Vehicle Fire Research Articles

An experimental evaluation of toxic gas emissions from vehicle fires

Improving fire modelling is a key issue to design efficient safety measures for a safe people evacuation in case of fire. Such an analysis should consider the different impacts of fire on people as temperature, visibility but also toxicity. Most of the standard curves used in tunnel fire studies are based on quite old fire tests without any detailed toxic gas qualification. Very few fire tests were published in that way. Based on those few tests, some standard fire emission factors are available in the literature. The objective of this paper is to review those emission factors considering the different toxic species and dealing with using recent cars. A method is then proposed to define a carbon monoxide equivalent emission factor to consider the different species through their specific threshold. Such an approach can be easily introduced into fire codes.To meet this objective, two series of tests were performed. The first concerns individual combustible materials of cars as plastics and tyres. The second focusses on full car burning tests including a detailed smoke analysis. Those two series of tests lead to an analysis of the smoke toxicity and a comparison of emission factors with standard ones.

ЭКСПЕРИМЕНТАЛЬНОЕ ОБОСНОВАНИЕ СОЗДАНИЯ ПОЗИЦИЙ ПО ТУШЕНИЮ С ПРИМЕНЕНИЕМ СПЕЦИАЛЬНЫХ ПОЖАРНЫХ АВТОМОБИЛЕЙ

Introduction. The structure of the management system of forces and means of fire-fighting units in fire fighting is presented as structure consisting of the managing and managed subsystems. Forces and means are represented by positions on fire fighting and ensuring actions of fire extinguishing. Methods. The expedient ways of entering forces and means of fire units to extinguish fires in buildings of low fire resistance are: 1) escape routes, places of common use; 2) premises of the building located on the way of fire spread; 3) attic. Experiments on the action of units of gas and smoke protective service and simulation results of the development of dangerous fire factors indicate a decline in the ability of units to influence the combustion zone with an increase in parameters of the fire. The experiments on the creation of positions with the use of special fire trucks in fire fighting showed the expediency of their integration into the system of management at the initial stage of fire fighting. In the course of the experiment, manual fire rods (RSKZ-70) and fire rods were used to supply liquid fire extinguishing substances in the form of water curtains (SPVZ) (not involving the personnel at height). Results and discussion. The actual intensity of supply of fire extinguishing agents provided by the SPVZ rod was experimentally established. The conditions of the creation of the system of management corresponding to the situation at fire are presented. The results of the comparative deployments of units on the fire rescue vehicle and a fire truck with a ladder with a supply of fire-rods are given. Conclusions. The distribution of forces and means of units at the positions, with their maximum involvement, contributes to the fulfillment of the conditions of localization of the fire and reduces deployment time of incoming units.

Evaluating Influential Factors on the Duration of Vehicle Fire Incidents Using Grey Relational Analysis

Evaluating Influential Factors on the Duration of Vehicle Fire Incidents Using Grey Relational Analysis

Prediction of time to ignition in multiple vehicle fire spread experiments

SummaryThis paper describes the application of the flux‐time product ignition criterion and the point source flame radiation model to predict the time to ignition in multiple vehicle spread scenarios. Ten experiments from the literature have been selected due to sufficiency of information required to apply the methods. The outcome of this work is to be applied to a risk‐based model for the design of car parking buildings to determine when and if a fire spreads between vehicles; therefore, the analysis suggests properties of a representative material that can reasonably account for those external vehicle components that are most likely to ignite first. The application of both methods to the complex problem of multiple vehicle ignition requires several assumptions and simplifications which are discussed in the paper.

