inhibitor (e.g., trimethylphosphate) and an inert diluent (CO2). The method is based on the numerical simulation of the speed and structure of one-dimensional premixed CH4/air and methyl methacrylate/air flames with

The Thread-fixed One-side Bolt (TOB) is the bolt that can be installed from outside of a steel tube column, which is anchored by the threads on the bolt hole wall instead of the nuts. A series of tests were carried out to investigate the shear behavior of the lapped connection bolted by TOBs using both the steady state fire tests and the transient state fire tests. The two observed failure modes of

The main objective of this paper is to explore evacuees’ behaviour during an unannounced fire drill using data collected in two office buildings located at CERN, in Switzerland. Overall, a total of 142 pre-evacuation time measurements, 121 evacuee walking speed measurements in staircase configurations, and 336 evacuee walking speed measurements on floor configurations are included in the dataset. These

In the present study, downward flame spread over multiple parallel fuel sheets is investigated experimentally and numerically to understand the mechanism that controls the flame spread process and compare that with the flame spread over a single fuel sheet. A 2D numerical model, based on OpenFOAM is used to simulate the flame spread in a natural convective environment under normal gravity. The model

In the fire safety part of Eurocode 2, material properties for conventional concrete (CC) up to a strength class of C 50/60 and high performance concrete (HPC) of strength classes C 55/67 to C 90/105 are provided. These given values were derived from experimental investigations of heated components based on the thermal exposure of the ISO 834 standard fire. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has

In order to conduct a thorough evaluation of fire situation in China in recent years, a comprehensive analysis is conducted in this paper of the fire statistics in China from 1997 to 2017, using four basic indexes: the number of fires, deaths, injuries and direct loss. In addition, the state of large-scale fires is summarized and the fire situation over these years is evaluated using the principal

Emergency exit signs used in buildings aid occupant wayfinding during an emergency. However, research suggests that conventional signs lack the ability to attract people's attention in an emergency. This can result in the underuse of emergency exits and the overuse of main entrances with potentially fatal consequences. The effectiveness of signage depends on their ability to draw occupants' attention

The Grenfell Tower and Lakanal House fires in London in 2017 and 2009 highlighted how these devasting events mainly affected people from ethnic minorities. While many studies have explored the role of socio-demographic variables in residential fires, ethnicity or race have received only marginal research attention. To redress this imbalance, this paper specifically addresses rate and severity of residential

A liquid pyrolysis model was implemented into Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to predict burning fluxes in multicomponent pool fires. The model was validated against steady-state pool fire data for ethanol-water, ethanol-isopropanol, and ethanol-hexane mixtures. Simulations were also compared to transient ethanol-heptane pool fire data from researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science in Hefei

This paper improves the existing frameworks on simulating fire following earthquake (FFE) by explicitly modeling the suppression process and the fire department response. The paper focuses on the impacts of FFE on urban areas and quantifies induced economic losses based on resources and efficiency of the fire department during post-earthquake fires. Layers of infrastructure systems, including transportation

The ignition of hydrogen-air mixtures can cause intense explosions. To ensure the safe utilization of hydrogen fuel and prevent catastrophic explosion accidents, the inhibiting effect of flame inhibitors must be understood since they have important consequences for hazard analyses. In the present study, the detonability of hydrogen mixtures diluted with CF3I, H2O, CO2, and N2 is investigated using

This paper investigates the effects of ullage height (distance between the fuel surface and the pool upper rim) on heat feedback and combustion emission mechanisms of heptane pool fires. Results showed that ullage height significantly influences the flame structure and fuel mass loss rate. The incident radiative heat flux to the fuel surface and its heat feedback fraction first increase and then decrease

This paper presents validation and evaluation of usefulness of three non-advanced methods in EN 1992-1-2 used to determine the load-bearing capacity of columns under fire conditions: the method A, the isotherm 500 °C method, and the zone method. To verify the usefulness of these methods, experimental results for columns tested in the fire laboratories in Ottawa, Braunschweig, Liege and Ghent were used

