Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Safety and Fire Engineering'
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Johansson, Henrik. "Decision analysis in fire safety engineering : analysing investments in fire safety /." Lund : Univ, 2003. http://www.brand.lth.se/bibl/1027.pdf.
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Xiao, Xuefeng. "Quality assurance in fire safety engineering." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/11624.
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This thesis is a study of the theory of quality assurance in fire safety engineering. The aims are to examine the implication of the general concepts of quality and quality assurance in the context of fire safety engineering, to investigate the causes and effects of the development of quality assurance in fire safety engineering firms, and to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of the quality systems in these firms. Research was carried out on four major perspectives: (1) quality definition of fire safety systems in buildings (2) quality assurance in fire safety engineering projects, (3) quality assurance in fire safety engineering firms, (4) the macro quality assurance system in fire protection industry. A model for defining quality of fire safety systems in buildings is described. Features of quality assurance in fire safety engineering are identified. A systematic approach for assuring quality in fire safety engineering projects is proposed, which consists of total system quality planning, sub-system quality planning, and quality management systems in fire safety engineering firms. The investigation found that the driving forces for fire safety engineering firms to adopt quality assurance come from client's need, market competition, development of certification schemes, and the business development strategy of the company. Research data suggests that fire safety engineering firms have gained benefits through the implementation of quality assurance. However, the effectiveness of quality systems is affected by a number of factors both internal and external.
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Hakkarainen, Tuula. "Studies on fire safety assessment of construction products /." Espoo [Finland] : Technical Research Centre of Finland, 2002. http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/publications/2002/P459.pdf.
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Kim, Soo Woong. "Formal fire safety assessment of passenger ships." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2005. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/5658/.
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Fire has been a major cause of ship's accidents throughout maritime history. It is by far the most serious threat to life and the environment as passenger ships get larger and more sophisticated. It is also impossible to protect a passenger vessel against all hazards. Despite the fact that a passenger ship contains potential fire hazards in the engine room space, accommodation zone and electrical systems, etc, the single most important fire hazard onboard a ship may be the man himself, either unintentionally or intentionally. 'Fire safety on passenger vessel' has continued to be the focus of attention on passenger ships. The work described in this thesis is concerned with the application of Formal Fire Safety Assessment to passenger ships. The traditional way of conducting a Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) employs typical fire safety analysis methods that require a certain amount of data. Most fire accident data available for passenger vessels is associated with a high degree of uncertainty and considered to be unreliable. As such, the research carried out in this thesis is directed at the development of novel fire safety analysis methods to address this problem. This thesis proposed several subjective fire safety analysis methods for passenger vessels within the FSA methodology. Also, it concentrates on developing an advanced approach for passenger ships. A few novel safety analysis and synthesis methodologies are presented to integrate fire safety assessment with decision-making techniques so that fire safety can be taken into account from the concept design /operation stages of passenger ships. This is to ensure a more controlled development process permitting decisions regarding design and operation to be made based on fire safety assessment. Finally, this thesis is concluded by summarising the results of this research project and the areas where further effort is required to improve the developed methodologies.
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Silcock, Gordon William Henry. "Some contributions to the further development of fire safety engineering." Thesis, University of Ulster, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310041.
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Rbehat, Diana Suleiman Eid. "Development of pyrolysis models of composite materials for fire safety engineering." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2015. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/11805/.
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The one-dimensional pyrolysis computational tool ThermaKin was used to predict the thermal decomposition behaviour of widely used synthetic polymers (polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE)) with and without additives, in order to investigate the suitability of ThermaKin for novel fire retarded samples, under different thermal and fire conditions. The thermal decomposition of materials was investigated using simultaneous thermal analysis technique (STA) coupled with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) at different heating rates and atmospheres. The results show that thermal decomposition of PP follows single mass-loss step, without formation of residue in nitrogen. It was also found that the pyrolysis shifted towards higher temperature with increase of heating rate at different atmospheres. ThermaKin fitted the TGA curves very well. The thermal decomposition behaviour of polypropylene grafted with 5wt% of maleic anhydride (MA), and reinforced with 5wt% of closite 20A as nanoclay (PP-gMA/NC) was also investigated. The main conclusions from this data are that during the thermal decomposition in different atmospheres, TGA curves showed a single step of decomposition process for all samples. The effect of clay is more pronounced during thermal oxidation. In N2 and air, a two-step reaction mechanism was fitted the experimental curves fairly well. The thermal decomposition of PE, pure and reinforced with different types of carbon fillers (single/multi wall carbon nanotubes, carbon fibres, carbon black and single/few layers of graphene nanosheets), at different loadings (0.1, 0.5 and 1 wt%) and atmospheres were investigated, to determine their suitability as potential fire retardant additives. Results showed that thermal decomposition of PE and its composites/nanocomposites followed a single mass-loss step at a range of temperatures, with no residue formation in N2. The DTG curve in air showed two mass loss rate peaks. The experimental results showed that all loadings of these different additives made no improvement to the thermal stability of PE/MA. In air, the compatibilising agent (MA) improved the thermal stability of pure PE, compared to these composites/nanocomposites at the selected loadings. Mechanisms of single or two-step reaction in N2, and three-step reaction in air for the thermal decomposition of PE with and without additives predicted fairly well the experimental curves. Finally, the work was extended to investigate the performance of ThermaKin to establish a model that is able to predict cone calorimetry results. ThermaKin predicted the burning rate of PE/MA, as a good agreement between the experimental and simulated curves was achieved. Sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the influence of the variation of the material properties on the modelling results. It was found that the heat of decomposition is the most important parameter of those investigated and needs to be determined most accurately. Heat capacity and thermal conductivity are somewhat important. The absorption coefficient and the reflectivity are of lesser importance. In conclusion, this work shows that the combination of pyrolysis modelling, thermal and chemical analysis techniques provides a strong and powerful tool for generating a comprehensive understanding of the thermal decomposition of novel fire retardant materials. However, further work is needed to study the influence of the changes of the material properties in polymeric material while reinforced with different additives and how this will be reflected on the modelling parameters and mechanism.
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Santos-Reyes, Jaime R. "The development of a fire safety management system model." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/1140.
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Rogers, Lucy Elizabeth. "Foam formation in low expansion fire fighting equipment." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250575.
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Osgood, David Raymond. "The detection of the early stages of fire." Thesis, London South Bank University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336804.
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Copping, Alexander Gordon. "Fire safety evaluation of ecclesiastical estate : the development and application of a fire safety evaluation procedure for the property protection of parish churches." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10774.
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The environment in which we live relentlessly threatens to decay or destroy our built cultural heritage through climatic and man-made means. Fire presents the most severe threat to the fabric and content of historic buildings. The destruction, when it occurs is extremely swift, the loss caused is often complete and the indirect damage from smoke and water can also be significant. The incidences of fires in churches is currently exceeding those in all other historic building types. This trend is destroying irreplaceable national treasures as arguably, England and Wales contains the greatest collection, in terms of number and antiquity, of ancient parish churches in the world. This thesis presents an investigation into the fundamental principles underlying fire safety in parish churches. It identifies that the danger to life from fire is not high, due to the fact that the natural layout of churches facilitates good evacuation routes and travel distances. The threat to church property, however, is considerable as churches generally possess very limited fire safety measures. In addition, problems of building isolation, restricted access and limited water supply means that early intervention is unlikely. Such evidence prompted the need for a decision making tool to aid the custodians of churches in the management of fire safety and in the allocation of scarce resources. The aims of this thesis were to develop a prototype fire safety evaluation procedure for the property protection of parish churches and to examine, using a sample of churches, the effectiveness of the methodology. This has been achieved by developing a 'points scheme' technique to enable the judgement on the adequacy of fire safety to be undertaken. The work involved assigning numerical values to qualitative descriptions of events, techniques and processes by a group of experts representing the interests of those involved in the use, management, and preservation of churches as well as fire safety engineering. The opinions gathered were brought to a consensus in a series of Delphi group meetings, through discussion and matrix manipulation. A 'collated norm' was established, from a collection of fire safety guidance documents for places of worship, against which technical value judgements are made and the acceptable level of fire safety is adjudicated. The procedure is unique in its evaluation configuration, in that it balances the level of fire safety against the vulnerability of property fabric and content. The assessment is undertaken through an 'observational survey'. This is conducted by an expert, knowledgeable in ecclesiastical building construction and fire safety, observing all parts of the building and making judgements on the adequacy of eighteen identified fire safety components. Features of the building which are highlighted through the assessment as being a high fire risk can receive a more in-depth survey, beyond the scope of this evaluation procedure. The practical operation of the evaluation procedure has been tested on ten churches. The outcome shows a broad spread of results. An independent qualitative observational assessment by experts support the outcome of the evaluation procedure in nine out of ten cases. Preliminary repeatability application trials have also been conducted. They showed an encouraging level of consistency, illustrating further that the developed procedure is of positive value and utility. The versatility of the evaluation procedure enables a direct link to be made between potential improvements in the assessment score and the actual cost of making fire safety improvements. This facility enables decision makers to evaluate fire safety upgrade options.
