Fire Safety Evaluation Research Articles

Evaluation of Fire and Evacuation Safety in School Dormitories

This study aims to prepare an optimal plan to secure evacuation safety in the event of a fire in a school dormitory. Accordingly, the available safe egress time (ASET) was calculated by applying human safety standards, such as an indoor temperature of 60 ℃, a visual distance of 5 m, CO at 1,400 ppm, O2 at 15% and CO2 at 5%. Additionally, in the event of a fire, the required safe egress time (RSET) was calculated by applying factors such as detection, alarm, recognition, interpretation, the evacuation start of the occupants, training status, and the alarm facilities. An analysis of the ASET and RSET showed that in the event of a fire, it is necessary to secure various evacuation routes, in addition to the usual access route, to evacuate quickly by bypassing the fire occurrence point. Moreover, it was found that the ASET varied at each point inside the building, owing to the influences of toxic gases, oxygen, heat, visibility, and smoke resulting from the fire. In addition, in the event of a fire, evacuating along a planned evacuation route designed to minimize confusion and bottlenecks among students was effective for evacuation safety. Finally, it was found that evacuation safety can be secured by designating evacuation routes that are suitable for use in situations in which the location of the fire is unknown.

Physical and mechanical response of large-diameter shield tunnel lining structure under non-uniform fire: A full-scale fire test-based study

When a fire occurs in an underground shield tunnel, it can result in substantial property damage and cause permanent harm to the tunnel lining structure. This is especially true for large-diameter shield tunnels that have numerous segments and joints, and are exposed to specific fire conditions in certain areas. This paper constructs a full-scale shield tunnel fire test platform and conducts a non-uniform fire test using the lining system of a three-ring large-diameter shield tunnel with an inner diameter of 10.5 m. Based on the tests, the temperature field distribution, high-temperature bursting, cracking phenomena, and deformation under fire conditions are observed. Furthermore, the post-fire damage forms of tunnel lining structures are obtained through the post-fire ultimate loading test, and the corresponding mechanism is explained. The test results illustrate that the radial and circumferential distribution of internal temperature within the tunnel lining, as well as the radial temperature gradient distribution on the inner surface of the lining, have non-uniform distribution characteristics. As a result, the macroscopic phenomena of lining concrete bursting and crack development during the fire test mainly occur near the fire source, where the temperature rise gradient is the highest. In addition, the lining structure has a deformation characteristic of local outward expansion and cannot recover after the fire load is removed. The ultimate form of damage after the fire is dominated by crush damage from the inside out of the lining joints in the fire-exposed area. The above results serve as a foundation for future tunnel fire safety design and evaluation.

Study on fire safety assessment of nuclear grade activated carbon

In order to further clarify the fire safety evaluation of nuclear grade activated carbon, thermal analysis combined with pore structure and phase analysis was adopted for coal-based activated carbon and coconut shell activated carbon used in nuclear power plants. On the basis of establishing the relative fire safety evaluation model by using four important parameters: activation energy (E), maximum mass loss rate (DTGp), maximum mass loss rate temperature (Tp) and rapid reaction percentage (A12), the O/C ratio and enthalpy (H) were further introduced into the evaluation model to calculate the relative fire safety factor (RFSF). The results show that O/C ratio and enthalpy have greater influence on the fire safety of activated carbon than porosity characteristics. The RFSF values of coal-based and coconut shell activated carbon are 1.33 and 1.08, indicating that fire safety is higher than that of impregnated coconut shell activated carbon.

Multi-attribute fire safety evaluation of subway stations based on FANP – FGRA – Cloud model

With the rapid development of subway network, the fire safety of subway stations is becoming outstandingly important in the operation process. But there seem to be few studies developing quantitative models in the existing approaches. To this end, this study aims to develop a multi-attribute hybrid method by combining Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP), and Fuzzy Grey Relational Analysis (FGRA) with Cloud model to evaluate fire safety of them. This research comprehensively sorts out and identifies high-frequency hazard factors associated with fire accidents at stations from personal, equipment, environmental and management aspects, and simultaneously explores dependencies and interactions among them. Seven typical transfer stations of Changsha subway network in China are studied by using the proposed approach, and the results show that: (1) the fire safety order from the best to the worst determined is FBH (A2), SWGY (A7), CSRS (A6), YWZ (A1), HTL (A5), HJT (A4) and WYGC (A3); (2) through comparing the results obtained by the proposed method with that determined fuzzy TOPSIS and fuzzy sum weighted method, it is proved that the method developed in this study is reliable and effective; and (3) sensitivity analysis indicates that the ranking order of stations is influenced by the fluctuation of criterion and sub-criterion weights.

