Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
3,845
result(s) for
"Fire safety engineering."
Sort by:
Be safe around fire
\"A young girl teaches her dolls, action figures, and toys the fire safety rules she has just learned in school\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
A Review of Battery Fires in Electric Vehicles
Over the last decade, the electric vehicle (EV) has significantly changed the car industry globally, driven by the fast development of Li-ion battery technology. However, the fire risk and hazard associated with this type of high-energy battery has become a major safety concern for EVs. This review focuses on the latest fire-safety issues of EVs related to thermal runaway and fire in Li-ion batteries. Thermal runaway or fire can occur as a result of extreme abuse conditions that may be the result of the faulty operation or traffic accidents. Failure of the battery may then be accompanied by the release of toxic gas, fire, jet flames, and explosion. This paper is devoted to reviewing the battery fire in battery EVs, hybrid EVs, and electric buses to provide a qualitative understanding of the fire risk and hazards associated with battery powered EVs. In addition, important battery fire characteristics involved in various EV fire scenarios, obtained through testing, are analysed. The tested peak heat release rate (PHHR in MW) varies with the energy capacity of LIBs (EB in Wh) crossing different scales as PHRR=2EB0.6. For the full-scale EV fire test, limited data have revealed that the heat release and hazard of an EV fire are comparable to that of a fossil-fuelled vehicle fire. Once the onboard battery involved in fire, there is a greater difficulty in suppressing EV fires, because the burning battery pack inside is inaccessible to externally applied suppressant and can re-ignite without sufficient cooling. As a result, an excessive amount of suppression agent is needed to cool the battery, extinguish the fire, and prevent reignition. By addressing these concerns, this review aims to aid researchers and industries working with batteries, EVs and fire safety engineering, to encourage active research collaborations, and attract future research and development on improving the overall safety of future EVs. Only then will society achieve the same comfort level for EVs as they have for conventional vehicles.
Journal Article
A Review of Factors Affecting the Burning Behaviour of Wood for Application to Tall Timber Construction
This paper presents a review of the pyrolysis, ignition, and combustion processes associated with wood, for application in tall timber construction. The burning behaviour of wood is complex. However the processes behind pyrolysis, ignition, combustion, and extinction are generally well understood, with good agreement in the fire science literature over a wide range of experimental conditions for key parameters such as critical heat flux for ignition (12 kW/m2 ± 2 kW/m2) and heat of combustion (17.5 MJ/kg ± 2.5 MJ/kg). These parameters are key for evaluating the risks posed by using timber as a construction material. Conversely, extinction conditions are less well defined and understood, with critical mass loss rates for extinction varying from 2.5 g/m2s to 5 g/m2s. A detailed meta-analysis of the fire resistance literature has shown that the rate of burning as characterised by charring rate averaged over the full test duration is observed to vary with material properties, in particular density and moisture content which induce a maximum 18% variability over the ranges expected in design. System properties are also shown to be important, with stochastic phenomena such as delamination and encapsulation failure resulting in changes to the charring rate that cannot be easily predicted. Finally, the fire exposure as defined by incident heat flux has by far the largest effect on charring rates over typical heat fluxes experienced in compartment fires. Current fire design guidance for engineered timber products is largely prescriptive, relying on fixed “charring rates” and “zero-strength layers” for structural analyses, and typically prescribing gypsum encapsulation to prevent or delay the involvement of timber in a fire. However, it is clear that the large body of scientific knowledge that exists can be used to explicitly address the fire safety issues that the use of timber introduces. However the application of this science in real buildings is identified as a key knowledge gap which if explored, will enable improved efficiencies and innovations in design.
Journal Article
Guidelines for determining the probability of ignition of a released flammable mass
\"Complemented by an estimating tool spreadsheet based on a fixed set of chemicals to assist in all siting studies, [Guidelines for determining the probability of ignition of a released flammable mass] converts a \"best guess\" to a calculated value based on available information and current technology. The text provides a technology-based approach to deriving the probability that a flammable mass will find an ignition source and ignite. It offers valuable information in the development of a facility's Emergency Response Plan\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Factors Affecting the Fire Safety Design of Photovoltaic Installations Under Performance-Based Regulations in Norway
The impact of Photovoltaic (PV) installations on the fire safety of buildings must be considered in all building projects where such energy systems are established. The holistic fire safety of the building largely depends on how the fire safety of the PV installation is considered by the different actors during the design and construction process. Research has therefore been undertaken to study how performance-based regulations in combination with the lack of national guidelines affect the overall fire safety considerations for PV installations in Norway. Four factors were found to govern to which extent PV installations are emphasised in the fire safety design phase: (1) whether the building was first of its kind as a pioneering building, (2) whether the building was built before or after the publication of the 2018 revision of the norm NEK 400, (3) The level of knowledge and experience of the fire safety consultant, which in turn affects the use of performance-based engineering tools and the level of detailing in the design and construction phases, and (4) The degree of integration in the building. The main goal of the study is to give an insight and a contribution to the development of in-depth knowledge on how fire safety design for PV installations on buildings is handled in Norway, which may also be relevant to other countries with similar performance-based regulations.
