Theme Title
Fire Modelling, Material Flammability and Fire Dynamics
Theme Description
The overall aim is to improve fire safety by making computer modelling (computational fluid
dynamics (CFD), and finite element analysis (FEA)) credible to be able to predict the fire
sizes and hazards for people and infrastructure in real fire situations so that costly large
scale testing becomes not necessary. To achieve this aim, one has to be able to determine
key flammability properties of materials using micro-scale mg sample experiments (i.e.
TGA/FTIR/ATR/MS/Tube Furnace) and meso-scale experiments in the cone calorimeter
(using ambient air or controlled oxygen concentration). Using these properties and numerical
simulations, the intent is to predict the fire development in larger-scale experiments
performed in FireSERT. Among others, some areas of possible concentration for PhD topics
addressing these issues are: Soot, Carbon Monoxide and Radiation in Pool Fires:
experiments and modelling, Fire dynamics of fires in enclosures with a façade for high rise
buildings, Experimental and numerical investigation of glazing in fires, Modification and
validation of CFD codes (FDS and OPENFOAM), Smoke management design and
interaction with ventilation in atria and Design of fire safe materials from first principles
(molecular dynamics): material flammability properties including fire retardants, intumescent
coatings, extinction and ignition.
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
The Fire Dynamics and Material Lab (FML) at FireSERT is equipped with advanced
experimental apparatus capable of detailed measurements of both thermal degradation of
mg samples and burning of complex materials in large-scale tests. Monitoring techniques
have been well established at FML, including traditional measurements such as
thermocouples for temperature, bi-directional probes for velocity, smoke meter, radiometers,
and carbon monoxide analyser as well as advanced measurements including infrared
cameras for flame temperature and particle image velocimetry (PIV) for velocity. Fore
numerical simulation, FML has not only dedicated workstations but also access to UK
national high performance computing facility.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/
Theme Title
Functional Materials and Combustion Chemistry
Theme Description
Polymeric materials, whether natural or synthetic, will undergo substantial thermal- and/or
thermo-oxidative degradations under the influence of external heat fluxes. This often results
in small molecular weight fragments that are usually volatile, and therefore could form a
gaseous flammable mixture, which in turn could subsequently undergo flaming combustion.
The combustion of polymeric materials is a very complex phenomenon, encompassing the
vapour phase, the condensed phase and the interphases.
The underpinnings physio-chemical phenomena during the degradation and combustion of
polymeric materials is very fundamental from the point of view of formulating novel functional
and fire safe and materials, as well in relation to recycling, and hence, generating energy
and sustainability within our built environments.
Having gained an extensive insight into the degradation behaviours, flammability
characteristics and flame retardation of several commodity thermoplastics, and their
modified functional counterparts, our attention in recent years has also turned to the
combustion of more complex solid fuels. This, we believe, would be prudent and highly
desirable given our quest to explore and excel in areas from waste management (energy
from domestic refuse waste) to space exploration (hybrid-rocket propulsion). Active research
and fruitful collaboration in these areas, even in a relatively short period of time, have
already also proved to be very successful.
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
The research environment, primarily, will consist of the small- to medium-scale experimental
facilities and instrumentation available with the laboratories of School of the Built
Environment. This includes: wet chemistry provisions for syntheses of novel flame retardant
formulations and materials; thermal- and thermo-oxidative characterization techniques;
combustion and flammability evaluations; spectroscopic and the associated hyphenated
techniques. Complementary analytical facilities, and several specialized instruments for
surface, morphological and structural characterization of the synthesized materials, are also
available with School of Engineering. Scaling up and the production of adequate quantities
of polymeric materials also can be achieved through utilizing the existing polymer processing
facilities within School of the Built Environment.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/
Theme Title
Fundamental Physics and Chemistry for the Design of Fire Safe
Materials
Theme Description
The development of new materials and new fire retardants to replace, for example,
brominated fire retardants makes it imperative to develop new methods, such as molecular
dynamics, to characterize their flammability performance from measurements in mg
quantities and also to advance the design of fire safe materials based on first principles.
Such a development will allow the prediction of the fire behaviour of materials in real fires
including fire growth and toxic (smoke and gases) production using intrinsic flammability
properties. This methodology is emerging from long experience in material flammability and
fire dynamics that has been supported by recent work in the European PREDFIRE NANO,
FIRENET project, EPSRC (UK), the European project ENFIRO on environmentally
compatible fire retardants, the AIRCRAFTFIRE project for epoxy carbon fiber composites
and the ELISSA project for lightweight facades. The molecularly based modelling techniques
will include molecular dynamics and quantum chemistry. These methods can become
practical for polymer nanocomposites by using reactive molecular dynamics (R_MD) where
the forcefields will be provided from quantum chemistry of the major bond dissociation
reactions whereas the overall decomposition rate will be determined by kinetic MonteCarlo
(KMC).
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
The Fire Dynamics and Material Lab (FML) at FireSERT is equipped with a range of
advanced micro-scale experimental apparatus capable of detailed measurements of thermal
degradation of mg samples, including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), attenuated total
reflectance (ATR), tube furnace and two cone calorimeters. These apparatus are
supplemented with advance analytical software, For molecular dynamics modelling, FML
has not only dedicated workstations but also access to UK national high performance
computing facility.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/
Theme Title
Human Behaviour in Fire
Theme Description
Human Behaviour in Fire (HBiF) is the study of human response to fire in buildings,
structures and transportation systems. It includes an understanding of peoples’ awareness,
beliefs, attitudes, motivations, decisions, behaviours and coping strategies and influencing
factors. The study of HBiF is highly multidisciplinary, involving practitioners from the fields of
mathematics, engineering, architecture, computer science, sociology, psychology, human
factors, and ergonomics. The primary aim of human behaviour research is to minimise the
risk to people from fire. This is achieved by generating and collecting quantitative and
qualitative data and information on human responses which can be used to develop
response theory for use in performance based design, evacuation modelling, fire safety
education and management.