Research on Intelligent Monitoring of Fire Safety and Fire Rescue Plan for Tunnel Operation under Quasi-Unattended Background

Tunnel structures account for la large proportion of the structures in mountain highway transportation systems. Most tunnels are located in remote areas in which the geological conditions are complex and harsh and in which the layout of the management facilities along the way is complex. Thus, the management and maintenance costs of various facilities are expensive, the cost of fire safety operations and management is high, and disaster prevention and rescue have a difficult time meeting the objective requirements. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out research on quasi-unmanned operations and intelligent remote monitoring. This study firstly proposes a fire safety intelligent monitoring framework for quasi-unattended tunnels. By making full use of various intelligent sensor monitoring data in the tunnel, the tunnel operation status can be grasped in real time. Then, a fire safety evaluation model can be established through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and, based on the monitoring data, the AHP model parameters can be evaluated to realize the real-time evaluation and management of tunnel fire safety. Finally, on the basis of the fire safety intelligent monitoring system and the fire safety evaluation system, an adaptive fire rescue plan formulation scheme is proposed for the quasi-unattended tunnels so as to provide guaranteed support for the rapid automatic response of tunnel fire protection and to provide technical data support for the design and realization of intelligent and efficient tunnel management

IOT based Fire Detection System with Automatic and Manual Extinguishing System

A Novel fire extinguishing monitoring and control system is proposed in this paper. The system combines online monitoring of fire extinguishing information based on internet of things (IOT), early fire warning and alarm system with building safety evaluation, which are designed to acquiring the real-time information of fire extinguishing working condition, improving the reliable prediction mechanism in traditional fire monitoring system. A perception terminal based on IOT is developed and the fire real-time monitoring and control system is designed in this paper. The novel system can acquire the real-time working condition information of fire extinguishing facilities, such as pipe flow, pressure, temperature and humidity of the environment, current and voltage of the electric equipment, valve switch, relay action, alarming message, it can upload the collected data to the monitoring center through the (Client /Server) architecture. Based on these data, an electrical early fire warning model based on neural network is proposed. A fire safety evaluation model based on ontology with the usage of protege is established, which facilitate the on-line monitoring and control of building fire protection information, the prediction of electrical fire and improve building safety level evaluation.

Pathways to Next-Generation Fire-Safe Alkali-Ion Batteries.

High energy and power density alkali-ion (i.e., Li+ , Na+ , and K+ ) batteries (AIBs), especially lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), are being ubiquitously used for both large- and small-scale energy storage, and powering electric vehicles and electronics. However, the increasing LIB-triggered fires due to thermal runaways have continued to cause significant injuries and casualties as well as enormous economic losses. For this reason, to date, great efforts have been made to create reliable fire-safe AIBs through advanced materials design, thermal management, and fire safety characterization. In this review, the recent progress is highlighted in the battery design for better thermal stability and electrochemical performance, and state-of-the-art fire safety evaluation methods. The key challenges are also presented associated with the existing materials design, thermal management, and fire safety evaluation of AIBs. Future research opportunities are also proposed for the creation of next-generation fire-safe batteries to ensure their reliability in practical applications.

Fire risk assessment of Malaysia public hospital buildings

Fire risk assessment of Malaysia public hospital buildings

Safety evaluation of coal mine internal fire based on the neutral reference value

To improve the accuracy of emergency warnings of coal mine internal fire, a new coal mine internal fire safety evaluation method combining AHP with objective, neutral reference was put forward. According to the mechanism of internal fire, an evaluation index system and an evaluation hierarchy model were established, and a percentage scoring rule was set to score the underlying influencing factors. The lower the score, the greater the risk of internal fire. Combining the score of a single item with the weight of a single item, the overall score of coal mine internal fire in different periods was obtained, and the risk degree of coal mine internal fire was quantitatively expressed.