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Woodrow, Michael. "Educating engineers for a holistic approach to fire safety." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8224.
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Problems can be solved using existing knowledge and methods derived from past experiences; and in building design, where buildings are sufficiently similar to those already built, this process can be optimised by creating standardised solutions to common problems. There is significant demand for specialist engineers who can apply these standardised solutions to established problems quickly and accurately; but novel designs generate entirely new problems for which established solutions are not always applicable. Generalist engineers working on novel designs must first define the problems before they can develop options and if necessary, create optimised solutions. Fire safety engineering (FSE) is the process of achieving fire safety in our built environment. The field requires both specialists trained in current practice and generalists skilled in creative and critical thinking. Current fire safety engineering education is mostly aimed at producing specialists, yet there is growing demand for generalists in high-end architecture, hindered by a lack of generalist education. Current education literature in FSE explains in detail what to teach, however they do not explain how to motivate students to learn what is taught; how to create the ‘need to know’ - the purpose that drives learning. The purpose can either be intrinsically motivating (i.e. the subject is interesting) or extrinsically motivating (i.e. if you don’t learn it then you will fail the exam). The former is sustained by autonomy and choice; the latter is sustained by control. Control increases the likelihood that the predicted outcome will be realised, but by definition reduces the likelihood of realising any other outcome, including potential innovation.Initially a study was created to test the effects of creating an autonomous learning environment within a traditional lecture-based ‘fundamentals’ course at the University of Edinburgh. This study, along with observations at a range of US universities led to the formation of an overarching theory of education. Ultimately, purpose is the goal students strive to achieve; autonomy creates the opportunity to think and learn independently; and structure provides the constraints that converge students towards an optimised result, supported by sound evidence and reasoning. Thus the key to generalist education was to provide purpose, autonomy and structure (PAS) in that order. The PAS concept was trialled at EPFL (Switzerland) and the participating students, with no prior knowledge of fire engineering, produced work of exceptional quality. In summary, the present study offers an observational validation that Purpose, Autonomy & Structure (PAS) can be used to effectively support the generalist way of thinking and although the examples given in this paper are related to fire safety engineering (due to the need for generalists in that field), the qualitative evidence on which the conclusions are based is not subject-specific, implying that the PAS methodology could be applied to other disciplines.
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Lowden, Laura Anne. "Development of fire retardant timber treatments." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2015. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/12708/.
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Fire retardant treated timber has been used in interior and exterior building structures to satisfy the legal flammability requirements. Dricon and NCX are two commercial phosphorus-based products sold by Arch Timber Protection. However, modifications to their formulation may be required due to their boron and formaldehyde contents, respectively. This research aimed to acquire an understanding of the effect of a number of phosphorus-based fire retardants on the decomposition, flammability and burning behaviour of timber, in order to aid their development. Materials have been investigated on a micro-, bench- and intermediate-scale, and evaluated for physical properties. Thermal decomposition has been studied using thermogravimetric analysis in both air and nitrogen, and simultaneous thermal analysis coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Flammability and burning behaviour has been studied using microscale combustion calorimetry and cone calorimetry. Residue analysis has been carried out using scanning electron microscopy coupled with electron dispersive x-ray analysis. Existing fire retardant timber treatments were applied to timber specimens. All three treatments operated in the condensed phase by reducing the onset temperature of timber pyrolysis, and promoting the formation of a stable char and water. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a barrier formation on the surface of Dricon treated char. All treatments increased the CO:CO2 ratio during burning in the cone calorimeter. This is attributed to reduced volatile gas production, enabling simultaneous glowing oxidation of the char surface. Depth of penetration studies showed that high concentrations of phosphorus on the surface of timber is sufficient to significantly reduce the fire growth rate index, but deeper penetration and increased overall phosphorus concentration is more effective at reducing the total heat released by the substrate. New phosphorus-based formulations were applied to timber and their effect on its flammability was assessed. All treatments reduced the total heat released, but not all were effective enough to be used commercially. Ammonium hypophosphite increased the residue yield of timber and was shown to operate via both condensed and gas phase fire retardancy mechanisms. A low melting glass formed a gel-like barrier on the surface of the char, but its melting point was too high to optimise the reduction in peak heat release rate. Both ammonium polyphosphate and guanidine/ammonium phosphate formulations promoted carbonisation of the timber structure. A coherent barrier layer was formed by the organoclay; however, the improvement was not effective enough to warrant further investigation. Combinations of nanometric oxides and phosphoric acid were effective. The oxides catalysed the phosphoric acid mechanism to promote the pyrolysis of timber and re-radiating mechanisms were proposed for the char. Further work is suggested to improve the effect. Layer by layer assembly does not provide a sufficient loading to effectively reduce the flammability of timber. Lastly, attempts were made to address the problems of scale-up between micro scale thermal decomposition, bench-scale burning and intermediate-scale regulatory fire tests. Three models for the prediction of Euroclass results have been compared and applied to the materials investigated within this thesis. A method is proposed for the prediction of the Euroclass of fire retarded timber products. Correlation coefficients between micro-, bench- and intermediate-scale flammability tests have been calculated and the results are discussed.
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Song, Limin. "Integrated analysis of steel buildings under fire and explosion." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/7576.
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Kishysh, Kadhum Othman. "Finite element analysis of fire-exposed reinforced concrete column." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.280522.
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Al, Hashmi Emad. "Fire engineering in sustainable buildings : an evaluation for the application of performance-based design in Abu Dhabi." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2016. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/19610/.
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Sustainable Building Design and Engineering is an integrated approach to energy, health, and operational performance. Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates (UAE) is experiencing a phenomenal growth in built environment. In this context, the Abu Dhabi Government has taken initiatives and measures to sustainable building designs development. This research aimed to develop a guideline for the application of performance- based fire-engineering design with sustainable building designs. In addition, it builds a referral information base helping to build sustainable communities, where fire- related fatalities and risks mitigated. Identifying fire safety and sustainability relation, and assessing technical and regulatory challenges with performance-based designs (PBD) in buildings are also part of this study. It also investigated current practices in sustainable building design and fire safety measures applied by Abu Dhabi Civil Defence (ADCD) under the existing construction legislations. The overall results of the study addressed three main areas, namely, sustainability, fire safety, and legality of the construction industry in Abu Dhabi. The data obtained from the case studies, the questionnaire and face-to-face interviews revealed a strong element of misunderstanding regarding the accurate definition of sustainable building design in Abu Dhabi especially among the stakeholders, including the enforcers. This is by pushing towards sustainable design concepts and technologies without taking into consideration the effects on fire safety level from one side and misunderstanding of the local conditions that shape a local definition for building sustainability in Abu Dhabi hot humid climate. Second, the results relating to fire safety measures in Abu Dhabi showed that some factors in the sector of fire safety seemed to affect the accurate application of Performance- Based Design (PBD). These factors were considered as technical and administrative challenges facing the application of PBD and its safety level. Third, the existing local construction legislation and regulations do not support the application of sustainable building design in innovative designs that implementing fire engineering approach. This includes the lack of legislation, disintegration of requirements between building regulators and absence of law enforcement on building owners. The overall findings of this study showed that the application of fire engineering in the innovative sustainable design under the existing construction legislations and culture could have some serious issues to overcome before achieving accepted safety level. In conclusion, there is a common perception that application of sustainable building design can increase fire safety risk. Innovative fire engineering applications compromises on sustainability and vice-versa. A number of similar studies in Abu Dhabi have shown reduction in fire safety on applying performance- based designs. These are challenging issues with the Governments and they are concerned with the local authorities. The building industries in Abu Dhabi need guidelines to find a trade-off between fire safety and sustainability with application of performance based designs.
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Liang, Hong. "GeniSTELA : a generalised engineering methodology for thermal analysis of structural members in natural fires." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2607.
