Recent Trend in Fire Research

1. Recent Trend in Fire Research by Professor Jennifer X Wen School of Engineering Kingston University

2. Mankind has learnt to make use of fires more than 1.7 million years ago, far earlier than many scientists have assumed…… (Science News, April 29, 2000)

3. The Firewalks Are human mind and body more powerful than the fire?

4. The Kings Cross Fire- Wednesday 18th November 1987

5. The Bush Fires in Australia

6. The World Trade Centre Fire

7. “It takes a disaster to make one cautious” (Eddie Foy, 1903) - a well-known entertainer who made this remark after witnessing the Iroquois Theatre Fire in Chicago which killed 602 people in just 8 minutes.

8. Relative impact of fire among different nations(Richardson 2000)

9. Some further statistics for USA from a 1991 survey • The total loss of life and injury to fire had decreased over recent decades; • Still high with 4000 deaths, including about 100 fire fighter deaths, annually; • 100,000 debilitating fire injuries; • Direct fire losses to property today are over $10 billion • The total economic burden of fire turned out to be a whopping $128 billion.

10. Brief History of Fire Research • World war II • The National Bureau of Standards (USA) was founded in 1901 and its Fire Research Program started shortly after that. • The Building Research Establishment’s (UK) Fire Research Station established in 1948 • The 1st Int. Symp. on Fire Safety Science held in 1986 • The Int. Association for Fire Safety Science was founded at the Symp. • The 8th Int. Symp. to take place in China 2005

11. A process of combustion characterized by the emission of heat accompanied by smoke or flame, or both. Combustion spreading uncontrolled in time and space Definition of Fireby the International Standards Organisation (1987)

12. The Fire TriangleH W Emmons (Harvard University 1973) FUEL HEATOxygen Transfer Processes

13. Fire Physics and Chemistry • Materials - ignition, fire retardant properties, flame spread… • Smoke - toxicity and toxic hazard, visibility through fire smoke, smoke spread … • Risk, hazard and statistics • Suppression • People and fires - Human reactions

14. The Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM • Established in 1985. • 15 membersfrom Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States and 24 corresponding members. • The FORUM meets annually and co-hosts a national symposium for bringing international attention and expertise to issues concerning the advance of fire safety engineering in the host’s country. • Past symposia have addressed issues such as advancing fire safety engineering, performance- based codes, and developing fire research capacity.

15. The Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM • GOAL • Reduce the human and economic losses to fire, • Reduce the burdens of fire and fire safety on business and multi-nationals, • Open access to global markets for product manufacturers, • Reduce risk exposure, • Enable deregulation/reform, and leverage scarce resources, • Enhance the public good and quality of life.

16. A GLOBAL AGENDA FOR FIRE RESEARCH • The FORUM proposes as a strategy for accomplishing this goal the following steps: • Form Global Network and organization to service it. • Develop the Global Fire Research Agenda. • Develop participation in and financial support of it. • Form collaborative teams to carry out the research and deliver results.

17. Objectives of Research Agenda and Major Research Topics • 1. Incident and risk data, and supporting infrastructure • Web-based data - incident, denominator, and cost; • Risk modeling tools;. . . • 2. Facilitate development of innovative products and services • Better, lower cost, lower loss, e.g. designer polymers, advanced composites, with demonstrated value added,. . . • 3. Develop tools for product acceptance and differentiation • Test methods and standards that are scientifically- based, harmonized, and with legacy links;

18. Objectives of Research Agenda and Major Research Topics • 4. Develop improved fire protection and fire fighting technologies • Advanced suppression, sensing, control; Suppressant delivery; Fireground tools & electronics, advanced equipment.. . • 5. Enable and promote performance- based codes and regulations. • Verified quantitative tools and models, data, demonstrations, value added, consistency.. . • 6. Provide human objectives and behavioural data and tools • Desired/acceptable levels of risk, values • Fire & risk perceptions; behaviors, tenability, motivation,. . .

19. Objectives of Research Agenda and Major Research Topics • Conduct use-inspired fundamental fire research to support above. • Mechanisms, Fire dynamics, Consequences, ...

