In this episode of the Fire Science Show we go in depth on the Building Integrated Photo-Voltaic systems (BIPV). It is a topic relevant to many fire engineers, and one on which it is very difficult to find a lot of information about. For this purpose I’ve invited Reidar Stølen from RISE and a PhD candidate at Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU. Reidar has hands-on experience with fire testing BIPV façade, as he has performed such experiments with the Swedish test method for...

In this episode, we explore wildfire's impact on industrial fire safety with Professor Eulàlia Planas from Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. Eulalia defines the term  Wildland Industrial Interface (WII), a realm where the forces of nature clash with safety and process engineering. In the episode, we highlight that it is not just the exposure to the fire itself but also to the secondary effects - ember storms, firebrand accumulation, strong winds or power shutdowns that may cause...

Depression and anxiety are on the rise in both academia and engineering consultancies. Everyone is constantly stressed and pushed to their limits. The system is built this way... And imagine that on top of the inadequate mental health related to the stressful environment, you also struggle with a mental illness. A health condition you did not choose, you may or may not be aware of, and may or may not be treating... Now, add trying to build a family and advance the most challenging part of the...

In this episode, we discuss the stark realities of fire safety engineering in South Africa (and beyond) as we sit down with Professor Richard Walls from Stellenbosch University. Our journey through the recent history of devastating fires, from truck blasts to the fire that took down the SA Parliament building, lays bare the critical gaps in resources, awareness and education that have catastrophic consequences.  Professor Walls's expertise guides us through the complexities of local building...

Imagine if we had a tool that we could use to design a design fire. Instead of simply assuming fire growth characteristics by slapping the alpha-t2 function, use a tool that could tell us which items in a compartment burn and what the characteristics of that fire are. I would say this dream is shared among many fire safety engineers - I think we can all agree that we could use such a tool. Today's guest, Dr Greg Baker, has shared this dream and built a tool like this within his PhD at the...

In today's fire fundamentals episode, I have chosen a difficult job: explaining how CFD modelling works without the ability to put a single equation out there! It's much tougher than I thought! I hope I've done a decent job, though. I am trying to fill out this niche of talking about CFD at an approachable level. I've noticed there is a ton of 'introductory' level resources about modeling. Still, they usually very quickly go into mathematical formulations instead of explaining in plain...

If the word 'uncertainty' sounds extremely boring to you, this episode will prove you wrong. I have invited David Morrisset from the University of Edinburgh to discuss his research on the subject. Whereas in fact David is establishing standard deviations, means and other statistical means of quantifying uncertainty in core fire measurements, the really impactful and important part of his research is on explaining WHY those uncertainties are there. Through physical explanation of processes...

This week, I am meeting up with Imperial Hazelab's Harry Mitchell, who is finalizing his PhD thesis on mass timber fires and, quite uniquely - including the smouldering phenomena in those fires. As a part of Code Red experiments run by Arup, Imperial College London and Cerib (which you can learn more about from episode 111 with Panos Kotsovinos)  Harry has performed observations of formation, growth and decay of smouldering "hot spots" for up to 2 days after the fire. Based on that,...

Tests in the world of reaction to fire are supposed to be representations of real fire scenarios, allowing us to grasp the characteristics of building products against them. While for the worst scenario (flashover fire) or the smallest ignition source (small flame), the definition is pretty straightforward. However, creating the intermediate method that the entire Europe would agree on was a bumpy ride. Our latest episode is a treasure trove of knowledge detailing the birth and maturation of...

I've finished my first large research grant! I guess that makes me a 'real' scientist now. Came here today to share some most interesting aspects of this project with you. Not going to bore you all about the wind and fire interaction physics (hey, there is an entire episode 50 devoted to that!), but rather talk about challenges and stuff that perhaps will matter if you would like to engineer a case similar to one we have studied. So in this podcast episode, we will go into: How our framework...

It is interesting to see changes in our profession that happen directly in front of our lives. Climate change and in consequence the changes in the wildfire patterns are one such obvious shift. In Poland, we do not ever have a ‘wildfire’ season, and I was kind of surprised when I discovered this is a thing in the South or in other parts of the world. Unfortunately, we do not have it *yet*. Some years ago devastating wildfire season happened in Sweden. There has been an emergency in northern...

This episode of the Fire Science Show welcomes once again Adam Barowy from the Fire Safety Research Institute to shed light on the pressing issue of fire hazards in electric mobility devices. In this episode, we give a follow-up to ep. 085 with Adam, which was published one year ago. One year in the world of e-mobility is a lot of time, so we have a lot of catching up to do! We tackle the complexities of standardizing explosion protection for large-scale energy storage and the...