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The ability to predict the temperatures in protected steel structures is of vital importance for the progress of fire safety engineering. Existing methods are limited in several respects, typically being computationally restricted and limited to examination of the performance of specific components. This thesis investigates a generalised CFDbased methodology for thermal analysis of structural members in fire, developed to overcome these limitations. A novel methodology has been developed, known as GeniSTELA (Generalised Solid ThErmal Analysis), which computes a “steel temperature field” parameter in each computational cell. The approach is based on a simplified 1D model for heat transfer, together with appropriate corrections for 2D and 3D effects, to provide a quasi- 3D solution with a reasonable computational cost. GeniSTELA has been implemented as a submodel within the SOFIE RANS CFD code. The basic operation of the model has been verified and results compared to the empirical methods in EC3, indicating a satisfactory performance. The role of the surface temperature prediction has been examined and demonstrated to be important for certain cases, justifying its inclusion in the generalised method. Validation of the model is undertaken with respect to standard testing in fire resistance furnaces, examining the fire ratings of different practical protection systems, and the BRE large compartment fire tests, which looked at protected steel indicatives in full-scale post-flashover fires; in both cases, a satisfactory agreement is achieved. Model sensitivities are reported which reveal the expected strong dependencies on certain properties of thermal protection materials.
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Walker, Richard George. "Practical assessment of the dependence of fire service intervention times on life safety." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2017. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/20721/.
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This research identifies realistic timelines for human survivability during accidental dwelling fires (ADF). It also establishes a time window within which the fire service is likely to affect a rescue of the occupants from ADFs. Through a comparison of these two timelines, the likelihood that the fire service will rescue an occupant before they receive a fatal dose of heat and/or smoke (asphyxiant gases) is established. The dependence of fire service intervention times is also assessed in the context of increasing intervention times resulting from cuts to fire authority budgets. The results show that an increase in the time taken to affect a rescue will lead to an increase in the number of fatalities and the severity of injuries which occur when the occupants of a dwelling become trapped by (or are otherwise unable to escape from) fire within the property. Around 80% of all fire deaths and injuries in Great Britain occur in dwellings. This study analyses national and local fire statistics to identify the typical fire situations and common circumstances which lead to fire deaths and injuries. This statistical analysis has been used to inform the carrying out of thirteen large-scale fire experiments. Asphyxiant gas concentrations and compartment temperatures were gathered during these experiments, in order to establish human survival times resulting from the adverse effects of exposure to these. Statistics have also been analysed and a methodology developed to establish fire service intervention times. Establishing survival times on the basis of an analysis of national statistics constitutes new work within the field of community fire safety. In addition, the author is in a preferential position to establish realistic times for fire service interventions, and there is no evidence that these timelines have previously been developed to this extent or compared to timelines for occupant survival. The findings of this research should be considered by fire authorities as they make important decisions for the development of local fire service resourcing activities in continuing times of austerity.
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Bagnaresi, Silvia. "Fire safety verifications of a prestressed concrete structure: natural fire vs ISO 834 curve." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2020.
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During years, the codes that regulate verifications against fire change a lot. They allow the use of engineering methods to approach problems by using Fire Safety Engineering. This thesis keeps in consideration the most recent fire prevention code (DM 16/10/2018) and highlights the difference between a compliant and an alternative solution for fire verification with a performance level III of a prestressed concrete warehouse with an ESFR shutdown system. To do it, has been done a comparison between the ISO 845 curve and a natural fire curve. For the natural fire case has been considered all the factors that influence the propagation or mitigation of the fire scenario (e.g. materials, fire load, ESFR system, type of activity and so on). Once do that, two FDS® simulations has been performed. The first one detects the ESFR time activation and the second has the aim to know time-temperature curves on load bearing elements through the implementation of the assumed final natural fire curve. Then, the behavior of the precast and prestressed concrete structure has been investigated, both with the ISO curve and the natural fire curve. In order to apply time-temperature curves in cross sections, some SAFIR® simulations has been done on the principal structural elements with both the fire curves. On the thinner cross section has been done also some hand-made verifications (from EC 1992-1-2). Then 2D and 3D mechanical analysis has been performed with SAFIR® considering the previous thermal mappings. The case analyzed with the ISO curve present wide displacements and the collapse of secondary beams, instead the case analyzed with the natural fire curve meets the requirements.
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Donegan, Henry Anthony. "Some analytic issues and their resolution in fire safety evaluation." Thesis, University of Ulster, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.338316.
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Graham, Tony Lee. "Modelling of ignition and fire in vented enclosures." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 1998. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/22774/.
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Fire development in a vented enclosure can proceed in an explosive and disastrous manner called flashover. This thesis examines when, why and how flashover occurs and gives the answers in terms of a few determining dimensionless parameters. The mechanism of flashover considered in this thesis is an enhancement of the burning rate because of thermal radiation from a layer of hot smoke, produced in the course of the fire, to the fire bed. A model, which is proposed for the problem, describes the development fro~ the moment of ignition incorporating the traditional two-zone approach. During early fIre development the density and temperature of the lower zone are reasonably assumed to be close to their initial value. Flashover itself is assumed to occur early in the fIre development, within the fuel controlled combustion regime. The model is analysed using the techniques of classical thermal explosion theory. Explicit criteria are found analytically and graphically to determine if the fIre will achieve flashover or not. The temperature-time characteristics of the fIre development are obtained explicitly for the fIrst time. It is shown that the thermal inertia of the compartment walls can have a significant effect upon the development. The effect of geometrically scaling the compartment is considered. Nondimensional analysis makes such study effective and leads to a square root relationship for the temperature/time characteristics of the fire development. The correlation between the model, four prevIOUS models and small scale experiments is examined. Under reasonable assumptions all models are shown to be described by the same mathematical problem. This means that the criterion for flashover and the development characteristics can be used for any of the modified models observed. Results are illustrated for an experimental fire box used in many experiments.
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Owarish, Miles I. "Concepts of integration of fire safety systems with building services systems." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/523.
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Hay, Adrian. "Application of quantified risk assessment to the building fire safety problem." Thesis, Open University, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.286108.
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Schemel, Christopher. "Transport effects on calorimetry of porous wildland fuels." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2572.
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Wildland fire is a natural part of the earth’s phenomenological pattern and like most natural phenomena has presented a challenge to human activity and engineering science. Wildfire presents Fire Safety Engineering with the task of developing fundamental research and designing analysis tools to address fire on a scale where interactions with atmospheric and terrestrial conditions dominate fire behavior. The research work presented in this thesis addresses a fundamental research issue involving transport processes in porous wildland fuel beds. This research project had the specific goal of developing an understanding of how transport processes affected the combustion of wildland fuels that were in the form of a porous bed. No detailed study could be found in the literature that specifically addressed how the fuel structure affected the combustion process in these types of fuels. To this end, a series of experiments were designed and carried out that approached the understanding of this problem using commonly available fire testing equipment, specifically the cone calorimeter and the FM Global Fire Propagation Apparatus. The goal of this research study and the basis for the novel and relevant contribution to the field of engineering was to conduct an experimental test series, analyze the data and examine the scalability of the results, to determine the effect of transport processes on the Heat Release Rate (HRR) of porous wildland fuels. The project concluded that flow dominates HRR in fires involving the wildland fuels tested. A dimensionless analysis of the fuel sample baskets showed consistency with well established mass transfer, fluid flow and chemical kinetic relationships. The dimensionless analysis also indicates that the experimental results should be scalable to similar configurations in larger fuel beds. One conclusion of this study was that wildland fire modeling efforts should invest in understanding flow conditions in fuel beds because this behavior dominates over the chemical kinetics of combustion for predicting HRR which is an important parameter in fire modeling.
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Ferreira, Michael J. "Barrier Performance Utilizing Normalized Heat Load as Part of an Engineering Based Building Fire Protection Analysis Method." Digital WPI, 2004. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/1074.
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"The objective of this thesis is to examine the methods of barrier analysis used in the Building Fire Safety Engineering Method (BFSEM), and to develop the areas of the analysis which currently rely almost exclusively on subjective judgment rather than quantitative measures. The use of the Normalized Heat Load to quantify heat energy impact on a barrier is examined in detail. Procedures are developed which apply the properties of a normal statistical distribution to barrier failures times, for use in simplifying the construction of barrier catalog curves. A framework is also developed to help standardize the selection of barrier effectiveness factors. Finally, this thesis outlines the procedure for developing barrier performance curves to allow easy implementation of the barrier analysis into the general framework of the BFSEM. A design example is presented to illustrate the analysis procedures."
