{"title":"Research on Fire Smoke Characteristics and Key Factor Evaluation in High-Altitude Traffic Tunnels","authors":"Keqing Yang, Jianchun Sun, Fen Xiang, Shiyong Yang, Weihao Ling","doi":"10.1002/fam.3263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3263","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Given the seriousness of fire safety issues in high-altitude traffic tunnels, it is essential to investigate the spatial temperature characteristics under the coupling of multiple factors and their correlation with fire safety elements. This study systematically conducted full-scale simulation analyses of highway tunnels to reveal the distribution of transverse and longitudinal spatial temperature as well as the longitudinal smoke diffusion patterns. Based on the simulation data, an integrated approach utilizing orthogonal test analysis, deviation analysis, and sensitivity analysis was employed to explore the impacts of various factors, including altitude, the transverse position of the fire source, fire scale, and wind speed, on tunnel fire safety. The results indicate that the influence of altitude on the longitudinal temperature along the arch and the position of spatial cross-section characteristic points varies. Longitudinal ventilation speed is a relatively key factor affecting tunnel fire safety, particularly in terms of arch temperature and smoke backflow length, where its impact is significant. Additionally, fire scale has a notable impact on evacuation safety, with its overall influence ranking just below that of wind speed. In contrast, altitude and fire source position have relatively minor effects on tunnel fire safety. Inadequate longitudinal ventilation hinders the escape of personnel during tunnel fires, indicating that the design and operation of ventilation systems should be prioritized in fire prevention and control strategies. The findings of this study have significant practical implications for optimizing fire prevention and response capabilities in high-altitude tunnels.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"233-246"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143447093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adoption of Heat Insulation Materials for Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Blanket Coating and Earlier Fire Alarming","authors":"H. S. Zhen, B. F. Yang, Q. W. Tang, Z. L. Wei","doi":"10.1002/fam.3269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3269","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article presents a comprehensive study of the insulation materials used for lithium-ion battery fire blanket coatings. First, a novel testing method is introduced to quantify the impact of insulating agents on the softness and wraparound capabilities of the blanket. Second, to guarantee the explosion resistance as well as other functions of the blanket, insulation materials are introduced, and the insulation effectiveness of various insulating agents is assessed using a 1200°C flame, with findings indicating that a 10% addition of 20 nm silica aerogel yields the best insulation effect. Further analysis of the influence of insulating agents on the release of pyrolysis particles and smoke reveals that both concentrations are elevated compared to the bare silicon dioxide cloth, thereby enabling fire detectors to trigger alarms at the earliest possible stage. Finally, low-temperature tests are conducted to verify the enhanced insulation properties of the coating in non-fire scenarios. The outcomes confirm that a 10% addition of 20 nm silica aerogel provides the best insulation. The research results demonstrate that this innovative coating exhibits outstanding insulation performance across a broad temperature range and offers significant fire detection and protection functionalities.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 3","pages":"257-268"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143622688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yohannes Werkina Shewalul, Natalia Flores Quiroz, Richard Walls
{"title":"Thermal Analysis and Fire Property Quantification of Crumb Rubber and Plastic Eco-Aggregates for Sustainable Construction","authors":"Yohannes Werkina Shewalul, Natalia Flores Quiroz, Richard Walls","doi":"10.1002/fam.3259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3259","url":null,"abstract":"<p>With a drive for sustainable construction, various products are being introduced to promote recycling, but often their properties relation to behaviour in fire are not known. In this paper, the fire performance of crumb rubber and a plastic eco-aggregate, called RESIN8, were assessed. Various tests, including cone calorimeter, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), were conducted. These are supplemented by numerical calculations and the Coats–Redfern kinetic model to quantify the thermal and fire properties of these materials. Cone calorimeter tests were conducted at 35 and 50 kW m<sup>−2</sup>, while the critical heat flux (CHF) values were determined using a range of irradiance levels. Time to ignition (TTI), heat release rate (HRR), peak heat release rate (pHRR), and thermal fire hazard parameters were quantified. Both materials were classified under the high thermal fire hazard class. The peak thermal decomposition rates occurred at 365°C (single peak) for CR and at 435°C and 550°C (two peaks) for RESIN8. The calculated activation energy values were 66.7 kJ mol<sup>−1</sup> for crumb rubber and 55.1 and 43.9 kJ mol<sup>−1</sup> for RESIN8 in the first and second stages, respectively. These eco-aggregates could pose a significant thermal fire hazard, in the recycling facility during and after the recycling process, as well as when stored in bulk and when incorporated in large quantities in construction systems. Further investigation is crucial for understanding the effect of incorporating these eco-aggregates within masonry and concrete systems from a fire safety perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"184-195"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fam.3259","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143446977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Numerical simulation study on shaft plug-holing height during natural smoke evacuation in deep buried tunnels","authors":"Liu Bin, Mao Jun, Jiang Xiangyang, Xi Yanhong","doi":"10.1002/fam.3254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3254","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we investigate the plug-holing phenomenon under the influence of natural smoke venting in deeply buried tunnel shafts using a fire dynamics simulator based on a large eddy simulation model. Additionally, we discuss the effects of heat release rate and shaft height. The results indicate that the temperature distribution of the smoke upstream of the fire remains consistent when the height of the shaft does not exceed 20 m. Once the shaft height reaches 50 m, the temperature of the smoke upstream of the fire decreases with the increase in shaft height. Simultaneously, the smoke downstream of the fire can be completely discharged through the shaft. As the shaft height increases in the deeply buried tunnel, the degree of plug-holing increases, leading to reduced smoke evacuation efficiency. This phenomenon is caused by the horizontal inertia force and vertical thermal buoyancy of the smoke below the shaft. The critical plugging phenomenon occurs when <i>Ri</i> = 2.72, as determined through force analysis of the smoke. Subsequently, we analyze the mechanism by which shaft height and heat release rate influence plug hole height and establish a quantitative expression equation for plug-holing height.