Fire behavior of mining vehicles in underground hard rock mines

The results from a number of investigations and fire experiments are presented and analyzed in order to characterize the fire behavior of mining vehicles in underground hard rock mines. The analysis also includes fire safety and fire protection measures with respect to the mining vehicle fire behavior. Earlier studies on fires in underground hard rock mines have shown that vehicles or mobile equipment are the dominant sources of fire. A better knowledge about the fire behavior of vehicles in underground hard rock mines is therefore needed. During the analysis the direction and flow rate of the ventilation in a drift was found to have a significant impact on the fire behavior, causing for example flame tilt with rapid fire spread. The shielded sections of a vehicle will be less affected by the ventilation flow resulting in for example a decreased flame spread. It was also found that spray fires may result in considerable heat release rate but are generally of shorter duration and will not make any significant contributions to the overall heat release rate of the fully developed vehicle fire. The fire duration of a loader tire from a full-scale fire experiment was found to be at least 200min and will largely determine the total fire duration of the vehicle. A different scenario with different conditions with for example a slower flame spread resulted in an even longer fire duration. The radiative and convective fraction will be a key factor when determining the heat transfer mechanisms involved in a fire and will vary from material to material. Calculations show that the radiative fraction of the tire fires on two mining vehicles is significantly lower than found in earlier experiments. The design and construction of the mining vehicle will have an important impact on the fire behavior and could possibly mitigate the consequences of a fire and allow fire personnel to extinguish a fire that otherwise would have had a too high heat release rate.

Use of a Laser Scanning System for Professional Preparation and Scene Assessment of Fire Rescue Units

Abstract The paper presents results of a study focused on usability of a 3D laser scanning system by fire rescue units during emergencies, respectively during preparations for inspection and tactical exercises. The first part of the study focuses on an applicability of a 3D scanner in relation to an accurate evaluation of a fire scene through digitization and creation of virtual walk-through of the fire scene. The second part deals with detailed documentation of access road to the place of intervention, including a simulation of the fire vehicle arrival.

Investigation of the effect of tunnel ventilation on crib fires through small-scale experiments

This paper adopts a series of 1:20 scale tunnel experiments based on a series of large-scale tunnel experiments to study the influence of forced ventilation on fires. The small-scale tunnel has dimensions of 0.365m (W)×0.26m (H)×11.9m (L). Cribs using a wood-based material provide the fuel source and forced ventilation velocities from 0.23 to 1.90m/s are used. From the study of the measured heat release rate (HRR) and mass loss rate data it is found that the forced air velocity affects the fire spread rate and burning efficiency and further affects peak HRR values at different air velocities. A simple model to describe these influences is proposed. This model is used to reproduce the enhancement of peak HRR for cribs with different porosity factors noted by Ingason [1] and to assess the effects of using different length of cribs on peak HRR. The results from these analyses suggest that different porosity fuels result different involvement of burning surface area and result different changes in peak HRR. However, no significant difference to the enhancement on fire size is found when the burning surface area is similar. It is also found that the trend in the enhancement on fire size by using sufficiently long crib and available ventilation conditions matches the predictions of Carvel and Beard [2] for two-lane tunnel heavy goods vehicle fires.

Simulation of motor vehicle fires in forensic engineering

Motor vehicle fires represent a specific field of research within scientific field of fire protection. A considerably larger part of this research is dedicated to the causes of vehicle fires and the manners of their detection. However, little attention is dedicated to research of potential fire development once it has already started and the possibilities of its transferring to nearby materials and objects. This type of research is aimed at determining 'safe' distance from a vehicle on fire in order to postpone as much as possible or prevent igniting of surrounding materials, vehicles and parts of nearby facilities. The results of this type of research can be applied on determining 'safe' distance when designing parking lots, subterranean garages and generally the spaces where several parked vehicles can be found or in cases a facility is located in their vicinity.