20. The Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM • SOME NOTABLE PRODUCTS • A survey of computer-based fire model written by Ray Friedman of Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FMRC) in 1990/1 • Initiated cooperative research projects involving a number of member institutes, e.g. Heat flux measurement (NIST) • International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) Working Commission W14 on Fire • International Organization for Standardization (EO) activities

21. The Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research-FORUM • Past Chair (1984-2001)– Jack Snell, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA • Current Chair (2001 onwards) – Paul Croce, Factory Mutual Global, USA.

22. Technical Basis for Performance Based Fire Regulations - A Discussion of Capabilities, Needs and Benefits of Fire Safety Engineering January 7-11,2001, San Diego, CA. • Paul Croce made a speech on the future of fire research in which he called for “USE-INSPIRED APPLIED RESEARCH”

23. Fire Research Networks • United Kingdom • Fire Engineering Research Networks (FERN, led by Prof. Jim Shields of Univ. of Ulster) • Human Behaviour Fire Engineering Research Networks (HUBFERN, also led by Prof. Jim Shields) • Fire Chemistry Research Networks, led by Dr. Richard Hull of Bolton Institute) • Europe • Research Training Networks in Under-Ventilated Compartment Fires (FIRENET, led by Prof. Jennifer Wen, Kingston University)

24. Some outcome from these networks • A joint research proposal on Fire-Safe Composite Materials by Design - a Feasibility Study • Bolton Institute, Kingston University, University of Edinburgh and University of Ulster • Another joint platform proposal is under preparation.

26. Backdraft Experiments at Lund University(sub-contractor in EC funded FIRENET project)

27. Under-ventilated Compartment Fires- 1.5 m Euro EC Funded Project

28. Compartment Fire Experiments at LCD-CNRS(Ensma-Poltiers, Partner in FIRENT)

29. Galzing response experiments New £6 m Fire Safety Engineering Research Facility Behaviour of Glazing Systems in Enclosure Fires (FireSERT, University of Ulster - partner in FIRENET)

30. The World Trade Centre Fires11 September 2002 • NIST (USA) was given $6M to investigate the resulting fires from the aircraft impact and the collapse of the towers

31. Recovered World Trade Center Steelfrom NIST Investigation of the World Trade Centre Fire

32. Key Findings (1) – Innovative Structural System • The fire protection of a truss-supported floor system by directly applying spray-on fireproofing was innovative and not consistent with prevailing practice at the time of construction. • The fireproofing thickness (specified to meet a 2-hour fire endurance rating) was 1/2 inch at construction and was upgraded on some floors to 1-1/2 inches prior to Sept. 11, 2001. • Unrelated to the WTC buildings, a model code evaluation system service recommended in June 2001 a minimum thickness of 2 inches for a similar floor system to achieve the 2-hour fire rating.

33. Key Findings (1) – Innovative Structural System (cond.) • The three-to-four-fold difference (between 1/2 inch and 2 inches) in specifying the fireproofing thickness to meet the required fire rating is extraordinarily large and confirms the lack of technical basis in selecting a thickness. • While the building designers recognized the benefits of conducting a full-scale fire endurance test to determine the required fireproofing thickness, no such tests were conducted on the floor system used in the WTC towers (NIST will be conducting this test later this summer). • If a “structural frame” approach (considering that the floor truss was connected to the interior and perimeter columns, essentially forming a single structural unit) had been used, the needed fire rating would likely have been 3 hours, as it was for the perimeter columns alone.

34. Computer Simulations of World Trade Center from NIST Investigation of the World Trade Centre Fire

35. Key Findings (2) – NIST computer simulations • Flames in a given location lasted about 20 minutes before spreading to adjacent, yet unburned combustibles, and that this spread was generally continuous because of the even distribution of combustibles throughout the floors and the lack of interior partitions.

36. Key Findings (3) – NIST commissioned wind tunnel tests • The results of two sets of wind tunnel tests on the WTC towers conducted by independent laboratories in 2002 show 40% differences in resultant forces on the structures. • NIST is conducting an independent analysis to establish the baseline performance of the WTC towers under the original design wind loads and will compare those wind load estimates with the then-prevailing code requirements.

37. More findings can be found at the NIST web site • http://www.wtc.nist.gov