Schoolof EngineeringUniversityof Edinburgh
IntroductiontoFireDynamicsforStructuralEngineers
byDrGuillermoRein
TrainingSchoolforYoungResearchersCOSTTU0904,Malta,April2012
Textbooks
Introduction to fire Dynamicsby Dougal Drysdale, 3rd Edition,
Wiley 2011
Principles of Fire Behaviorby James G. Quintiere
~65
~170
The SFPE Handbook of Fire protection Engineering, 4th Edition, 2009
~46
FireService/Sprinkler
RoomCritical
FloorCritical
BuildingCritical
100%
time
Structural Integrity
P
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s
s
C
o
m
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l
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t
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Progressive collapse
Untenable conditions
FireSafety:protectLives,PropertyandBusiness
from Physical Parameters Affecting Fire Growth,Torero and Rein, CRCpress
Boundaryat256sH
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l
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a
s
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(
k
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Time
DisciplineBoundaries
Fire StructuresHeat Transfer
Fire & Structures
Fire
Fire & Structures
Failure of structures at
550+X CStructures
LameSubstitutionof1st kind
Structures
Fire & Structures
0
300
600
900
1200
0.1 1.1 2.1 3.1Burning Time [hr]
Fire
LameSubstitutionof2nd kind
Fire & Structures
0
300
600
900
1200
0.1 1.1 2.1 3.1Burning Time [hr]
Failure of structures at
550+X C
LameSubstitutionof3rd kind
Before ignition After 5 minutes After 15 minutes
Ignition fuelexposedtoheat Material start to decompose giving off gasses:
pyrolysis
Ignition takes place when a flammable mixture of fuel vapours is formed over the fuel surface
PyrolysisvideoIris Chang and Frances Radford, 2011 MEng project
0 50 100 150 2000
50
100
150
200
250
300 Classical theory (best fit)
Apparatus AFM Cone calorimeter FPA FIST LIFT Others apparatus with tungsten lamps heat source Others apparatus with flame heat source
Experimental conditions
No black carbon coating or no information Black carbon coating Vertical sample Controled atmsophere (18% < O2 < 30%) Miscellaneous
Dashed area = experimental error Time = 2s Heat flux = +12 / -2 % [35]
TimetoignitionTimetoignitionExperimental data for PMMA (polymer) from the literature. Thick samples
2
e
oigig q
TTck
4t
Heatflux
T
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t
o
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n
i
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Flammability
VideofromWPI(USA)Effect of heat Release Rate on Flame height
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B9-bZCCUxU&feature=player_embedded
Burningrate(perunitarea)
phq
m
from Quintiere, Principles of Fire Behaviour
Firepower HeatReleaseRate Heat release rate (HRR) is the power of the fire (energy
release per unit time)
AmhmhQ cc Heat Release Rate (kW) - evolves with time
Heat of combustion (kJ/kg-fuel) ~ constant
Burning rate (kg/s) - evolves with time
Burning rate per unit area (m2) ~ constant
Burning area (m2) - evolves with timeAmmh
Q
c
Note: the heat of reaction is negative for exothermic reaction, but in combustion this is always the case, so we will drop the sign from the heat of combustion for the sake of simplicity
1.
2.
3.
HeatofCombustion
from Introduction to fire Dynamics, Drysdale, Wiley
*IGNITION GROWTH MASS BURNING
Burningarea
area of the fire A increasing with time
AA
A
AmhQ c
HBurnoutandtravellingflames
mHt outb
near burn-out,location running out of fuel
Recently ignited by flame
burn-out
a)
b)
FlameSpreadvs.Angle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gcFX9jLGc
Rateofflamespreadoverstripsofthinsamplesofbalsawoodatdifferentanglesof15,90,15and0.
TestconductedbyAledBeswickBEng2009
On a uniform layer of fuel ignited, spread is circular
22
22
constantS if
rate spread flame
tSmhAmhQStRA
StR
SdtdR
cc
S
222 ttSmhQ c
R
Flamespread
if flame spread is ~constant, the fire grows as t2
A
~material properties
Tabulated fire-growths of different fire typestsquaregrowthfires
8
6
4
2
00 240 480 720 960
slow
mediumfastultra-fast2tQ
time (s)
H
R
R
(
M
W
)
Sofafire
Peak HRR= 3 MW
Average HRR ~1 MW
residual burning+ smouldering
from NIST http://fire.nist.gov/fire/fires
growth burn-out
FireTestatBREcommissionedbyArup20094x4x2.4m smallpremiseinshoppingmall
190s
285s
316s
0500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
H
R
R
(
k
W
)
Time (seconds)
FireTestatBREcommissionedbyArup20094x4x2.4m smallpremiseinshoppingmall
Suppressionwith water
Freeburningvs.Confinedburning
Time (s)B
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(
g
/
m
2
.
s
)
Experimental data from slab of PMMA (0.76m x 0.76m) at unconfined and
confined conditions
confined free burning
Smoke and walls radiate downwards to fuel items in the compartments
phq
m
What is flashover?Sudden period of very rapid growth caused by generalized ignition of fuel items in the room.
Some indicators: Average smoke temperature of ~500-600 C Heat flux ~20 kW/m2 at floor level Flames out of openings (ventilation controlled)
NOTE: These three are not definitions but indicators only
Suddenandgeneralizedignition(flashover)
Mechanism for flashover:Fire produces a plume of hot smoke
Hot smoke layer accumulates under the ceiling
Hot smoke and heated surfaces radiate downwards
Flame spread rate and rate of secondary ignition increases
Rate of burning increases
Firepower larger and smoke hotterFeedback
loop
Flashover
Compartmentfires
(a) growth period(b) fully developed fire(c) decay period
(a)
(b)
(c)
H
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a
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(
k
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Time
Fire development in a compartment - rate of heat release as a function of time
flashover
foQ
maxQ
DisciplineBoundaries
Fire StructuresHeat Transfer
Fire & Structures
GI GO
Iftheinputisincomplete/flawed,thesubsequentanalysisisflawedandcannotbetrustedfordesign
Fireistheinput(boundarycondition)tosubsequentstructuresanalysis
DesignFires
The Titanic complied with all codes.
Lawyers can make any device legal,
only engineers can make them safe"Prof VM BranniganUniversity of Maryland
TraditionalDesignFires
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240
Time (minutes)
T
e
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p
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r
a
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(
C
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EC - Short
EC - Long
Standard
Standard Fire ~1917 Swedish Curves ~1972 Eurocode Parametric Curve ~1995
Traditionalmethodsarebasedonexperimentsconductedinsmallcompartment experiments(~3m3)
1. Traditionalmethodsassumeuniform fires thatleadtouniformfiretemperatures(?)
2. Traditionalmethodshavebeensaidtobeconservative(?)
Stern-Gottfried et al, Fire Risk Management 2009
TraditionalMethods
Limitations
Forexample,limitationsaccordingEurocode:
Nearrectangular enclosures Floorareas
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