Role of Multiagency Response and On-Scene Times in Large-Scale Traffic Incidents

Traffic incidents, often known as nonrecurring events, impose enormous economic and social costs. Compared with short-duration incidents, large-scale incidents can substantially disrupt traffic flow by blocking lanes on highways for long periods. A careful examination of large-scale traffic incidents and associated factors can assist with actionable large-scale incident management strategies. For such an analysis, a unique and comprehensive 5-year incident database on East Tennessee roadways was assembled to conduct an in-depth investigation of large-scale incidents, especially focusing on operational responses, that is, response and on-scene times by various agencies. Incidents longer than 120 min and blocking at least one lane were considered large scale; the database contained 890 incidents, which was about 0.69% of all reported incidents. Rigorous fixed- and random-parameter, hazard-based duration models were estimated to account for the possibility of unobserved heterogeneity in large-scale incidents. The modeling results reveal significant heterogeneity in associations between operational responses and large-scale incident durations. A 30-min increase in response time for the first, second, and third (or more) highway response units translated to a 2.8%, 1.6%, and 4.2% increase in large-scale incident durations, respectively. In addition, longer response times for towing and highway patrol were significantly associated with longer incident durations. Given large-scale incidents, associated factors included vehicle fire, unscheduled roadwork, weekdays, afternoon peaks, and traffic volume. Notably, the associations were heterogeneous; that is, the direction could be positive in some cases and negative in others. Practical implications of the results for large-scale incident management are discussed.

From small-scale tunnel fire simulations to predicting fire dynamics in realistic tunnels

Longitudinal ventilation is the most popular procedure for ventilating tunnels. It is relevant to understand the interaction between ventilation velocity and tunnel fire dynamics. In this work, we perform sensitivity analysis to quantify the influence of ventilation velocity on the parameters: the maximum ceiling temperature, the maximum floor temperature, the maximum ceiling flux, the maximum flux on the floor and the fire growth rate. We perform numerical simulations in a model scale tunnel. Through Froude scaling, we project results of the small-scale numerical simulations to the realistic size tunnels. A comparison of the extrapolated results to the large-scale experimental data display good agreement. Furthermore, we develop analytical expressions for predicting the maximum ceiling temperature, the maximum ceiling flux and the maximum flux on the tunnel floor during a heavy goods vehicle fire.

История развития технических средств борьбы с пожарами, приспособленных для работы в условиях низких температур

In the article the analysis of the climatic zones of the Russian Federation is performed. The analysis showed that the areas with cold climates having factors having a negative impact on technical means of fire extinguishing are identified. It all started from extinguishing tube with a furnace, which is also mounted on horse-drawn wagons. However, over the last century it was intensive development of technical means of fire fighting. The advent of the internal combustion engine contributed to the mechanization of fire fighting equipment. First of all, with horse traction the water pumps moved to the car chassis, which allowed to improve pump-hose system. There is a need of protection from the negative impact of more items of pump-hose systems. Initially, for fire vehicles to ensure the thermal stability of individual elements of a pump-hose system it’s used the energy of the exhaust gases of the engine. Analyzing all technical solutions, it can be noted that they protect from low temperatures only the individual elements of a fire truck. A comprehensive solution for security of fire equipment from the negative effects of low air temperatures to 2010 was not available. Using nearly 200 years experience in the use of technical means to extinguish fires in conditions of low temperatures, State Fire Academy of Emercom of Russia in 2010 formed and proposed the concept of creation North of the fire truck. In 2011, scientists of the State Fire Academy of Emercom of Russia jointly with the engineering staff of JSC “Vargashinsky factory fire and special equipment”, with the participation of the Yakut branch of RAS designed and developed fire-rescue vehicle in a climatic design CL PSA-S-6,0-40(6339). Thus, it is possible to say that technical means of fire control, adapted for operation in low temperatures, have a history stretching over 200 years. During the period, the development of technologies for firefighting, there are solved particular problems of protection of individual elements of mobile fire fighting equipment, and the complex task of creating a fire rescue vehicle in North version.

Dual-Objective Scheduling of Rescue Vehicles to Distinguish Forest Fires via Differential Evolution and Particle Swarm Optimization Combined Algorithm

It is complex and difficult to perform the emergency scheduling of forest fires in order to reduce the operational cost and improve the efficiency of extinguishing fire services. A new research issue arises when: 1) decision-makers want to minimize the number of rescue vehicles (or fire-fighting ones) while minimizing the extinguishing time; and 2) decision-makers prefer to complete this task given limited vehicle resources. To do so, this paper presents a novel multiobjective scheduling model to handle forest fires subject to limited rescue vehicle (fire engine) constraints, in which a fire-spread speed model is introduced into this problem to better describe practical forestry fire. Moreover, a Multiobjective Hybrid Differential-Evolution Particle-Swarm-Optimization (MHDP) algorithm is proposed to create a set of Pareto solutions for this problem. This approach is applied to a real-world emergency scheduling problem of the forest fire in Mt. Daxing'anling, China. Its effectiveness is verified by comparing it with a genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is able to quickly produce satisfactory Pareto solutions.

A study on the fire propagation characteristics in large-opening multi-level limestone mines in Korea

Recently, deployment of large-capacity diesel haulage trucks is rapidly increasing in the domestic large-opening limestone mines due to the high level of operational flexibility. However, in multi-level mines, this trend has raised the serious concern for the risk of diesel vehicle fire. Fire in a deep multi-level mine site is harder to control and likely to develop into disastrous results. Developing the emergency evacuation strategies and controlling the fire should presuppose a knowledge of the fire behavior in mines. This paper aims at studying the behavior of a 25-ton diesel truck fire showing approximately the maximum heat release rate of 30 MW by computational fluid dynamic analysis. Spatial and temporal distributions of the hot air stream, smoke layer, and CO gas layer in multi-level mine sites are evaluated, and the effects of fan operation are scrutinized to find the appropriate fan location and operating mode. In addition, several other aspects of the fire development such as backlayering and throttling effects are also studied. The ultimate goal is to provide fundamental information about fire propagating characteristics in multi-level large-opening underground limestone mines for developing the mine fire evacuation plan and protect the workers’ safety.

Experimental evaluation of the heat flux induced by tunnel fires

Traffic tunnel closures are highly undesirable and some of the lengthiest are attributed to structural failures. Historical data shows that these failures are closely linked to fire. Furthermore, the parameters necessary for proper thermo-mechanical analysis of structural members are poorly defined or absent from literature. The energy transferred to the structure (i.e. heat flux) is the fundamental parameter for determining structural performance in fire. However, current research focuses on identifying heat release rates and temperature histories which are difficult to use for structural analyses. In this study, full-scale experiments were undertaken on passenger vehicles resulting in heat fluxes between 20 and 70kW/m2. The analyses show fire duration is linked to a vehicle’s mass and small vehicle fires can be scaled as a function of the ratio between the tunnel diameter and the characteristic height of the desired vehicle. Appropriate design values are outlined for engineers to undertake informed thermo-mechanical analyses to minimise the risk of structural tunnel failure in fires.

Информационно-аналитическая модель принятия решений по переоснащению парка пожарных автомобилей

Planning for the technical retrofit of units of Emercom of Russia is a strategic management function, which includes a range of activities to analyze the situation with the technical support of the territorial governments and departments, as well as factors affecting the condition of hardware designed for the tasks. Park fire and rescue equipment of Fire Service of Emercom of Russia is 23950 cars on January 1, 2016. The percentage of write-off of fire trucks, taking into account the average service life of 10 years, is 68.3 % (51.9 % - more than 15 years of operation and 39.7 % - more than 20 years of operation). Given that for liquidation of fires and emergencies are mainly involved in basic fire fighting vehicles - it’s account for 90 % of the total fleet of fire trucks, it will analyze the technical condition of the main fire vehicles. The percentage of cancellation of the park based on the average period of service of fixed fire-fighting vehicles is 66.1 %. This percentage would be much higher if the reserve stock of fixed fire-fighting vehicles and 50 % would not be reduced. This percentage is increasing every year. Number of departures of fire units on fires, fire, traffic accidents and other destructive events increases every year. In an average year the guards on duty leave about 1.67 million times. The result is that one major car travels in a year about 134 times. In recent years the issue of the retrofit of park vehicles is acute because of the lack of funding of Emercom of Russia. Analysis of the operational units of Emercom of Russia, located on a particular area has shown that large financial and time costs required to implement the accepted concept. The amount of data costs does not allow retrofitting (at one time) in all regions, so it is possible to implement a phased (target) retrofit of units of Emercom of Russia. For prioritization to refurbish and develop a phased retrofit concept must be based on actual operational situation in the regions. Therefore, there is a need for scientific and practical substantiation of approaches to technical re-equipment of units of Emercom of Russia. For formalized description of the operational situation in the regions of Russia with a view to their quantification and ranking by preference in terms of retrofit, it is proposed to use two quantitative indices - the criterion of operational readiness and test technical readiness units of Emercom of Russia before and after the retrofit. The criterion of operational readiness allows a quantitative measurement of the degree of employment units in the decision-making model of retrofitting of units Emercom of Russia, while the criterion of technical readiness of units of Emercom of Russia to evaluate the potential for technology to be in good condition, needed to solve the problem as intended. These criteria, although they do not define all the parameters necessary to take into account the im-plementation of retrofitting, but are crucial. These criteria are complex indicators and provide a framework of information-analytical models during the ranking of the territorial units of fire protection in the order of preference for the retrofit of the basic fire appliances.

