Fire safety

Course guarantor:

František Wald

Lecturer:

František Wald

Tutor:

Supervisor:

Department of Steel and Timber Structures

Synopsis:

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the principles of ensuring fire safety of buildings using advanced methods of fire modeling, heat transfer to the structure and the behavior of the structure at elevated temperature when exposed to fire. Teaching is focused on the use of numerical modeling by the method of zone models and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) used for the calculation of temperature field, FEM (Finite Element Modeling) used for the calculation of heat transfer and mechanical behavior of structures, which include both parts of the calculation. In the part focused on numerical modeling is also highlighted the issue of inputs into software tools. Possibilities and pitfalls of determination of inputs needed for CFD and FE models are explained, with the main focus on fire technical characteristics (PTCH) of materials. Emphasis is also placed on a suitable way of verifying the results by means of model verification and validation. This section includes an introduction to benchmark cases. Verification is closely related to the physical testing of structures. Teaching includes an experimental part. Several type tests are prepared for experimental teaching. It is a test of gas temperature measurement (elevated temperature from the radiation panel is measured using various types of sensors, the results of which are subsequently evaluated), tests of heat transfer to structures (in concrete, steel and timber elements are measured temperatures at different depths, with numerical models).

Requirements:

It is set by the supervisor.

Syllabus of lectures:

It is set by the supervisor.

Syllabus of tutorials:

It is set by the supervisor.

Study Objective:

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the principles of ensuring fire safety of buildings using advanced methods of fire modeling, heat transfer to the structure and the behavior of the structure at elevated temperature when exposed to fire. Teaching is focused on the use of numerical modeling by the method of zone models and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) used for the calculation of temperature field, FEM (Finite Element Modeling) used for the calculation of heat transfer and mechanical behavior of structures, which include both parts of the calculation. In the part focused on numerical modeling is also highlighted the issue of inputs into software tools. Possibilities and pitfalls of determination of inputs needed for CFD and FE models are explained, with the main focus on fire technical characteristics (PTCH) of materials. Emphasis is also placed on a suitable way of verifying the results by means of model verification and validation. This section includes an introduction to benchmark cases. Verification is closely related to the physical testing of structures. Teaching includes an experimental part. Several type tests are prepared for experimental teaching. It is a test of gas temperature measurement (elevated temperature from the radiation panel is measured using various types of sensors, the results of which are subsequently evaluated), tests of heat transfer to structures (in concrete, steel and timber elements are measured temperatures at different depths, with numerical models).

Study materials:

Drysdale, D., An introduction to fire dynamics. 3rd ed. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2011. ISBN 0470319038.

Fire Dynamics Simulator User’s Guide. 6th ed. NIST, Fire Research Division Engineering Laboratory Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, 2014.

Wickström U., Temperature calculation in fire safety engineering, Springer Interantional Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-30172-3.

Wald, F., et al., Benchmark Studies, Experimental validation of numerical models in fire engineering. Prague : CTU Publishing House, 2014. 978-80-01-05443-7.

Wald, F., et al., Benchmark Studies, Verification of numerical models in fire engineering. Prague : CTU Publishing House, 2014. 978-80-01-05442-0.

Note:

Further information:

https://moodle-vyuka.cvut.cz/my/

Time-table for winter semester 2024/2025:

Time-table is not available yet

Time-table for summer semester 2024/2025:

Time-table is not available yet

The course is a part of the following study plans: