Undergraduate Course: Fire Science and Fire Dynamics 4 (CIVE10011)
Course Outline
| School | School of Engineering |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Civil |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course is intended to provide the knowledge required for quantitative fire hazard analysis. Physical and chemical behaviour of combustion systems as well as the impact of fire on structures and materials will be addressed. The student will acquire skills for quantitative estimation of the different variables of fire growth. Basic principles of fire dynamics will be used to provide analytical formulations and empirical correlations that can serve as tools for design calculations and fire reconstruction. Focus will be given to the scientific aspects of fire but some basic features of fire safety engineering will be also developed. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Demonstrate an understanding of Combustion principles
- Pre-mixed flames: laminar flame speed, stoichiometry, deflagration, explosion, flammability limits and flame extinction
- Diffusion flames: Burke-Schumann formulation, flame location and mixture fraction
- Soot and Thermal radiation: factors influencing the production of soot and the radiation emitted by flames
- The effect of turbulence, Turbulence modelling
Demonstrate an understanding of the processes of Fire Growth and fire modelling
- Ignition: ignition of solid, liquids and gases
- Spontaneous ignition and smouldering: Semenov and Frank-Kamenetskii models, Diffusion-controlled ignition (smouldering) and gasification-controlled ignition (flames)
- Flame spread: Mechanisms of flame spread, upward, downward and lateral spread, Thermal models for flame spread and the blow-off limit
- Burning rate: Pyrolysis and gasification, Heat feedback and the mass transfer number
- Non-charring, charring, fire-retarded materials
- Combustible liquids: flash point and fire point, flame spread over liquid
Identify and quantify the impact of a Compartment on a fire
- Pool fires: turbulent plumes, flame height correlations, Ceiling jets
- Air entrainment and entrainment correlations, virtual origin
- The production of smoke: quantitative and qualitative analysis of smoke, CO, toxics and irritants, The concept of obscuration, extinction coefficients and its application to detection and visibility
- The effect of a compartment: Heat feedback effects on burning and burning rates, The concept of ventilation
- Fuel Limited Fire/Oxygen Limited Fire
- Flashover
- Backdraught
- Fully developed fire
Identify methods to quantify smoke movement
- Aspects of smoke management to control its movement, Passive and forced smoke evacuation calculations |
Assessment Information
| The assessment will be made on the basis of: Intermittent assessment 25%; Degree examination 75% |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
LECTURES
1 Introduction
2 Review of Fluid Mechanics/Heat Transfer
Conservation Equations
3 Heat of Combustion
Flame Temperature
Pre-mixed Flames
4 Flame Speed - Explosions
Diffusion Flames
5 Differential Formulation
Mixture Fraction Approach
Shvab-Zel'dovich Formulation
Characteristics of Fire Plumes
Entrainment
Flame Height
Temperature and Velocity Distributions
McCaffrey Correlations
6 Ignition-Definitions
Spontaneous Ignition
Auto-Ignition Piloted Ignition
Flash Point/Fire Point
Ignition Delay Time-The LIFT Test
7 Flame Spread
Opposed
Co-Current Radiation Assisted Flame Spread
Smouldering
Mass Burning Rate
Energy Release Rate
The Cone Calorimeter
Compartment Fires-Definitions
9 Products of Combustion
Temporal and Spatial Evolution of the Products of Combustion
Compartment Fire Calculations
Flash-Over
Time to Flash-Over
10 Review
TUTORIALS
1 Preliminary Definitions: Details to be provided
2 Diffusion Flames
3 Ignition
4 Flame Spread
5 Development of a Zone Model
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Drysdale, D.D. "Introduction to fire Dynamics", 3rd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 2011.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Carvel
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Louise Harkins
Tel: (0131 6)51 7185
Email: |
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