Development of algorithms for efficient management of fire rescue units

The need of development of efficient algorithms for the integrated management of the fire rescue units’ activities from the moment of recieving the notice of the fire until return to the depot was substantiated. The need to assess the travel time of a fire extinguishing vehicle to the place of the call and fire area as key drivers of successful fire elimination was substantiated. We received a dependency that allows setting the value for the area of the fire depending on the duration of its free development and linear velocity of expansion. The analysis of this dependency shows that even a slight reduction in the duration of the free development of fire will significantly reduce the fire area and, accordingly, the amount of due losses. To design the algorithm of efficient management of the fire rescue units’ activities using the software package STATISTICA, dependencies were received allowing setting the values of travel time of a fire extinguishing vehicle to the place of the call and, as a consequence, the area of the fire, depending on the distance to the destination of the call and the time of day. On the basis of the received dependencies a block diagram was created of algorithm-simulation model of efficient management of the fire rescue units’ activities. The algorithm makes it possible to determine the optimal routes of fire rescue vehicles and calculate the area of a fire by proposed dependencies, as well as to choose the optimal technology for fire extinguishing. A computer software program, developed on the basis of this algorithm, will allow the head of fire extinguishing to facilitate the calculation of the parameters of development and elimination of fire, as well as the optimal quantity of capabilities for its elimination. A program to select the optimal technology of firefighting was also considered. The program for PC was written in the programming language С# for the Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems. As a result of the program’s work for grade A and B fires, we receive the estimated quantity of forces and facilities for elimination of fire.

A new partial coverage locating model for cooperative fire services

The location and allocation of fire service facilities, especially for those facilities expecting high demand and severe conditions, require consideration of the cooperative behavior of multi-type fire vehicles in different fire station locations, the gradual decline of coverage with increasing distance, and the sufficient number of fire vehicles given specific requirements of the Urban Fire Rescue Specification (UFRS) of China. This paper presents a mixed integer nonlinear program (MINLP) model that integrates a cooperative mechanism of multi-type vehicles, partial distance coverage of single-type vehicle (PDC-S), and partial quantity coverage of single-type vehicle (PQC-S) into an integrated maximal covering location model for cooperative fire services, therein offering partial distance and quantity coverage of multi-type vehicles (PDQC-M). Numerical experiments with a testing example validate our model and demonstrate that the BARON algorithms can be used to effectively solve the problem. An empirical case study of Harbin (China) and a series of sensitivity analyses are conducted to illustrate the effects of station size and total budget on PDQC-M provided by cooperative fire services.