The effectiveness of a fuelbreak, created in a homogeneous grassland on a flat terrain, was studied numerically. The analysis relies on 3D numerical simulations that were performed using a detailed physical-fire-model (FIRESTAR3D) based on a multiphase formulation. To avoid border effects, calculations were carried out by imposing periodic boundary conditions along the two lateral sides of the computational

Although automatic fire alarm (AFA) systems are vital technologies for informing building occupants of a fire, each year Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) responds to tens of thousands of unwanted AFA activations; equating to approximately 97% of all call-outs. The aim of this study was to estimate the economic burden of false AFA system activations by using data collected in NSW for the period 2008–2018

This paper presents a probabilistic analysis method to explicitly include the influences of fire service intervention (FSI) in structural reliability analysis of unsprinklered buildings exposed to fire. The method considers different scenarios of fire behaviour following FSI, based on probabilistic analysis of the current UK fire data to estimate different components of intervention time, size of the

This paper presents the results from a comparative study on the residual bond performance of epoxy and cement-bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement to concrete interfaces that experienced different levels of elevated temperature exposure. In total twelve groups of concrete beams strengthened with CFRP sheet and grids of the same tensile stiffness, through epoxy and cement-based

Cold-formed steel (CFS) columns are subject to distortional buckling unlike hot-rolled steel columns. Many experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted on the distortional buckling behaviour and capacity of CFS columns at ambient and elevated temperatures. However, constitutive laws of CFS at ambient and elevated temperatures are different with varying levels of nonlinear stress-strain

To assess the inhibitory effect and mechanism of Al(OH)3 powder on the flame propagation from a polyethylene dust explosion, tests were conducted in a vertical transparent tube. The results show that the addition of Al(OH)3 powder has a significant effect on the polyethylene dust explosion flame structure and propagation characteristics. With increasing mass ratio of Al(OH)3 powder, the polyethylene

Elderly people are a high-risk group when it comes to fire in their homes and interventions are needed. A needs assessment regarding fire safe behaviour was conducted to 1) establish the perspectives of adults aged 65 years and older concerning fire-related topics, and 2) inform the design of fire safety programs. Qualitative interviews were conducted to study fire safety knowledge and fire safe behaviour

Many fire models have been proposed to investigate structural response to fire, where fire is considered as a structural “load” and the structural response determines the “resistance” offered by the structure. Where the term “resistance” is used with its physical meaning and is not restrained by its standard application. Over the course of time, fire models have evolved from simply using the highest

Experiments have been conducted on a variety of lithium ion batteries to measure their energy output in thermal runaway. Techniques were developed to measure the internal energy release as decomposition of the battery takes place, and combustion energy that can arise from ignited battery gases released in runaway. A nitrogen bomb calorimeter was designed, constructed and utilized to measure the internal

Simulating evacuation behaviour in fire emergencies is an increasingly important method for assessing design to mitigate the likelihood of life losses. To date, several approaches have been used to predict the pre-evacuation time (i.e. time between the first alarm or other initial cue until the moment an evacuee starts moving toward a safe place) using distribution functions or evacuation decision

The objective of this paper is to provide experimental results related to the elevated temperature performance of connections between cold-formed steel members and sheathing. Cold-formed steel building structures rely on sheathing for their mechanical benefits including bracing against member twist, global flexural and flexural-torsional buckling, and cross-section distortional buckling, as well as

The prevalent use of organic materials in manufacturing is a fire safety concern, and motivates the need for predictive thermal decomposition models. A critical component of predictive modeling is numerical inference of kinetic parameters from bench scale data. Currently, an active area of computational pyrolysis research focuses on identifying efficient, robust methods for optimization. This paper

Boron compounds are effective ingredients, widely used in passive fire protection. In this work, epoxy-based hydrocarbon intumescent coatings, containing one of three boron compounds, zinc borate (ZB), ammonium pentaborate (APB), and boric acid (BA), were compared in thermal insulation performance at UL1709 heating conditions, char morphology, viscoelastic behavior, thermal degradation, and composition

Sensors simulate the response of human skin in the thermal environment and therefore play a crucial role in the prediction of the skin burn injury for the evaluation of the thermal protective clothing. In this study, a skin simulant is developed by Macor® material to mimic the surface thermal properties of human skin. The developed skin simulant is then used in the test method for radiant protective