An Integrated Quantitative Risk Assessment Method for Underground Engineering Fires

Fires are one of the main disasters in underground engineering. In order to comprehensively describe and evaluate the risk of underground engineering fires, this study proposes a UEF risk assessment method based on EPB-FBN. Firstly, based on the EPB model, the static and dynamic information of the fire, such as the cause, occurrence, hazard, product, consequence, and emergency rescue, was analyzed. An EPB model of underground engineering fires was established, and the EPB model was transformed into a BN structure through the conversion rules. Secondly, a fuzzy number was used to describe the state of UEF variable nodes, and a fuzzy conditional probability table was established to describe the uncertain logical relationship between UEF nodes. In order to make full use of the expert knowledge and empirical data, the probability was divided into intervals, and a triangulated fuzzy number was used to represent the linguistic variables judged by experts. The α-weighted valuation method was used for de-fuzzification, and the exact conditional probability table parameters were obtained. Through fuzzy Bayesian inference, the key risk factors can be identified, the sensitivity value of key factors can be calculated, and the maximum risk chain can be found in the case of known evidence. Finally, the method was applied to the deductive analysis of three scenarios. The results show that the model can provide realistic analysis ideas for fire safety evaluation and emergency management of underground engineering. The proposed EPB risk assessment model provides a new perspective for the analysis of UEF accidents and contributes to the ongoing development of UEF research.

Proposed design fire scenarios for underground hard rock mines

Given the complexity and uniqueness of underground hard rock mines, the application of the design fire scenario approach is recommended when evaluating fire safety in mines. Providing a full set of design fire scenarios – ensuring that several important life safety aspects are covered – for a mine can be challenging. The question is whether a catalogue of potential clusters of design fire scenarios could be developed, covering important aspects found underground? Given the general lack of research into design fires in the mining industry, this paper provides a unique analysis of design fire scenarios in underground hard rock mines. Taking advantage of several different and diverse data sources, a comprehensive analysis with holistic character is provided where several proposed clusters of design fire scenarios and analyses of what criteria to apply when evaluating the scenarios are presented. The analysis of suitable criteria highlights the toxicity of the emitted smoke and decrease in visibility as potential criteria underground. The proposed scenarios focus on influencing parameters such as the fire behaviour, position of fire, fire load, and smoke spread. The proposed clusters of design fire scenarios will provide a key tool when evaluating fire protection measures in an underground mine.

Charring performance of timber structures protected by traditional lime-based plasters

There are limited performance data available on the fire resistance of lime-based plasters as a fire protection system for timber structures; no design values are given in the current fire part of Eurocode 5. This complicates the design and assessment of such (historic) building structures, as the contribution of lime plasters in case of fire is not clear. This paper aims to provide relevant data and assessment tools for the fire safety design and evaluation of the protection ability of lime-based plasters in combination with timber structures under standard fire exposure conditions. An overview of experimental studies in small and model-scale to determine the protection effect of various lime plaster systems is presented. The investigation is carried out in view of the design concept given in the European fire design standard with respect to the start time of charring of timber and the charring rate of timber behind the plaster system. Results present new knowledge and fire-related performance data of selected lime-based plasters regarding their protection ability under different heat exposure conditions and scales. References are made to the commonly used gypsum plasterboards and previous studies by the authors for an extended evaluation of test results. Obtained results demonstrate that thicker plaster coats are able to provide similar initial protection compared to the gypsum plasterboards for the start time of charring and the charring rate of protected timber until its fall-off.

Multisite evaluation of fire ant venom immunotherapy safety and efficacy.