Research projects in any of the following, or any other justifiable related research area, are
welcome:
Response Behaviour – responses to fire cues, role and impact of authority figures, impact
of culture, vulnerable populations (children, elderly, disabled), group behaviours, human
behaviour in domestic settings.
Flow Dynamics - movement of mixed ability populations, impact of changing demographics,
stair usage (merging, fatigue); behaviours associated with use of stairs, elevators,
escalators.
Procedural Interventions - influence of training on behaviours, assistive evacuation
techniques, quantifying the impact of community fire safety programmes.
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
Supervisors have worked and published in the field of human behaviour in fire for many
years. Students will be based in the FireSERT laboratories with other Phd students,
researchers and academic staff. The nature of the work will depend on the proposed topic
but may involve (in addition to desk top research) experimental work (laboratory or field),
surveys, interview studies of survivors of real fires etc. Potential monitoring/measuring
equipment are available ie cameras, eye-tracking equipment and the research team have
links to other departments in the University eg Sports Science where more specialist
movement monitoring equipment is available.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/
Theme Title
Risk Assessment for Fire Protection Design
Theme Description
Performance-based design for fire protection is now routinely applied for the fire safety
design in the built environment. Fire safety design relies on the interaction of several
systems starting from ignition, fire growth, detector activation, fire alarm, smoke
management, automatic suppressions, passive protection, human behaviour and fire
brigades. Risk analysis is required to assess the hazard associated with a fire safety design
system because the operation of the system depends on several (typically hundreds)
scenarios and the reliability of mitigation systems (i.e. detection, suppression, evacuation).
Event trees are used to examine the probability and consequence for each scenario and the
designed engineering systems. Usually, the generation of the event tree is carried out by
hand, and, as a result, is troublesome and prone to errors. In this project, the event tree can
be generated automatically using a multi-agent method and Bayesian networks. The multiagent method and Bayesian networks will be combined with deterministic and probabilistic
models for the creation of event trees. Deterministic (fire) models will be used to predict fire
growth and smoke transport while probabilistic models to determine the occurrence of
events and scenarios. Each scenario from possible fires and events will be analysed and the
associated risks will be estimated. Fire growth and spread will be illustrated via a dynamic
graphic display. Designs of alternatives for fire-engineered systems with the low risk can
then be identified. Special consideration will be given to the design of the smoke
management system and its interaction with automatic sprinkler or other types of fire
suppression.
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
The research projects will be based mainly on computer modelling. The Fire Dynamics and
Material Lab (FML) at FireSERT has been working towards developing a comprehensive
methodology for risk assessment for fire protection design in combing fire modelling with
Monte Carlo modelling (probability model) in the an agent-based environment. The
methodology validated only in simple geometries will be applied to more complex
applications such as schools, offices or high-rise buildings. For computer modelling
resources, FML has not only dedicated workstations but also access to UK national high
performance computing facility.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/
Theme Title
Structures and Materials Behaviour in Fires
Theme Description
The principal thrust is the experimental evaluation of the structural behaviour in fire of a
variety of materials and structural assemblies. The focus is on the principal building
materials i.e. steel, concrete, brickwork, timber, Fiber Reinforced Plastic “FRP”, flooring
systems, Facades Glazing panel systems and compartmentation. The second thrust is the
study of the correlation between thermo-structural response and the quantification of thermal
onslaught and transmission, seeking definitions of fire severity on structures. Fire testing
studies examined furnace severity on both the large scale and indicative furnaces at
FireSERT, complying with European Standards, enable direct correlation to end user needs.
In examining the behaviour of structural assemblies in fire, the principal objective of
FireSERT’s research is to use experimental parametric studies to provide comprehensive
scale model test data. This informs design guidance within a limit state philosophy
(parametric experimental data linked to computer simulations forming the basis of statistical
and sensitivity analyses). For cost effective research FireSERT also have a number of small
purpose designed furnaces for this research work. The Structural Fire Engineering Current
Principal Research Programmes Focus On:
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Localised Experimental and Analysis of Compartment fire tests using pool fires.
Fire resistance of Ultra high strength concrete columns, beams and slabs with
reference to spalling
Behaviour of composite floor and offshore platform systems in fires
Steel and concrete elements in extreme fire environment including protection
Behaviour of Glazing Façade Panel System in Tall Buildings
Outline of the Research Environment in which this theme will take place e.g. facilities,
equipment etc
FireSERT has state of the art research facilities which are virtually unique within a university
setting. These include a 600m2 burn hall which houses a range of calorimeters including a
ten-megawatt facility for full-scale research. Large-scale combination wall and floor furnaces
together with intermediate/small scale furnaces facilitate experimental research and product
development. Equipment to be used in this project is listed as: crane, data logging systems,
thermocouples, LVDTS, large furnace, load cells, hydraulic loading equipment, dynamic
loading equipment. Concrete lab including using concrete mixers, vibrating table, curing
tanks.
http://beri.ulster.ac.uk/