Journal Article
The Digital Transformation in Fire Safety Engineering over the Past Decade Through Building Information Modelling: A Review
Building information modelling (BIM) is widely considered to be leading the digital transformation of the AEC industry because of its data management capabilities among different stakeholders and across the building life-cycle. Fire safety engineering (FSE) is one of the disciplines that has been excluded for a long time from integrated approaches such as BIM, even though ensuring fire safety is a fundamental aspect of building performance. This paper presents a systematic literature review of BIM–FSE integration methodologies to highlight its potentialities for building life-cycle management and the digital transformation of the AEC domain. The findings show that the majority of BIM–FSE applications are focused on fire and evacuation simulations, followed by detection, monitoring and real-time emergency management. Technologies that are often involved in BIM-based fire safety solutions are CFD-based technologies, game- augmented and virtual reality, and the internet of things. Native formats are the most used for data sharing, while open standards still lack adequate data structures for FSE applications. The review highlights the benefits, embedded potentialities and limitations of the BIM–FSE integration in a decade of research studies. Future research directions for the digital transformation of FSE through BIM are proposed in a research agenda.
Journal Article
Sensor-Based Monitoring of Fire Precursors in Timber Wall and Ceiling Assemblies: Research Towards Smarter Embedded Detection Systems
The movement towards low-emission and sustainable building practices has driven increased use of natural, carbon-based materials such as wood. While these materials offer significant environmental advantages, their inherent flammability introduces new challenges for timber building safety. Despite advancements in fire protection standards and building regulations, the risk of fire incidents—whether from technical failure, human error, or intentional acts—remains. The rapid detection of fire onset is crucial for safeguarding human life, animal welfare, and valuable assets. This study investigates the potential of monitoring fire precursor gases emitted inside building structures during pre-ignition and early combustion stages. The research also examines the sensitivity and effectiveness of commercial smoke detectors compared with custom sensor arrays in detecting these emissions. A representative structural sample was constructed and subjected to a controlled fire scenario in a laboratory setting, providing insights into the integration of gas sensing technologies for enhanced fire resilience in sustainable building systems.
Journal Article
A paradigm for building fire safety
The aim of this study is to describe the fire safety paradigm using the concept of T. Kuhn, its components, and its role and significance for the further development of construction science, particularly the fire safety of buildings. The components of the fire safety paradigm form a complex structure (system) that is presented graphically to illustrate the interconnections and interactions between them. This structure is built by analogy with a three-dimensional coordinate system using linguistic quantities. Currently, it is not yet possible to assign a sequence of numbers representing the coordinates of a point in the space of this system. The three axes of this system determine the major groups of paradigm elements: – fire safety; – components; – activities and inputs. For each group, the components were distinguished and then briefly described and characterized, emphasizing their mutual connections and importance for the fire safety of buildings. Some significant gaps in the systemic approach to fire safety in the EU were discussed and illustrated by the example of the Grenfell Tower fire in London. The paradigm described is universal, and its universality is based on the possession of certain common attributes characteristic of the fire safety environment and their interpretation, as well as on the manner in which fire safety entities implement them. A paradigm shift will result in the introduction of a fire toxicity criterion for the assessment of construction products, which, for unknown reasons, has so far only been implemented in relation to cables. The second necessary amendment is the addition of a requirement for the spread of fires on building facades.
Journal Article
Review of the Use of Fire Dynamics Theory in Fire Service Activities
The work of the fire service has changed during the last decades from being essentially operational to include a larger variety of activities to increase fire safety in society. Also, the theoretical understanding of fire development, fire dynamics in buildings and fire safety engineering have improved. There are several good examples of areas were fire dynamics theories have supported and improved the fire service activities associated with building fire safety during the last decades. Despite such examples the quality of knowledge transfer between theory and research, and the more practical arena, such as fire service activities is sometimes questionable. This paper includes a systematic literature review and an interview study that is used to discuss how fire dynamics is used to support fire service activities today and where the use of fire dynamics theory could or should be increased in the future. It is found in the paper that fire dynamics theories are currently used more in the preventative and investigative areas than in the operational area of fire service activities. The primary reasons for this is that the timeframe is much shorter in the latter and that there are established procedures and tactics that work well for the common operational situations. However, there is a potential to use fire dynamics theories more in the operational area when it comes to events that occurs less frequent and with a longer duration than for example the normal compartment fire. In general, there is room for improvement of the use of fire dynamics in the fire service and a way forward could be a stronger link between theory and practice in education and training.
Journal Article