Imported fire ant (IFA) venom immunotherapy (VIT) is the only disease-modifying treatment reported to be effective at decreasing the risk of systemic reactions (SRs) to IFA stings. Our aims were to determine the baseline rates of IFA sensitization in subjects, describe IFA VIT prescribing patterns across the military health system (MHS), and retrospectively evaluate the safety and efficacy of IFA VIT. We prospectively compared IFA sensitization in participants with and without an SR to flying Hymenoptera venom. Separately, IFA VIT prescription records were extracted from a centralized repository, and rates were described across the MHS. Additionally, we retrospectively reviewed the clinical course of patients being treated with IFA VIT at 11 military treatment facilities. The invitro IFA sensitization rates in our prospective cohort ranged from 19.1% to 24.1%. Sensitization rates did not differ statistically between the subjects with or without an SR to flying Hymenoptera venom. We found that 60.9% of all MHS IFA VIT prescriptions (491 of 806) were from the 11 facilities in this study. We retrospectively identified 137 subjects actively undergoing IFA VIT. Among the subjects actively undergoing IFA VIT, 28 reported an SR to IFA venom and repeat stings by IFAs after reaching VIT maintenance, and 85.7% (24 of 28) of the subjects noted symptoms no worse than a large swelling reaction after a repeat IFA sting. Notably, only 2.9% of the subjects (4 of 137) had an SR due to VIT. This study's results align with those of prior IFA sensitization reports. Asubstantial proportion of patients undergoing IFA VIT experienced protection against anaphylaxis with reexposure, with relatively few adverse events.

Fire Safety Evaluation of Natural Smoke Ventilators Opening to outside due to Changing Outside Wind Speed

The reduction of the smoke exhaust performance of the natural smoke ventilator due to the influence of the external wind speed causes the problem of not being able to appropriately exhaust the heat and smoke generated by the fire compartment into the outflow air, which has a huge impact on the evacuation of the occupants, and at the same time can be a major problems to remaining life safety and fire suppression of the fire brigade. In this study, the type of projected window natural smoke ventilators opening to exterior which was selected from the preliminary smoke performance evaluation study and then the fire simulation was performed to quantitatively evaluate the smoke exhaust performance of the n atural smoke v entilator by the s iz e of the outside w ind speed. A s a result of the analysis, a s the wind speed increased, the smoke exhaust performance of the natural smoke ventilator was further reduced, and the amount of flue smoke due to the inlet flow was reduced, and it was predicted to negatively affect the main evacuation factors such as smoke layer height and fire room temperature.

High-performance flame-retardant polycarbonate composites: Mechanisms investigation and fire-safety evaluation systems establishment

Polycarbonate (PC) is highly attractive for applications in high-speed railways and airplanes as engineering materials, but suffers from high fire hazards with severe melting dripping during burning. To overcome the challenge, highly effective flame retardants , such as sulfonate derivatives and silicon-based compounds have been developed. Unfortunately, there is still lacking of a systematic method to evaluate the fire risk of these flame-retardant PC composites. Herein, we propose a comprehensive and innovative approach to assess the fire safety of flame-retardant PC composites containing potassium perfluorobutane sulfonate (PPFBS) and a silicon-based flame retardant (PSR) through combining numerous combustion parameters obtained from different measurements. The pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of PC/PPFBS and PC/PSR were studied in detail and revealed that PPFBS and PSR could effectively reduce the activation energy of PC. PSR is effective at reducing the heat and smoke release due to the formation of a Si–C protective layer during combustion. In contrast, PPFBS has no obvious suppression effect on smoke generation, and even shows a combustion-supporting effect under high radiation flux. Based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a comprehensive evaluation model has been established to achieve an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the fire hazards of PC and its composites. This works provides a universal guidance for evaluating fire hazards of flame-retardant polymer composite . • The pyrolysis mechanism of PC composite has been revealed. • The flame-retardant mechanism of PC composite has been revealed. • A comprehensive safety evaluation system for flame-retardant PC has been established.