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Yau, Tsz Man. "Effect of lining thermal inertia on small-scale compartment fire." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2001. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/22767/.
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The use of small scale facilities in experimental fire research studies is well estabhshed. This thesis concerns the use of small scale facilities to examine principally the influence of thermal inertia of the lining material on ventilated enclosure fire The radiation error of the thermocouple reading was studied using radiation network models. Previous theoretical studies were implemented to provide improved models appropriate to the more complex arrangements considered here. Modeling was used to assess the radiation error of different sizes of thermocouple in the hot layer measuring position for post and pre flashover fires, and the models were compared with experiment. The current range of thermal inertia values for building products is much wider than those used in the regression by which the classical theory of pre-flashover temperature was derived (McCaffery et al. 1981). The range considered here is greater then has previously been considered by systematic experimental testing whilst maintaining all other independent key variables constant. Using of reasonable assumptions, the mass loss rates of non-flashover and flashover conditions were predicted by numerical calculation integrated with a zone model. Successful prediction was also made for published tests where sufficient information was available, and good agreement was found irrespective of flashover, scale or geometry. Two important and necessary assumptions used in the zone model, concerning specifically radiation heat transfer in the flashover condition are: that an average temperature of hot gas and flashover flame may be represented by a single thermocouple measurement; and that the massive increase in production of flanu-nable vapours from the fuel surface during flashover leads to a "cool core" partial scattering or blocking of the incident radiant heat from the flashover flame and hot gas. A computer programme was developed to implement and test recent flashover theory (Graharn et al. 1995). A logarithinic relationship has here been suggested between the thermal inertia parameter ', 8' and thermal inertia value of lining material. That relationship matches the current experimental results and other published data. The occurrence of flashover and the value of hot gas peak or steady temperature can be predicted using the computer programme, based on the published theory.
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Samad, Muna Hanim Abdul. "An analysis of fire safety on condominium apartments in Malaysia and England." Thesis, University of Manchester, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.389304.
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Dennett, Michael Frederick. "An exploration of the basis of calculation of 'standards of fire cover' in member states of the European Union and the potential for a rational economic model." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2002. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/19726/.
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This work has investigated the possibility of developing a model, capable of being used to harmonise standards of fire cover within the EU. The model had to take into account social, humanitarian, economic and environmental factors and the built environment in determining an appropriate emergency response by fire brigades to rescues, fires and contamination of land, air and watercourses. The resulting standards had to be socially acceptable and economically defensible. After examining existing standards of fire cover and the means of determining those standards, all current research into standards of fire cover and related issues was reviewed. A study was also undertaken into fire science, the means of predicting frequency of fire and the means of limiting the incidence and size of fires. Economics, as applied to local and national government and as applied to fire safety systems and fire services was explored. From that initial research it was concluded that the fundamental concepts of fire cover had remained unchanged since the restructuring of fire brigades throughout Europe during the late 1940's and had no relevance to the modern built environment. While some aspects of existing policies and some elements of current research were of value, this work has developed new concepts, including. • Functional requirements for common fire and non-fire emergencies. • Entry preparation time based on the criteria, "The time at which fire fighting shall commence." • Limiting fire size in buildings to "As Small As Reasonably Practicable for a Set Duration" for property protection. • Quantifying the term "As Small As Reasonably Practicable". • Defining a Standard Predetermined Attendance (SPDA) for all incidents. • Determining optimum attendance time limits dependent on the frequency of calls and the installed fire protection features in buildings. • A method of calculating an economic base for determining critical call numbers. • A means of establishing the optimum location of fire stations within a given area. • The number of SPDA's required at each fire station related to total workload. • The provision of assistance to areas that are outside maximum attendance times. The economic model that has resulted, accurately includes all of the potential economic, social, and political variations as the basis of calculation of Standards of Fire Cover in individual Member States of the European Union. It is the contention of this thesis that it is possible to construct formulae, based on sound economic principals, which are capable of being applied to the different fiscal situation in different countries, thereby ensuring similar relative standards.
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Crowder, David. "Hazards presented by pyrolysis and combustion products during laboratory experiments and real incidents." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2015. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/12704/.
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Heat, flame, smoke and fire gases are responsible for the vast majority of fire deaths and injuries and are all products of the chemical and physical processes that occur within fire. This is well known and supported by fire statistics but current fire safety does not directly consider these factors and the hazard they may pose to life. The aim of this thesis is to bring together knowledge from fire science with evidence from fire investigation to provide a way forward for improving fire safety and protecting life using sound scientific principles. A number of major fires and the associated large scale fire reconstructions carried out as part of their investigation have been analysed to assess the way in which polymeric materials contribute towards the overall hazard and whether there are other factors tending to contribute to the hazard. The Stardust Disco fire highlighted the importance of lining materials in their contribution to both rapid fire development and toxicity. Maysfield Leisure Centre demonstrated the link between functional groups in polymers and the major toxicant likely to then contribute to the developing hazard. Harrow Court showed how a modern incident able to develop to flashover would produce a dramatic change in conditions, capable of overcoming fire fighters as well as civilians. Rosepark Care Home demonstrated the importance of simple fire safety measures such as the closing of doors in keeping products of combustion away from relevant persons. The Lakanal fire highlighted the potential complexity of these sorts of incidents and the way in which they tend to be the result of a large number of “things going wrong” all at once. The fire at Atherstone on Stour revealed the potential for rapid fire development to take place across very large environments, again sufficiently quickly to overcome attending fire fighters. The work carried out has demonstrated the intrinsic link between the burning properties of materials with their toxicity, which are then further influenced by the way in which an environment can influence ventilation conditions, thermal insulation and pathways for fire to spread and impose hazards upon people in relevant areas. Fire safety has developed in such a way that flammability and toxicity no longer appear to be considered together, but the findings from the incident analyses indicate there appears to be a need to bring the subjects of toxicity and general fire safety back together.
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Amundarain, Aitor. "Assessment of the thermal efficiency, structure and fire resistance of lightweight building systems for optimized design." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2128.
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The use of lightweight building systems is very controversial as existing knowledge about their performance is limited. Not enough research has been conducted to determine the suitability of these modern construction technologies and there is an ongoing controversy as to whether they are an appropriate replacement to traditional construction techniques. The prime objective of this study is to present a number of methodologies to assess lightweight external walling systems focusing on thermal efficiency, structure and fire performance, which are currently the main driving forces for this industry. Traditionally, these areas have been studied separately but there is a need to integrate them in order to get comprehensive solutions to the way these systems are designed. The drive to achieve improvements in one of these specific areas could potentially result in reduced effectiveness in the others. That is the reason why an integrative approach is recommended. These techniques are meant to be applied in the design phase of building projects so as to provide early quantitative information about the systems analyzed. The methodologies described herein are then applied to real life light steel building solutions. Within this context, two different wall constructions are examined and conclusions made on their relative performance. The study highlights the importance of having analytical and experimental solutions as a framework for further development. Two different approaches have been considered to assess thermal efficiency, structure and fire performance. On the one hand, a prescriptive approach has been employed to establish regulation compliance. On the other hand, a performance based approach is taken to actually understand and explain how these systems work in real life conditions. The outcome is a comprehensive set of tools to assure both industry and other stake holders.
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Lennon, Patrick. "An experimental evaluation of the impact of ventilation opening geometry on enclosure fire severity." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248606.
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Li, Fang. "Modelling of premixed laminar flame propagating in channels." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2004. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/21904/.