This biomechanics study explored stride length (SL), stride duration (SDN), the peak of gait ground reaction forces (GRFspeak), required coefficient of friction (RCOFpeak), joints’ angle (anglepeak), angular velocity (angvelx peak), angular acceleration (angaccx peak), minimum angle (anglemin) of foot, and muscle electromyography (EMG) during the dominant leg stance phase (SP) following an exhaustive

Fire safety is one of the major design issues of tunnel engineers. Longitudinal ventilation is a common method for exhausting smoke and hot gases in tunnel fires. The minimum ventilation air velocity along the tunnel to prevent smoke back layering is called the critical velocity. This critical velocity is the key element in designing the longitudinal exhaust system. Several researchers have studied

For structural steel components protected by spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRMs), variations in the thermal properties and thickness of SFRM may influence steel temperatures during fires. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of the influence of assumed thermal properties and thickness of SFRM on predicted steel temperatures in fire. For this purpose, material test data in the literature

This paper investigates the structural response of laminated glass beams under combined fire-exposure and sustained in-plane loading. This is done by means of experimental testing and Finite Element (FE) numerical modelling. Firstly, small-scale (1 m long) laminated glass beams are tested under thermal exposure and in-plane loading on a small fire resistance test furnace. From the test results it can

Abstract Aluminum alloy shells are increasingly used in public buildings as a supporting structure for roofing enclosure construction in large spaces. In performance-based fire protection design, an empirical design criterion of 150 oC and relevant empirical formulas are used; however, the safety margin and prediction effect are not verified through full-scale experiments, and therefore, the effect

Abstract Based on the performance of Q550 (yield strength fy = 550 MPa) high-strength steel, mechanical property tests at room temperature and elevated temperatures were first carried out. Second, fire tests were carried out on 8 unconstrained Q550 high-strength steel columns with rectangular sections under axial compression. The mechanical properties and failure modes of high-strength steel columns

Fires are considered one of the most devastating accidents that could occur within a building. However, existing fire detection systems result in late fire detection or produce a high false alarm rate due to the complex patterns and temporal dynamics found in sensor signals that come from the various types of fires. This paper develops a novel fire detection algorithm that is based on multiple sensors

Water droplets and soot serve as important scattering media during fire suppression. From this standpoint, the present study sought to develop a method to determine the effect of soot smoke on the thermal radiation shielding performance of water mist. The radiative properties of single-diesel and propane soot particles and water droplets covered by soot were evaluated using the Mie scattering theory

Carbon fiber composites are a staple in aircraft manufacturing due to their enhanced physical properties and reduced mass compared to metal alloys. In the event of a mishap where these composites are subject to high heat, such as in a fire, resin char and carbon fibers in composites have been shown to oxidize and smolder. The smolder properties and emissions byproducts of aircraft composites are not

In this work the discharge process of a fire extinguishing agent through a pipe is studied. Particularly, Halon 1301 is considered, an halocarbon that is introduced in bottles pressurized by nitrogen. Nitrogen dissolves in Halon at high pressure, so the bottle contains a multicomponent liquid. Moreover, the discharge process typically entails phase change leading to three different discharge steps

In order to better interpret the fire-induced pressure variation in air-tight compartment fires, the present paper discusses the energy balance equation starting from a commonly used form, taking into account the mutual influence between compartment pressure and ventilation behavior. The obtained pressure formulation, under certain assumptions, can explain the observed linear relationship between pressure

Focusing on convective heat transfer modelling upward flame spread scenarios, different methods for calculating the convective heat fluxes are explored. These approaches involve: 1) calculating convective heat transfer based on the stagnant film theory; 2) using a simplified approach based on the stagnant film theory; 3) using Nusselt correlations for natural convection; and 4) modelling convection

In this paper, we present an experimental study at laboratory scale of a wind driven fire entering a lateral canyon perpendicular to the main fire spread direction. This study is inspired on a multiple fatalities accident occurred in Armamar (Portugal), in 1985. The laboratory experiments show an eruptive fire behaviour inside the canyon. A rapid increase in the rate of spread and intensity of the