Fuzzy-based escape route fire-vulnerability assessment model for indoor built environment

Fire safety evaluation is rarely involved in the iterative building design process except for legislative approval phases compared to other building objectives. However, regardless of architectural design priorities, all buildings should have adequate fire protection. This research develops a fire vulnerability assessment model based on the impact of architects on fire protection and effects of building design characteristics on fire safety. Inherent to the uncertain nature of fire safety evaluation practice, this study proposes a fuzzy vulnerability decision-making methodology to detect and visualize escape route vulnerabilities, which have the highest impact on the interoperability of fire safety and architectural design practices. The model was validated in an opera house building since the assembly occupancies have specific importance due to the significant number of fire causalities. The escape routes of the case study building were evaluated for materials’ fire reaction, route flow, route equipment, means of egress, dimensions and layout input variables. The output vulnerability levels were discussed to enhance the understanding of critical building design factors that contribute to fire vulnerability. The results confirm that the model is fairly effective in the detection and visualization of vulnerability sources by reducing communication time delays and preventing human-induced mistakes.

Engine room fire safety evaluation of ammonia as marine fuel

ABSTRACT Ammonia fuelled vessels are not a distant reality anymore. This paper will examine whether ammonia constitutes a greater fire hazard than conventional fuel types in the event of an engine room fire. It is to showcase how a realistic engine room fire outbreak can be modelled for a case vessel of 50,000 dead weight tonnage bulk carrier. Four simulation scenarios are then modelled, and their outputs are analysed and discussed. From the simulations process, it was evident that an ammonia fire does not present a greater danger than a diesel or natural gas fire. Ammonia’s fire behaviour was better than the conventional fuel fires with relation to soot formation and potential machinery damage. An ammonia fire provides a better evacuation window; it has more even temperature distribution through the engine space and the developed flame temperatures were lower. The main conclusion of this project is that due to ammonia flammability limits and thermal properties, a dispersion would take time and thus reduce the likelihood of an ammonia fire occurring and is manageable.

Development of Fire Safety Evaluation Indices for Long-term Care Hospitals for the Elderly through Analytic Hierarchy Process Analysis

Long-term care hospitals for the elderly are places for the elderly and patients with impaired mobility to live in, but these places face a high risk of great damage in the event of a fire. The standards for fire safety at long-term care hospitals for the elderly are limited to inspection of firefighting facilities and training plans, with no index to evaluate the evacuation plans, facilities for evacuation in case of fire, and the fire response manuals of long-term care hospitals for the elderly. Therefore, this study tries to carry out a basic analysis and establish fire safety evaluation indices for long-term care hospitals for the elderly. To that end, the study derives the importance and priorities of the indices related to fire safety in long-term care hospitals for the elderly through an analytic hierarchy process questionnaire surveying 44 firefighting experts. Finally, considering the importance and priorities of the indices, this study presents fire safety evaluation standards (drafts) for long-term care hospitals for the elderly.

Analysis of Fire Safety in Office Buildings Applying Fire Safety Evaluation System

Analysis of Fire Safety in Office Buildings Applying Fire Safety Evaluation System

Multi-Dimensional evacuation risk evaluation in standard subway station

The performance-based approach using Required Safety Egress Time / Available Safety Egress Time concept is the most common method in fire safety evaluation. However, this one-dimension approach cannot fully evaluate the performance of a complex scenario with thousands of occupants in subway stations. Therefore, this paper develops a four-dimension parameter system that includes Required Safety Egress Time, Average Evacuation Time, Average Waiting Time, and Average Moving Distance to quantify the evacuation performance from four aspects. The convergence test approach is adopted to validate the accuracy of simulation results. A dimensionless parameter Risk Index (RI) is proposed to support multi-dimensional risk evaluation and comparison. One realistic standard subway station in Guangzhou metro system is modeled to testify the applicability of the proposed method. Totally twelve evacuation scenarios are designed and simulated, results indicate that: 1) Repeated simulations are necessary. Up to 629 simulation run times are required to meet the acceptance criterion of 0.01% for mean and 1% for standard deviation. 2) The Risk Index of Average Waiting Time is distinctly higher than other Risk Indexes. A long waiting time at bottlenecks increases the risk level in all scenarios. 3) The risk evaluation result of comprehensive RI is consistent with but not the same as the evaluation conclusion of RSET. The difference between RI and RSET shows that RI integrates more aspects of evacuation risk than RSET. The method proposed could support safety evaluation capacity improvement and standard revision in metro system.