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The dynamics of the intrinsically unstable premixed flames propagating in channels is studied by means of numerical modelling in this work. Critical conditions of extinction and the influence of the thermal-diffusive effect on the dynamics of flame propagating in planar channels with cold sidewalls under gravity is investigated. For the horizontally propagating flames, the appearance of inversion influences the effect of thermal-diffusion on the asymmetry of flame fronts. For upwards propagating flames, the convex shape of the flame imposed by the mode of ignition combined with buoyancy can suppress the thermal-diffusive effects; in contrast, the buoyancy alone cannot damp the thermal diffusive effects even for quite large Froud numbers in regard to the appearance of inversion. The variation of Lewis number has no essential effect on the planar flame shape formation when flame propagates downward. Lowering Lewis number can significantly decrease the critical conditions of extinction. However, if Lewis number is smaller than some limit, its further effect on the critical extinction conditions is unsignificant. In the two-step consecutive reaction, the effects of the ratio of Damkohler numbers, heat release rates, activation energy and Lewis number on the separation and fragmentation of flames are considered. The inversion is more pronounced in combustion with separated flame fronts than for single-step reactions. However, the inversion is obvious only when the two flame fronts are close enough to each other. Thus, the details of combusiiition chemistry may have a strong effect on the stability of the flame front. The thermal diffusive effect of the first flame is, in certain way, dominant and has influence on the second flame. The presence of the first reaction suppresses the thermal-diffusive effect of the second reaction in regard to the appearance of inversion. The propagation of flames at a variety of Reynolds number ranging from 70 to 1000 are explored. For longer channels or a flat initial flame front, the inversion of the flame is apparent for Reynolds number higher than 200. For large &, the computational grids should be very fine because of the small thickness of preheat zone. The Generalized Curvilinear Coordinate Gridding method is introduced and an elliptic grid generator based on the variational approach is employed to construct the solution-adaptive grids. However, we found out that the global structure of the algorithm required by the adaptive grid approach might be not as efficient as simplified non-adaptive grids for prospective use of massively parallel computers.
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Hidalgo-Medina, Juan P. "Performance-based methodology for the fire safe design of insulation materials in energy efficient buildings." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/10601.
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This thesis presents a methodology to determine failure criteria of building insulation materials in the event of a fire that is specific to each typology of insulation material used. This methodology is based on material characterisation and assessment of fire performance of the most common insulation materials used in construction. Current methodologies give a single failure criterion independent of the nature of the material – this can lead to uneven requirements when addressing materials of different characteristics. At present, fire safety codes establish that performance of different materials or assemblies is assumed to be “equivalent” when subject to the same test, where attainment of the unique failure criteria occurs after a required minimum time. Nevertheless, when using extremely different materials this may not be actually the case. Building performance is currently defined in a quantitative way with respect to factors such as energy usage (i.e. global thermal transmittance), element weight (i.e. thickness and mass), space utilisation and cost of application. In the case of fire performance, only a threshold value is required, therefore a quantitative performance assessment is not conducted. As a result, the drivers are those associated with the variables that can be quantified, whereas the thresholds merely need to be met without any alternative for a better performance. This work opens the door to a performance-based-design methodology that takes into account fire performance as an optimisation variable for the building design, to be used with all other quantifiable variables. An added advantage is that the numerical tool required embraces a low level of complexity. As a result, the possibility for any insulation product to achieve quantifiable and acceptable fire safety levels for required energy efficiency targets is established. As a final remark, an application of the performance assessment methodology that introduces fire safety as a quantifiable variable is presented.
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Kenyon, Yvonne Michelle. "Two-phase flows accompanying fires in enclosures." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2003. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/19138/.
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The dispersed phase that accompanies enclosure fires, for example, soot, ash, sprinkler droplets and extinguishing powder, could exert a significant influence on the dynamics of the background fluid. In this thesis, the results of a numerical study into the effects of this dispersed phase on the flow in a fire compartment are presented. A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics solver, with appropriate approximations for low Mach number flows and mathematical sub-models for twophase flows, has been developed in order to simulate fire induced convective motions in planar compartments. The description of the dispersed particulate is based on a twocontinuum approach, whereby the dispersed phase and the gaseous phase are assumed to be two mutually interacting and penetrating continua. In this thesis, two 'passive' models and an 'active' model of the dispersed phase are considered. In the passive models the particulate acts as a tracer only and has no hydrodynamical influence on the gas phase. The second passive model differs from the first in that the production of gases in the fire compartment, for example arising from combustion or propellant gases due to extinguishment of the fire, is taken into account. This second passive model more accurately predicts the growth of pressure in a sealed fire compartment for weak fires. As the volume fraction of the particulate increases the spatial-temporal hydrodynamic influence exerted on the gaseous flow by the dispersed phase becomes significant and, under certain conditions, a passive representation is insufficient. An active onetemperature and one-velocity model is proposed which is appropriate for the description of a hydrodynamically active particulate with an instantaneous velocity and thermal relaxation time. In this thesis, computational fluid dynamics is used as a tool in order to characterise the applicability of the passive models and the active model. The ability of the passive models to accurately predict the growth of pressure in a compartment for 'surface' fires, for example smouldering combustion and weak fires, is investigated. The active model is used to study the hydrodynamics of powder extinguishing media in a compartment with an open doorway.
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Mueller, Eric Victor. "Examination of the underlying physics in a detailed wildland fire behavior model through field-scale experimentation." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22039.
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Complex computer models, built on basic physical principles, have the potential to aid in the understanding and prediction of wildland fire behavior. However, there remain significant uncertainties and assumptions in the way such models describe the fire, the vegetation, and the interaction of the two. To understand a model’s capabilities, limitations, and the improvements which are still necessary, comparison of model predictions to experimental measurement is critical. Unfortunately, collecting such measurements is particularly difficult at the large scale over which real wildland fires occur and, as a result, this happens infrequently. To address this, an opportunity was seized to collect a detailed set of measurements of fire behavior in a real forest environment. These measurements are thoroughly analyzed for the description they provide of the fire behavior. They are then used as a benchmark to test the capabilities of a particular complex model to describe such a fire and to highlight the limitations and uncertainties. As a result of this evaluation, a set of recommendations for future research, both in experiments and modeling, are offered, in order provide a coherent strategy for the future which will significantly advance these models.
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Battistini, Filippo. "Fire safety engineering: Confronto tra approccio prescrittivo e prestazionale applicato ad una attivita alberghiera." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/8125/.
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La complessa materia della prevenzione incendi può essere approcciata secondo due strategie sostanzialmente differenti.
Da una parte, l’approccio di tipo deterministico, imperante in Italia, si concretizza nell’emanazione di norme estremamente prescrittive e nel ricorso da parte del progettista a strumenti di calcolo molto semplici. Il pregio maggiore di tale approccio risiede senza dubbio alcuno nella sua estrema semplicità, nella garanzia di una certa omogeneità di applicazione e nella possibilità di erogare in tempi ragionevoli una formazione uniforme ed accettabile ai controllori. Mentre il limite più evidente consiste nella rigidità, talora eccessiva, delle prescrizioni normative e nelle procedure di calcolo da adottare.
Dall’altra, un approccio di tipo ingegneristico (Fire Safety Engineering), seguito per lo più nei paesi anglosassoni, si basa sulla predizione della dinamica evolutiva dell’incendio tramite l’applicazione di idonei modelli di calcolo fisicamente basati (physically sound). Punto di forza di questa seconda strategia è la sua estrema flessibilità, che consente la simulazione d’incendi di complessità anche molto elevata. Per contro i limiti più evidenti di tale approccio risiedono nella problematica validazione sperimentale dei modelli in argomento, data la natura distruttiva delle prove che andrebbero condotte, nella spinta preparazione richiesta ai professionisti ed ancor più ai controllori, dato il proliferare negli anni di modelli anche molto diversi tra loro, ed, infine, nel caso di raffinati modelli di campo, in un onere computazionale non sempre sostenibile con i PC di comune diffusione.
Allo stato attuale in Italia il ricorso alla Fire Safety Engineering è di fatto circoscritto alle applicazioni per le quali non esiste una specifica norma prescrittiva, su tutte la valutazione del rischio in attività a rischio di incidente rilevante e la Fire Investigation; talora essa è impiegata anche per la valutazione della sicurezza equivalente in occasione di richiesta di deroga a norme prescrittive.
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Ivans, Jr William Jeffrey. "A Decision Support Framework for Assessing the Technical Adequacy of Performance-Based Design Approaches to Fire Safety Engineering." Digital WPI, 2017. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/491.
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"This research effort addresses key challenges associated with the technical review and acceptance of performance-based design approaches to fire safety engineering through development of a decision support framework and associated tool. Such design approaches seek to confirm that the overall fire safety system, which includes the building and its protective features, meets a set of fire safety objectives established by relevant stakeholders, and this confirmation is achieved through fire safety analysis, or the application of analytical and computational tools and methods. While the current approach to performance-based fire safety analysis relies on guidelines and standards, these rather generic, process-oriented documents do not provide fire protection engineers (FPEs) sufficient guidance to address critical elements of the analysis process in a systematic, consistent and technically adequate manner. Should a fire safety analysis contain technical deficiencies, then it becomes less clear that the design solution being proposed truly achieves the desired fire safety objectives. Moreover, project stakeholders, including the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), may lack the necessary qualifications, expertise, or design intimacy to, suitably and reliably, identify and challenge deficient analyses. As a result, the current approach to fire safety analysis and its quality assurance has led to large variations in analysis quality and consequently levels of delivered performance. With no existing equivalent, a decision support framework is proposed that will assist the AHJ and FPEs in determining whether a fire safety analysis is of sufficient technical adequacy to support decision-making, regulatory or otherwise. Additionally, a decision support tool is developed to provide measures of confidence regarding an analysis’s conclusions and assist in identifying those aspects of the analysis most requiring corrective action. Lastly, while developed to address performance-based design approaches to fire safety engineering, the framework may easily be adapted to similar approaches in other fields of engineering, or more generally, applications that make use of process-oriented, analysis-driven design."
