Fire Safety Engineering for the Modern Built Environment

1. Fire Safety Engineering for the Modern Built Environment Integrated Emergency Response Model for the 21st Century

2. Mont Blanc Piper Alpha WTC Kobe Kings Cross

3. Typical Fire Event Building Critical 1st Room Critical 1st Floor Critical 100% Evacuation Structural Integrity time Collapse

4. Response Building Critical 1st Room Critical 1st Floor Critical 100% Structural Integrity Evacuation time Collapse

5. Better Response Building Critical 1st Room Critical 1st Floor Critical 100% Structural Integrity Evacuation time

6. Why FireGrid? • Effective response to emergencies (natural and man made) requires accurate & timely information of its evolution • Effective fire response requires consideration of emergency scenarios at the earliest stages of fire safety design • Simulation of fire+structure/human response mature enough to directly assist design, responder training and ultimately actual response • Integration of Grid, HPC and sensor technology offers the potential of super-real-time or “forecast” capability

7. What is FireGrid • SENSING • TRANSMISSION • ANALYSIS/DECISION/PHASE 1 RESPONSE • MODELLING/SIMULATION • FORECAST • FEEDBACK • ANALYSIS/DECISION/PHASE 2 RESPONSE

8. FireGrid Technologies 1000s of sensors & gateway processing Emergency Responders KBS and Planning Grid Maps, models, scenarios Super-real-time simulation (HPC)

9. sensor rich built environments

10. Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire TIME (min) Events Consequences Fire detected 0 Emergency assessment too slow! Lack of co-ordination b/w 2 sides too many vehicles enter tunnel 10 1st Decision 15 1st Response 20 French Fire Br. 25 Italian Fire Br. 39 dead! Traffic stopped Fans turned on in wrong direction! Enhancement of smoke and fire Intervention made difficult by poor initial response

11. Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire & FireGrid Events TIME (min) Consequences application Pre-emergency response planning Many scenarios generated x- Use in ‘Design’ Mode Co-ordination Preparedness Case-based training Sensors channel info to C&C 0+ Fire detected ‘Emergency Response’ Mode Traffic stopped 1st Decision ~1 Select pre-designed scenario matches Escalation: Alert Experts, Commandeer resources Early forecasts Better emergency assessment Better emergency planning Sensor driven simulations initialised Emergency magnitude minimised C&C tasks emergency responders 20 Fire Brigades Effective intervention Lives saved!

12. FireGrid Architecture Sensor analysis & data assimilation Emergency responders Command & control system Fire Maps Models HPC Structures Egress

13. Technology integrations

14. A series of projects • FireGrid Consortium (EPSRC funded network) • Bringing together the parties needed to make the vision a reality • Deliver: workshops, community building, research framework • FireGrid Prototype - (DTI Technology Programme) • Undertake the research needed to integrate the core technologies • Deliver. research papers, technical understanding, FireGrid Mk 1 • Advanced research topics - EPSRC • Exploit the research opportunities provided by the technology • Deliver: better models (exp-comp integration), technologies, etc. • Deployment demonstrator (Industry, DTI, EU) • Undertake the R&D needed to deploy the system in practice • Deliver: deployed FireGrid systems, commercial framework

15. Consortium Emergency Response Insurance Designers Software Vendors High-risk Facilities Research Labs Universities Training Core Teams

16. Research Challenges • Integration of many existing technologies • The challenges are real but achievable • Performance-based design for the built environment • Taking building design to the next level • New emergency response paradigm • Sensor networks, Grid, Modelling, HPC, KBS & Planning • Plan and store scenarios in advance • Stimulate further research • R&D of new safety systems and strategies • New sensor technologies • Improved modelling techniques • Grid technologies and operation

17. Modelling & Simulation • Fire modelling tools • FDS, the CFD/LES model from NIST • Josefine (ex. Jasmine and Sofie) from BRE • CFX, the commercial package from ANSYS-CFX • Simplified models (e.g. Zone models) • Hybrid models (extrapolation based on simple & CFD models) for super-real time response • Structures (heat transfer to fire and structural response) • ABAQUS, general FEM commercial package • ADAPTIC from Imperial College • Analytical models (slab and beams) • Egress • Many codes, we will use CRISP (BRE)

18. Loosely-Coupled Simulation on HPC • Super-real-time forecast capability in coupled models • Fire (CFD) • Structures (FEM) • Egress • Models & model components enabled as Grid services • Use of OpenMP to convert sequential codes • As required • ABAQUS & FDS now available for HPC platforms • Remote Access to • high performance systems via Grid scheduling and workflow management • distributed databases of model input data via Grid

19. Structural response to fire

20. Structural response to fire

21. FireGrid Exploitation • Major testbed for: • sensor design • fire modelling • emergency response planning • Grid • Enable design and testing of • emergency response scenarios • fire safety strategies • new active control systems • responder training • Set up a grid based consulting service to • support fire safety related engineering companies • provide modelling support to researchers and industry

22. Following talks related to FireGrid • Fire Emergency Response Scenarios (Jim Golt: LFEPA) • Fire Simulation (Jose Torero: Univ. of Edinburgh) • Sensor Technologies (Farrukh Alavi: Queen Mary, Univ. of London) • Networks and Communication issuse (Steve McLaughlin: UoE) • Exploiting the e-Science infrastructure (Dave Berry: NeSC, UoE)

23. Thank You