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"162-172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143447150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Baochai Li, Huijuan Sun, Li Zhang, Xiaoya Zhao, Aznizam Abu Bakar, Zurina Mohamad
{"title":"Flame-Retarded Poly (Lactic Acid) Containing Phosphating Chitosan","authors":"Baochai Li, Huijuan Sun, Li Zhang, Xiaoya Zhao, Aznizam Abu Bakar, Zurina Mohamad","doi":"10.1002/fam.3256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3256","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is a promising thermoplastic aliphatic polyester to replace petroleum-based polymers in many fields. However, its flammability has limited its application in areas where fire safety is crucial. Chitosan (CS) is a type of natural alkaline polysaccharide with abundant content and good biocompatibility. In this study, a bio-based flame-retardant phosphating chitosan (PCS) was prepared and the effects of PCS on the flammability, mechanical and thermal properties of PLA were evaluated. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) of PLA/PCS blend containing 9 wt% PCS reached 28.9% which was relatively higher than LOI of pure PLA of 20% and passed UL-94 V-0 rating. PCS accelerated the carbonization of PLA matrix, and increased the char residue at 800°C. The combustion process was further investigated by cone calorimeter test, and the peak heat release rate and total heat release were significantly decreased. X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and thermogravimetric-infrared analysis were used to analyze the composition of char residue and pyrolysis products, which further confirmed that the flame-retardant mechanism of PCS was the combination of condensed phase and gas phase. However, the mechanical properties of PLA/PCS blend inevitably decreased with increasing of PCS content.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"173-183"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143447074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of the NRC Canada studies on fire resistance of floor assemblies: Results, design guidelines and research gaps","authors":"Linbo Zhang, Mohamed A. Sultan","doi":"10.1002/fam.3244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3244","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The National Research Council Canada conducted two major fire resistance studies on floor assemblies over the past two decades. Despite the publication of the experimental results, there is a lack of suggested guidelines for design practitioners and gaps for future research. Thus, this paper comprehensively reviews the fire resistance results of 85 full-scale floor tests, suggests design guidelines, and identifies research gaps. These efforts aim to enhance the understanding and support the potential improvement of the fire performance of floor assemblies. The review of the results covers the impact of various design parameters on the fire resistance of floor assemblies, such as framing type and spacing, insulation type, subfloor configuration, resilient channel spacing, number of gypsum board layers, and screw spacing from the board edge. Although the interaction of these factors is complex, some of them play significant roles in determining the overall fire resistance of floor assemblies. For instance, rock and cellulose insulation outperformed glass fibre, a wider resilient channel spacing lowered fire resistance, whilst an increased distance of screws from the board edge improved the fire resistance. More importantly, detailed explanations are provided for the influences these parameters exert on fire resistance. Following this detailed examination of the results, design guidelines are provided for practitioners' consideration. A comparison is made between the experimental results and predictions from the component additive methods in the Canadian and Euro Codes, demonstrating that both methods yield conservative results. Finally, this paper concludes by identifying research gaps and providing recommendations for future investigations, including the necessity of experimental studies on floor assemblies with new design configurations and the promising role of machine learning in fire resistance evaluation.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 1","pages":"40-58"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143114783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Courtney Devine, Natalia Flores-Quiroz, Richard Walls, Carlo Kuhn
{"title":"Fire parameters of recycled plastic pellets","authors":"Courtney Devine, Natalia Flores-Quiroz, Richard Walls, Carlo Kuhn","doi":"10.1002/fam.3248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3248","url":null,"abstract":"<p>During the recycling process, waste plastic undergoes various processes that change its geometry. The thermal properties and fire behaviour of plastic in different geometries has not been widely studied. This paper aims to determine critical thermal properties of plastic pellets made of recycled plastic. For this paper, cone calorimeter tests of various volumes of recycled plastic pellets of low- and high-density polyethylene and polypropylene were conducted. During these tests, the heat release rate (HRR), mass loss rate and time-to-ignition were measured, thereafter the heat of combustion (HOC) was calculated. A calibration of suitable time-to-ignition equations is carried out. The average HRR is between 353 and 581 kW/m<sup>2</sup> with an external heat flux of 50 kW/m<sup>2</sup>. The measured time-to-ignition values ranged between 27 s at 50 kW/m<sup>2</sup> and just more than 90 s at 25 kW/m<sup>2</sup>. Values obtained analytically from the thermally thin time-to-ignition equations for these materials describe ignition well, which appears to be due to the particulate nature of the samples. The HOC (40–41 MJ/kg) shows good agreement with the HOC for virgin plastic found in literature. These properties can be used as a basis for material characterisation, and further testing will be done before using this as simulation inputs to determine how bulk stored plastic pellets will behave in the event of a fire.