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Lundin, Johan. "Safety in case of fire : the effect of changing regulations /." Lund : Dept. of Fire Safety Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, 2005. http://www.brand.lth.se/bibl/1032.pdf.
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Lloydd, Delwyn. "Evaluation of the Conceptual Framework for Performance Based Fire Engineering Design in New Zealand." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Civil Engineering, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2754.
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The Department of Building and Housing is currently developing a performance framework that will, if adopted, provide a compulsory methodology for performance based fire engineering designs to prove compliance with the fire safety requirements of the New Zealand Building Code. The conceptual performance framework currently includes eight design fire scenarios, fire loads for particular building uses, and tenability criteria for the life safety of occupants. As the level of fire safety within the Code is not explicit, the Department of Building and Housing determined that the performance framework for fire should ensure buildings are designed and built to provide the same level of safety as if they complied with the current Compliance Document for New Zealand Building Code Fire Safety Clauses, C/AS1.
This work analysed 12 buildings with a range of uses, which comply with the current C/AS1, using the conceptual performance framework to provide a risk comparison for life safety. Accepted, previously established calculation and modelling methods were used to test the case buildings to the performance framework.
None of the buildings met the pass criteria proposed for life safety. Consequently, to comply with the performance framework, a building would be required to be designed to a higher level of safety than is currently accepted to meet code. This shows the current proposal provides a more onerous design regime for fire safety for buildings than the current C/AS1.
The results of this research show the conceptual performance framework for fire safety is not ready to be included into New Zealand building regulations in its present form. Furthermore, protection from fire for primary structural members and systems, to protect against building collapse, and tenability criteria and fire fighting access for fire fighters needs to be developed and included in the framework.
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Leston-Jones, Lee Christopher. "The influence of semi-rigid connections on the performance of steel framed structures in fire." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3047/.
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Observation of fire damaged structures and recent fire tests at the Cardington LBTF have suggested that even nominally `simple' connections are capable of providing significant restraint at elevated-temperatures. As most frames are designed assuming pinned response at ambient-temperature, with no account being taken of the reduction in mid-span moments, this is an aspect of connectivity which may be utilised in the assessment of the fire resistance of steel framed buildings, without necessitating changes in the approach adopted in ambient-temperature design or construction. To date the assessment of the influence of connection response on frame behaviour has been limited by the quantity of available test data, although initial studies based on postulated moment-rotation- temperature characteristics concluded that the failure temperatures for beams are increased due to the rigidity of `simple' connections. Moment-rotation relationships have been measured for a flush end-plate connection, both as bare-steel and as composite with a concrete slab across a range of temperatures. To define accurately the full moment-rotation-temperature response a series of tests have been conducted for each arrangement, where specimens were subject to varying constant levels of load and increasing temperatures. Observed failure mechanisms have been compared with those for a nominally identical specimen tested at ambient-temperature, and initial recommendations presented for the degradation of ambient-temperature connection characteristics. A mathematical expression is proposed in order to represent the test data at a number of temperatures. It is clearly unrealistic to expect that many such tests can be anticipated in the future, and as such a spring-stiffness model has been presented for both bare-steel and composite flush end-plate connections. The use of a spring-stiffness model compares favourably with other forms of modelling due to the combination of efficient solution and the ability to follow accurately the full non-linear range of connection response, based on an understanding of the response of the component parts. A multi-linear representation of response has been adopted, where the stiffness of the connection is revised as elements enter the plastic range of response. Comparison has been made between the response predicted and that recorded experimentally. Experimentally derived connection characteristics have been incorporated within analysis of typical sub-frames, with parameters including connection stiffness, capacity and temperature being varied. Further studies are presented considering the sensitivity of overall frame behaviour to inaccuracies in the representation of connection response and the use of simplified models to generate elevated-temperature connection characteristics. Based on postulated elevated-temperature moment-rotation characteristics for the connections contained within the Cardington test frame, predictions have been presented for the response of the structure subject to a series of full scale fire tests, with semi-rigid behaviour being compared with the common assumptions of pinned and rigid characteristics.
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McCurdy, Robert J. "The use of vapor phase ultraviolet spectroscopy to characterize flammable liquids recovered from fire debris." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.249051.
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Johann, Matthew A. "Fire-Robust Structural Engineering: A Framework Approach to Structural Design for Fire Conditions." Link to electronic thesis, 2002. http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-1219102-155849.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute.Keywords: structural engineering; fire safety; framework approach; performance-based design; information management; finite element; lumped-parameter; laboratory tests; steel; beam; restrained; plastic analysis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-182).
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Cameron, Neil. "The behaviour and design of composite floor systems in fire." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2127.
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Modern composite steel frame structures possess a high degree of redundancy. This allows them to survive extreme fires without collapse as there are many alternative loadpaths which can be used to transfer load away from the fire affected part of the structure as demonstrated in the Broadgate fire. Subsequent tests carried out on the Cardington frame showed that it was not necessary to apply fire protection to all steel beams. It was possible to leave selected secondary beams without fire protection. In the event of a fire this results in large deflections due to thermal expansion and material degradation, however, in a fire where servicability requirements do not need to be met this is acceptable so long as life safety is ensured. The weakening beams and large deflections result in a change in the load transfer mechanism with load being carried through tensile membrane action in the slab. This thesis presents a method for calculating the membrane load capacity of composite floor slabs in fire. Extensive numerical modelling at the University of Edinburgh has shown that the temperature distribution through a structural member greatly effects the deflection and pattern of internal stresses and strains. Theoretical solutions were produced to calculate the structural response of laterally restrained beams and plates subject to thermal loads. The theoretical deflections and internal forces were shown to compare well with those from numerical models. To determine the membrane load capacity of concrete floor slabs in fire a three-stage design method was developed. Initially the temperature distribution through the slab was calculated for the design fire. From this the deflection of the slab and resulting stress and strain distributions in the steel reinforcement due to the thermal loads were calculated for the design fire. From this the deflection of the slab and resulting stress and strain distributions in the steel reinforcement due to thermal loads were calculated using equations from the theory developed previously. Failure of the slab was defined based on a limiting value of mechanical strain in the reinforcement, this strain corresponded to a limiting deflection. The load capacity of the slab at the limiting deflection was calculated using an energy method. When compared against results from numerical models the ultimate load capacity was shown to be accurately predicted. None of the fire test carried out on the Cardington structure reached failure. Although demonstrating the inherent strength of such buildings this was also a major short coming as it was not possible to define the point of failure. the design method developed was used to calculate the membrane laod capacity of four of the six Cardington tests. All four tests were shown to have had a significant reserve capacity with none being close to failure.
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McCarthy, Scott (Scott Lewis). "A system theoretic safety analysis of friendly fire prevention in ground based missile systems." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83796.
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Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 61).
This thesis used Dr. Leveson's STAMP (Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process) model of accident causation to analyze a friendly fire accident that occurred on 22 March 03 between a British Tornado aircraft and a US Patriot Missile battery. This causation model analyzes system constraints, control loops, and process models to identify inadequate control structures leading to hazards and preventative measures that may be taken to reduce the effect of these hazards. By using a system-based causation model like STAMP, rather than a traditional chain of events model, this thesis aimed to identify systemic factors and component interactions that may have contributed to the accident, rather than simply analyzing component failures. Additionally, care was taken to understand the rationale for decisions that were made, rather than assigning blame. The analysis identified a number of areas in which control flaws or inadequacies led to the friendly fire incident. A set of recommendations was developed that may help to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.
by Scott McCarthy.
S.M.in Engineering and Management
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Ronstad, David. "A Comparison between two different Methods to Verify Fire Safety Design in Buildings." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Byggkonstruktion och brand, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-62258.