For any construction material, failure during or after the decay phase of a fire is possible, notably due to delayed temperature increase and material properties degradation. As mass timber construction is increasingly proposed for large buildings, there is a need to better understand the susceptibility of timber members to fire decay phases. This paper investigates the resistance to full burnout of

A street-intercept survey was carried out among citizens of the Netherlands in order to gain insight into people's perceptions in regard to various topics linked to fire services. Students conducted questionnaires among 247 respondents (residents over the age of 18 from Dutch municipalities). The various fire services topics in the questionnaire were ‘prioritisation of fire service duties’, ‘response

The safety during prescribed burnings could be achieved by conducting these operations under marginal conditions of fire propagation. This type of fire can or cannot propagate on account of small deviations of the burning conditions, mainly the wind speed, the fuel load, and the fuel moisture-content. In this context, numerical simulations of grassland fires were conducted under marginal conditions

An experimental study with 72 specimens was conducted to determine the effects of various factors on the mechanical behaviours of grouted sleeve connections, including an increase in temperature from 20 °C to 600 °C, the loading regime (uniaxial tensile loading or cyclic loading), and the grout compressive strength (83.1–91.1 MPa). After the specimens were exposed to elevated temperatures of up to

The individual and combined effect of a water mist system (WMS) and longitudinal ventilation (LV) on the fire HRR, smoke temperature and back-layering (BL) degree were explored in a 3 m (width)×2.2 m(height)×30 m (length) tunnel model. A series of 39 tests has been conducted in 6 configurations, varying the velocity, water volume flow rate and nozzles arrangement. When the WMS or LV is imposed individually

Steel structural elements with cold-formed thin-walled sections are increasingly common in building structures due to their high strength-weight ratio. These elements can provide adequate resistance to different action efforts, such as bending, axial compression, or compression and bending. Lipped channel sections are the most commonly used sections because the application of sigma sections increase

Ordinary non-tempered glass is one of the most widely used materials in the construction industry. Knowing its fire resistance is essential to ensure the safety of emergency personnel as its failure increases the oxygen supply and causes a rapid spread of the fire (flashover phenomenon). Existing approaches for evaluating the structural fire safety of glass façades require expensive experimental tests

It has been known for a long time that older adults suffer a significantly higher risk of dying in residential fires compared to younger people. The characteristics of these fatal fires and the fatalities are also well known. However, less is known about older adults who survive fires and how they differ from those who die. This distinction can be assumed to be of great importance when designing effective

This experimental study highlights the confinement effect on a flame impinging a ceiling in confined or semi-confined environment. The enclosure used in this study represents a 1:10 scale model of a student compartment with two possible openings: a door and a window. It is developed based on the conservation of the Froude number in scaling law. The objective of this work is to provide explanations

The objective of this paper is to investigate the rate-dependent thermal behavior of fillet welds in welded lap joints subjected to different load angles. Performance of welds in fire is complex due to unexpected induced forces that are developed due to different fire-time exposures. To address this issue, an experimental program is performed to examine the rate-dependent behavior of fillet welds for

The dripping of thermoplastic fuels is a significant fire hazard, but the complex dripping-ignition process is still not fully understood. In this work, we investigate the ignition capability of continual polyethylene drips with the size of 2.6-4.6 mg and the frequency of 0.3-1 Hz. These flaming drips land on four groups of materials, cardstock papers (>0.1 mm), thin papers (≤0.1 mm), cotton, and porous

The paper presents the numerical study of tubular square T-joints under fire conditions. The sequentially coupled thermal-displacement numerical model was proposed to examine the performance of square hollow section (SHS) joints. The developed finite element (FE) model was validated against available experimental test results and applied to study the influence of dimensionless parameters on the strength

Standardized testing procedures and experimental studies in fire safety science specify repeat trials in an effort to minimize the impact of statistical variation on the presented results. Bench-scale flammability testing procedures typically require a constant number of trials – generally a total of three – across all experimental conditions. A series of experiments was conducted to quantify the influence