Информационно-статистический анализ особенностей развития мобильных средств по-рошкового пожаротушения

Mobile dry chemical fire extinguishing equipment (MDСFE) (dry powder fire trucks, combined fire engines, containers and trailers with dry chemical extinguishing devices) are most effective in extin¬guishing fires at hazardous production facilities of various industries. However, they are used very rarely only once in 8-10 years, and in some cases - never for the life cycle. Consequently, the rare use of MDСFE (considering their significant initial cost, about 9 million of Rubles per unit) creates a negative economic impact, and calls for the adoption of organizational and technical measures for its significant reduction. We assessed the prospects of development of MDСFE in three main ways that determine the ap-pearance of any construction:  relevance in the total number of mobile fire extinguishing equipment;  the main characteristics of technological equipment;  the ability to impart properties of multifunctionality. Comparison of the data about Russian and foreign fire technics manufacturers production showed that:  Russian fire-fighting system needs 2.6 % to other types of fire equipment MDСFE;  share of MDСFE models produced in Russia, almost 3 times lower than abroad (7.3 % vs. 18.8 %), that can be explained by their uneconomical production, they are applied very rarely, in compa¬rison with water and foam fire trucks and finaly because of low need for them. It was found that diversity of the stock of foaming agent and dry chemical powder at foreign combined fire engines is an average in 3 times greater than at Russian. The advisability of impart to MDСFE properties of multifunctionality has long been known. There is the idea of a fire engine, adaptable to the specific needs of fire departments. Currently, existing fire extinguishing installations on fire vehicles do not provide the necessary variability of fire extinguishing agents (FEA) filling. In this regard, we developed and tested (with positive results) at the St. Petersburg University Emercom of Russia laboratory model of the universal fire suppression system that meets modern require-ments. Installation configuration allows to mount it on a car and truck chassis, on trailer and in container. The design of vessels and the mechanism of displacement of the installation allow the use of a wide range of FEA and give them to the extinguishing in the required proportions. In addition, it can provide compressed air foam, expanding fire extinguishing capabilities. These results allow us to state (contrary to the skeptics views) that mobile fire extinguishing equip-ment with universal fire-fighting installations are the future of fire fighting. They can be easily reconfigured on the application of any FEA (by number and types) directly at the fire station under the specific tactical tasks depending on the characteristics of protected objects. There are scientific and technological solutions and manufacturing capabilities to create a mobile fire-fighting equipment with the required properties in Russia!

Tunnel Operations, Maintenance, Inspection, and Evaluation Manual, 2015: Practical Implications for Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems

Practical implications of the new Tunnel Operations, Maintenance, Inspection, and Evaluation (TOMIE) Manual with regard to fire protection and life safety systems (FPLSS) are discussed, and resources are suggested for assistance in TOMIE manual implementation in this subject area. The new TOMIE manual takes a major and long-needed step toward the formalization of road tunnel inspection and maintenance requirements and protocols. The new program will not only benefit the condition and life of the structural elements of the tunnel but also enhance the public’s safety. According to the manual, “many tunnels have complicated functional systems such as lighting, ventilation, drainage, fire detection and alarms, fire suppression, communication and traffic control; these systems must be kept in good working order to minimize death and injury during an emergency such as a vehicle collision, fire, flood, earthquake, or criminal act.” All the operating mechanical and electrical systems mentioned above can be considered FPLSS. In an emergency each of these systems, and several others, has a role to play in ensuring that occupants have the best chance to survive and that responders can reach the scene as quickly as possible. This paper briefly examines FPLSS inspection and testing as related to the TOMIE manual. Although the TOMIE manual is an important step forward in protecting infrastructure and ensuring public safety, it cannot cover all the detailed requirements for operating, maintaining, inspecting, and evaluating the complex mechanical and electrical systems of FPLSS.

Водяная завеса для защиты лесопожарного автомобиля от воздействия лесных пожаров

In the article considered question protection of forest fire vehicle and is offered design of the equipment to create the water curtain. Are applied two contours for creation of a water veil allowing to make protection of all car from above, and also separately wheels. This uses a two modes of operation - manual and automatic. Given the urgency of the problem of forest fires, application of application of the offered design of a water curtain on fire fighter vehicle will al-low to reduce risk of ignition and protect equipment and people from the effects of a forest fire.