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In today’s Nordic construction industry, it is difficult for new and innovative building solutions to be introduced due to prescriptive and inflexible regulations. Trading products and services cross-border is something that could loosen the tough market, but this is not possible due to the lack of common international frameworks that is performance based with the possibility to perform fire safety engineering. This is something that the Nordic Innovation project group called Fire Safety Engineering for Innovative and Sustainable Building Solutions wants to change. By introducing a new probabilistic method to verify fire safety in buildings, with the intention to become a Nordic standard, so will hopefully parts of these problems be resolved. The fourth work package of the project includes field testing of the new method which this thesis is a part of. The idea is to asses and improve the new probabilistic approach by comparing it to an existing non-probabilistic method and introduce ameliorating recommendations. Comparison of the probabilistic method is performed against a Swedish verification process that’s based on the General recommendations on analytical design of fire safety strategy (BBRAD) by verifying fire safety in a car park, that is located below an office building, with both verification methods. The two performance-based analyses treat deviations from a prescriptive solution, performed with the Boverket’s Building Regulations (BBR), and the results of these verifications is compared. The requirements that is verified are; escape in event of fire, protection against the outbreak of fire, protection against the development and spread of fire and smoke in buildings, protection against spread of fire between buildings, possibility of rescue responses and ensuring fire resistance in the structural members. Fire safety designs and approaches for treatment of the deviations are compared and analysed which concludes in the improvement recommendation that’s been presented. Questions that has been answered during the work process is: How do the methods treat the possibility of a fire safety design without sprinkler? What is the main difference between the two verification methods? Which improvements could be done to the new Probabilistic method? The recommendations of improvement that has been presented is based on the work process of the probabilistic approach and the comparison with the Swedish verification process. Development of the following areas is advocated: Treatment of critical levels for evacuation scenarios Form a common Nordic statistical database Improved guidance of how to complete the validation analysis The thesis does not include all parts that’s required in a fire safety design but will merely focus on the deviations of the pre-accepted solution. The verification is only performed on the car park, i.e. the office part of the building is not included.I dagens nordiska byggbransch är det svårt för nya och innovativa byggnadslösningar att införas på grund av de preskriptiva och fyrkantiga regelverk som finns. Handel av produkter och tjänster över gränserna är något som kan luckra upp den tuffa marknaden, men det är svårt på grund av bristen utav gemensamma internationella regelverk som är funktionsbaserade med möjlighet till fire safety engeinnering. Det är något som ett nordiskt innovationsprojekt kallat Fire Safety Engineering for Innovative and Sustainable Building Solutions vill förändra. Genom att införa en ny probabilistisk metod för att verifiera brandsäkerheten i byggnader, med avsikten att skapa en nordisk standard, kan förhoppningsvis delar av dessa problem lösas. Det fjärde arbetspaketet inom projektet består av att testa den nya metoden, vilket denna avhandling är en del av. Tanken är att bedöma och ta fram förbättringsförslag till den nya probabilistiska metoden genom att jämföra den med en befintlig scenariobaserad metod och presentera förbättringsrekommendationer. Jämförelse av probabilistiska metoden utförs mot en svensk verifieringsprocess som baseras på Boverkets allmänna råd om analytisk dimensionering av byggnaders brandskydd (BBRAD) genom att verifiera brandsäkerheten i ett parkeringsgarage, som ligger under en kontorsbyggnad, med båda verifieringsmetoderna. De två funktionsbaserade analyserna behandlar avvikelser från en förenklad dimensionering, som är utförd enligt Boverkets Byggregler (BBR), och resultaten av dessa verifikationer jämförs. De krav som verifieras är; utrymning i händelse av brand, skydd mot uppkomst av brand, skydd mot utveckling och spridning av brand och rök i byggnader, skydd mot brandspridning mellan byggnader, möjlighet till räddningsinsats och att säkerställa bärförmåga vid brand. Brandskyddets utformning och metodernas behandling av avvikelserna jämförs och analyseras vilket konkluderar i de rekommendationer för förbättring som presenteras. Frågor som har besvarats under arbetsprocessen är: Hur behandlar metoderna möjligheten att dimensionera brandsäkerheten utan sprinklersystem? Vad är den stora skillnaden mellan de två verifieringsmetoderna? Vilka förbättringar kan göras på den nya probabilistiska metoden? Rekommendationerna till förbättring som har tagits fram är baserad på arbetsprocessen i den probabilistiska metoden och jämförelsen med den svenska verifieringsprocessen. Utveckling av följande områden förespråkas: Behandling av kritiska nivåer i utrymningsscenarion Uppställning av en gemensam statistiskdatabas för de nordiska länderna Förbättrad förklaring om hur man utför valideringarna av analysen Avhandlingen omfattar inte alla delar som behövs vid bandskyddsprojektering utan fokusera endast på avvikelserna från den förenklade dimensioneringen. Verifikationen är endast utförd på parkeringsgaraget, det vill säga kontorsdelen av byggnaden behandlas inte.
Fire Safety Engineering for Innovative and Sustainable Building Solutions
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Vinci, Margherita. "Fire Safety Engineering e modellazione dell'esodo con metodi innovativi: applicazione ad un caso di edilizia scolastica." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/16547/.
Full textAbstract:
La tesi tratta lo studio dell’esodo dagli edifici in situazioni di incendio. È costituita da due parti, una prima parte teorico-descrittiva, in cui attraverso uno sguardo a come si è evoluta la normativa antincendio in Italia, si evidenziano i punti focali delle problematiche relative all’esodo, dai vincoli dati dalle norme strettamente prescrittive, alle libertà date dall’approccio prestazionale che permette di adottare misure di sicurezza adeguate alla specifica attività oggetto di studio. Tale approccio inoltre, attraverso i nuovi software di modellazione dell’esodo, consente di prevedere anticipatamente lo svilupparsi dell’evacuazione da un edificio specifico, regolando alcuni parametri, tra cui emerge come fondamentale il comportamento degli individui. La seconda parte progettuale, tratta un caso di studio di edilizia scolastica. Da un lato si confrontano i risultati delle normative che si possono attualmente applicare in vista di un adeguamento antincendio, cioè il DM 26/08/1992 ed il DM 03/05/2015 (RTO) integrato dal DM 07/08/2017 (RTV scuole); dall’altro viene eseguita la modellazione dell’esodo dell’edificio mediante due software (Pathfinder e CPI win® FSE - EVAC), per verificare la validità della soluzione alternativa prevista dal DM 03/08/2015 (approccio prestazionale).
Obiettivo della tesi è quindi quello di presentare e confrontare le diverse strade attualmente percorribili per far fronte alle problematiche antincendio, attraverso l'applicazione diretta di esse ad un caso di studio, in modo da valutarne gli effettivi benefici. In particolare si vuole valutare l'affidabilità e confrontare i risultati dei software di modellazione dell'esodo analizzati, dal momento che differiscono in quanto operano utilizzando metodi di calcolo differenti: uno è basato sul movimento ed uno sul comportamento degli occupanti.
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Lombardi, Michela. "Modellazione avanzata di un incendio in uno stabilimento industriale secondo i principi della fire safety engineering." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/8475/.
Full textAbstract:
Lo sviluppo di un incendio all’interno di depositi di liquidi infiammabili costituisce uno scenario particolarmente critico a causa della rilevanza delle conseguenze che ne possono scaturire. L’incendio causato dalla formazione di grandi pozze sviluppatesi a seguito di forature dei contenitori e il rapido coinvolgimento di tutto lo stoccaggio rappresentano uno scenario di incendio tipico di queste realtà. Si ha quindi la necessità di adottare provvedimenti atti a garantire specifici obiettivi di sicurezza tramite l’introduzione di misure antincendio.
La prevenzione incendi, sino al 2007, era basata esclusivamente su norme di tipo prescrittivo, in base alle quali si definivano le misure di sicurezza secondo un criterio qualitativo. Successivamente l’ingegneria antincendio si è sempre più caratterizzata da approcci basati su analisi di tipo prestazionale, in grado di dimostrare il raggiungimento dell’obiettivo di sicurezza sulla base del comportamento reale d’incendio ottenuto mediante un’accurata simulazione del fuoco che ragionevolmente può prodursi nell'attività. La modellazione degli incendi è divenuta possibile grazie allo sviluppo di codici di fluidodinamica computazionale (CFD), in grado di descrivere accuratamente l’evoluzione delle fiamme.