In this episode of Fire Fundamentals, we dive into the life-saving choreography of fire detection and building automation systems that must work together in case of a fire. We discuss the roles and challenges related to: fire detection and signalling;control panels and fire scenarios;smoke control and compartmentalization;power and water supply and management.We also discuss the sources of potential delays in device operation, and how some of those are consciously built into the system as a...

In episode 48, my guest Mike Spearpoint said that in mid '90s, he participated in experiments on vehicle fires, as at that time, there were doubts if the design fires of that time (developed in the '80s) were representative of modern cars. Fast forward 30 years ahead, and we seem to be in a very similar situation. We have limited knowledge on vehicle fires, most coming from very old studies that have used even older vehicles... And we have a fleet that consists of larger vehicles, gravitating...

It's time to learn about "the evacuation equation" from one of its creators. This week I interview prof. David Purser about the elements that go into the evacuation process that help us determine the fire safety of buildings. We go through the components of the Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET) one by one: detection timealarm timepre-movementoccupant movement and congestion.We discuss how those were initially defined, what the assumptions behind establishing them as a part of the...

As we close the curtains on 2023, take a walk with me through the unforgettable milestones that have shaped the Fire Science Show. This isn't just a recap; it's a treasure trove of insights and a roadmap to the innovations just over the horizon. We've come so far together, with download numbers soaring and our influence deepening within the fire science community. My gratitude overflows for the steady support from OFR Consultants in 2023, and the future looks very bright with this...

Welcome aboard a journey through the challenges of managing electric vehicle fires at sea with Elena Funk of DBI and Magnus Arvidson from RISE. In this podcast episode, we discuss two large projects devoted to understanding how we can mitigate, suppress and manage EV fires - project Elbas at DBI and project Lash Fire at RISE. Even though the aim of those were ferries and ro-ro ships, the findings are very important and relevant for civil infrastructure like car parks or tunnels. In the...

This is an important episode. Our guest for today, UK fire engineer Mary Button, who uses a wheelchair herself, shares some of her own stories and feelings describing the reality for many disabled individuals. Drawing from her own experiences, Mary shares invaluable insights into the cognitive complexities individuals with mobility issues face, physical barriers, and psychological burdens related to the fire evacuation process. But most importantly, I think we touch on the essence here of how...

In this part 8 of Experiments that changed fire science series we revisit Cardington (previously covered in part 2 - https://www.firescienceshow.com/078-experiments-that-changed-fire-science-pt-2-bre-cardington-with-tom-lennon/), but this time from the perspective of modeling the structure. My guest prof. Asif Usmani of the HK PolyU takes us on how simplifying the model led them to some fundamental discoveries on the thermo-mechanical response of structures to fires. We discuss material...

In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Carmen Górska from OFR Consultants, the recent IAFSS Phillip Thomas Award recipient for the best paper at the previous IAFSS Symposium. In this interview, we touch on preconceived notions about fire dynamics in timber compartments, and Carmen explains how she has learned the intricate physics behind it.  The research discussed covers dozens of medium-scale timber (CLT) compartments with different amounts of exposed timber.  The findings relate to the...

In today's episode, we go into the practical consequences of having an underventilated fire - that is the possibility of backdraught or other similar smoke explosion phenomena. My guest Dr Ricky Carvel from the University of Edinburgh, touches on the chemistry of combustion, explaining why the underventilated fire is different than the oxygen-rich one, and how flammability limits are critical in understanding dynamic phenomena that may occur in a fuel-rich environment. We go into conditions...

Dear friends of the Fire Science Show, and listeners of the Smart Passive Income Podcast - today is some sort of a special broadcast. As I have just been featured in THE podcast https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/shows/spi/ I've chosen to create a lightweight episode on what Fire Safety Engineering is. I hope this is interesting to people who never heard about the term and a great reflection on what we do to all who practice the world's best job. I'm unraveling this together with our...

Dear friends, I am building something new for you. Something that should be very useful, something that I wish I had when I started my journey as a fresh fire safety engineer. And I’ve reached a point where I’m comfortable sharing it is being built and that the first useful version will be available by the end of the month. So what is this mysterious thing? I’ve named it “The Book of Fire” (please let me keep the origin of the name story for another occasion 😊) and it will be an online...

I'm known for my rant about critical velocity concept in tunnel ventilation systems, and I tried to really control myself and not go into podcast with it :) But in recent weeks, when I was enjoying sake at IAFSS in Tsukuba two important things happened. We have received the PASCAL award from the Polish Ventilation Association for the best ventilation design in Poland - our S2 Warsaw Ring tunnel project. The second was the invitation from the Conference of European Directors of Roads to talk...