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"127-137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fam.3248","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143446678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kinetic analysis on low-temperature oxidation of wood pellets by isothermal microcalorimetry","authors":"Can Yao, Changdong Sheng","doi":"10.1002/fam.3252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3252","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Low-temperature chemical oxidation is the major driver of self-heating during storage of wood pellets and its kinetics is essential to describe the heat evolution. In the present work, isothermal microcalorimetry was used to characterize heat generation behavior of three types of wood pellets (pine, fir, and redwood pellets) at 30–70°C. The obtained data were employed to derive the kinetics of low-temperature oxidation by the peak power, iso-conversional method, and non-steady analysis. The consistency and applicability of the kinetics derived by the three methods were evaluated. Kinetic parameters determined by the peak power method were observed to match those from the iso-conversional method at lower conversions of the oxidation for heat generation. The kinetics derived by the iso-conversional method indicated the oxidation reactivity generally decreasing and activation energy increasing with the conversion because of O<sub>2</sub> consumption and reaction mechanism changing. With the impact of O<sub>2</sub> consumption considered separately, the kinetics from the non-steady analysis is capable of describing the evolution of heat power with the conversion and also consistent with that from the peak power method in describing intrinsic reactivity of pellet materials. The kinetics from the peak power and iso-conversional methods lump the impact of O<sub>2</sub> concentration with the reaction reactivity, suggesting their applications requiring additional models for connecting with O<sub>2</sub> consumption.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 1","pages":"116-124"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143112000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abdelmoutaleb Noumeur, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Mohamad Syazarudin Md Said, Mohd Rafee Baharudin, Hamdan Mohamed Yusoff, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd Tohir
{"title":"A study of staff pre-evacuation behaviors in a Malaysian hotel","authors":"Abdelmoutaleb Noumeur, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Mohamad Syazarudin Md Said, Mohd Rafee Baharudin, Hamdan Mohamed Yusoff, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd Tohir","doi":"10.1002/fam.3250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3250","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Simulating fire and evacuation scenarios is crucial for engineers to assess building safety during fire incidents. Accurate simulations require data on occupants' behaviors, particularly during the pre-evacuation phase as these decisions significantly impact evacuation duration. Gathering comprehensive data from diverse regions while considering cultural and regional variations is necessary to understand how occupants' behavior is influenced. Thus, this study focuses on examining the behavior of Malaysian hotel staff during unannounced fire drill to gain insights into factors affecting their behavior during pre-evacuation stage, such as fire experience, fire alarm, drill participation, fire training, and awareness. The study categorizes the actions performed by the hotel staff into sequences and analyses them based on influencing factors. The findings indicate that instead of immediately evacuating in response to emergency notification, the hotel staff engage in various actions. Most staff members initially investigate or ignore the emergency, resulting in longer pre-evacuation times. Moreover, the results suggest that previous drill participation and high awareness levels contribute to shorter pre-evacuation times. Conversely, previous fire experience, fire training, and fire alarm familiarity have no effect on pre-evacuation time.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 2","pages":"138-161"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fam.3250","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143446980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Defining a maximum heat release rate probability distribution function for design fires in sprinkler-protected residential buildings","authors":"Charlie Hopkin","doi":"10.1002/fam.3251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3251","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In fire safety engineering analysis of sprinkler-protected residential buildings, the maximum heat release rate is a key parameter requiring consideration. Several documents provide advice for estimating the heat release rate of a sprinkler-controlled fire, with a prevailing suggestion that it is fixed upon activation of the first sprinkler. When carrying out deterministic analysis, this requires the engineer to assume fixed fire parameters and consider that sprinklers limit fire growth. To explore these assumptions, the study uses three deterministic models to estimate a sprinkler-controlled maximum heat release rate for a representative apartment layout. The models include Alpert's correlation, a B-RISK zone model and a computational fluid dynamics model in the Fire Dynamics Simulator. These deterministic models are compared to a probabilistic model in B-RISK, where Monte Carlo simulations are used to generate a range of maximum heat release rates from distribution functions for fire and sprinkler properties. An output distribution function is generated with a mean of 296.6 kW and a standard deviation of 503.8 kW, with a lognormal distribution (μ = 5.014, σ = 1.165) estimated as a best-fit. The deterministic models are estimated to sit in the 92–98 percentile range of this function, indicating that common deterministic assumptions are reasonably conservative. The article concludes with suggesting that, for deterministic analysis, a percentile between the 80th and 99th (340–2640 kW) could be qualitatively selected based on the design objectives, building situation and relative consequence of a fire. Further research is needed to establish guidelines for selecting appropriate percentiles across various building scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":12186,"journal":{"name":"Fire and Materials","volume":"49 1","pages":"102-115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fam.3251","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143120235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}