Il presente studio si inserisce proprio nell’ambito della modellazione CFD degli incendi, eseguita mediante il software Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). L’obiettivo dell’elaborato è studiare l’azione dell’impianto di spegnimento a schiuma sullo sviluppo di un incendio di pozza in un deposito di liquidi infiammabili, in termini di riduzione della potenza termica rilasciata dal fuoco, al fine di determinare le temperature massime raggiunte, in corrispondenza delle quali valutare il comportamento di resistenza strutturale degli edifici.
Il presente lavoro è articolato in 6 capitoli. Dopo il Capitolo 1, avente carattere introduttivo, vengono richiamati nel Capitolo 2 i principali concetti della chimica e fisica degli incendi. Nel Capitolo 3 vengono esaminate le normative intese ad unificare l’approccio ingegneristico alla sicurezza antincendio. Il Capitolo 4 fornisce una dettagliata descrizione del software di calcolo, FDS - Fire Dynamics Simulator, adoperato per la modellazione dell’incendio. Nel Capitolo 5 si procede alla progettazione prestazionale che conduce alla determinazione della curva naturale d'incendio in presenza degli impianti di spegnimento automatici. Infine nel Capitolo 6 si riportano le considerazioni conclusive.
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Sbrighi, Pietro. "Forensic engineering: applicazioni e metodologie della fire investigation nell'ambito delle costruzioni." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018.
Find full textAbstract:
Il ruolo della Fire Investigation, intesa come attività investigativa, riguarda l'esame degli episodi legati agli incendi con la finalità di determinarne le cause. Tale disciplina rientra nel campo dell'ingegneria forense, abbracciando diversi ambiti specialistici che hanno lo scopo di ricostruire il nesso eziologico fondato su principi scientifici che coniugano l'ingegneria strutturale con il diritto. L’investigazione sulle cause d’incendio/esplosione è un’attività che richiede particolari conoscenze multidisciplinari, quali quelle relative al fenomeno incendio o quelle sul comportamento al fuoco dei materiali e delle strutture. L’investigazione antincendio è, inoltre, resa complessa non solo dalla natura distruttiva dell’evento su cui si indaga, che vede gli investigatori operare su scenari caratterizzati da livelli di danneggiamento delle strutture e dei materiali tali da non consentire una ricostruzione dello stato dei luoghi, ma anche della carenza di strumenti uniformi per la ricerca delle cause di incendi e di esplosione. La tesi affronta i principali punti della Fire Investigation, per una maggiore comprensione della tematica, avvalendosi di informazioni reperite in letteratura. Le conoscenze di base per un tecnico Fire Investigator, sono l’analisi degli incendi, la conoscenza di ingegneria strutturale applicata all’incendio, la metodologia logica di investigazione come indicati dalla norma NFPA 921 e infine la conoscenza delle attuali norme di prevenzione incendi in uso, al fine di saper comparare gli esiti dell’analisi di un incendio con le soluzioni progettuali che più idonee descritte in normativa. La tesi consta di una parte teorica sulla pratica investigativa antincendi e di una parte applicativa di fire investigation con due casi reali, con l’obiettivo di fornire una comparazione dei casi di studio con le attuali norme di prevenzione incendi, per identificare i difetti progettuali che hanno contribuito allo sviluppo dell’incendio.
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Reszka, Pedro. "In-depth temperature profiles in pyrolyzing wood." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2602.
Full textAbstract:
The move towards performance-based design of the fire resistance of structures requires more accurate design methods. An important variable in the fire performance of timber structures is the in-depth temperature distribution, as wood is weakened by an increase of temperature, caused by exposure to high heat fluxes. A proper prediction of temperature profiles in wood structural elements has become an essential part of timber structural design. Current design methods use empirically determined equations for the temperature distribution but these assume constant charring rates, do not account for changes in the heating conditions, and were obtained under poorly defined boundary conditions in fire resistance furnaces. As part of this research project, a series of experimental in-depth temperature measurements were done in wood samples exposed to various intensities of radiant heat fluxes, with clearly defined boundary conditions that allow a proper input for pyrolysis models. The imposed heat fluxes range from 10 kW/cm 2, which generates an almost inert behaviour, to 60 kW/cm 2, where spontaneous flaming is almost immediately observed. Mass loss measurements for all the imposed heat fluxes were also performed. The second part of this project dealt with the modelling of the pyrolysis process, with an emphasis placed on temperature prediction. The main objective was to identify the simplest model that can accurately predict temperature distributions in wood elements exposed to fires. For this, an analysis of the different terms which have been included by several models in the energy equation has been done, by quantifying its magnitude. Five models with different degrees of simplification have been developed. Comparison with the experimental data has shown that a simple and accurate model of temperature profiles must include the rise in the solid sensible heat, the heat transferred by conduction, the heat of moisture evaporation, the heat of pyrolysis reaction and the effect of char oxidation.
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Alvarez, Rodriguez Alberto. "An integrated framework for the next generation of Risk-Informed Performance-Based Design approach used in Fire Safety Engineering." Digital WPI, 2013. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/5.
Full textAbstract:
Review of decades of worldwide experience using standards, codes and guidelines related to performance-based fire protection design for buildings has identified shortcomings in the interpretation, application and implementation of the performance-based design process, wide variation in the resulting levels of performance achieved by such designs, and several opportunities to enhance the process. While others have highlighted shortcomings in the past, as well as some ideas to enhance the process, it is proposed that a more fundamental change is needed. First, the political and technical components of the process need to be clearly delineated to facilitate better analysis and decision-making within each component. Second, the process needs to be changed from one which focuses only on fire safety systems to one which views buildings, their occupants and their contents as integrated systems. In doing so, the activities associated with the normal operation of a building and how they might be impacted by the occurrence of a fire event become clearer, as do mitigation options which account for the behaviors and activities associated with normal use. To support these changes, a new framework for a risk-informed performance-based process for fire protection design is proposed: one which is better integrated than current processes, that treats a fire event as a disruptive event of a larger and more complex "building-occupant" system, and that provides more specific guidance for engineering analysis with the aim to achieve more complete and consistent analysis. This Ph.D. Dissertation outlines the challenges with the existing approaches, presents the "building-occupant" system paradigm, illustrates how viewing fire (or any other hazard) as a disruptive event within an holistic "building-occupant" system can benefit the overall performance of this system over its lifespan, and outlines a framework for a risk-informed performance-based process for fire protection design. Case studies are used to illustrate shortcomings in the existing processes and how the proposed process will address these. This Dissertation also includes a plan of action needed to establish guidelines to conduct each of the technical steps of the process and briefly introduces the future work about how this plan could be practically facilitated via a web-platform as a collaborative environment.
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GUELPA, ELISA. "Modeling strategies for multiple scenarios and fast simulations in large systems: applications to fire safety and energy engineering." Doctoral thesis, Politecnico di Torino, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11583/2643992.
Full textAbstract:
The use of computational modeling has become very popular and important in many engineering and physical fields, as it is considered a fast and inexpensive technique to support and often substitute experimental analysis. In fact system design and analysis can be carried out through computational studies instead of experiments, that are typically demanding in terms of cost and technical resources; sometimes the systems characteristics and the technical problems make the experiments impossible to perform and the use of computational tools is the only feasible option. Demand of resources for realistic simulation is increasing due to the interest in studying complex and large systems. In these framework smart modeling approaches and model reduction techniques play a crucial role for making complex and large system suitable for simulations. Moreover, it should be considered that often more than one simulation is requested in order to perform an analysis. For instance, if a heuristic method is applied to the optimization of a component, the model has to be run a certain number of times. The same problem arises when a certain level of uncertainty affect the system parameters; in this case also many simulation are required for obtaining the desired information. This is the reason why the use of technique that allows to obtain compact model is an interesting topic nowadays.
In this PhD thesis different reduction approaches and strategies have been used in order to analyze three energetic systems involving large domain and long time, one for each reduction approach categories. In all the topic considered, a smart model has been adopted and, when data were available, tested using experimental data. All the model are characterized by large domain and the time involved in the analysis are high in all the cases, therefore a method for compact model achievement is used in all the cases.
The considered topics are:
• Groundwater temperature perturbations due to geothermal heat pump installations, analyzed trough a multi-level model.
• District heating networks (DHN), studied from both the fluid-dynamic and thermal point of view and applied to one of the larger network in Europe, the Turin district heating system (DHS), trough a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition - Radial Basis Function model.
• Forest fire propagation simulation carried out using a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition projection model.