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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2011/2012
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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Engineering : Civil

Undergraduate Course: Fire Science and Fire Dynamics 4 (CIVE10011)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Engineering CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Course typeStandard AvailabilityAvailable to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) Credits10
Home subject areaCivil Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionThis 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 Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?Yes
Course Delivery Information
Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1) WebCT enabled:  Yes Quota:  None
Location Activity Description Weeks Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
King's BuildingsLectureJCMB 52151-11 09:00 - 10:50
King's BuildingsTutorialClassroom 10, Alrick Building1-11 10:00 - 10:50
First Class Week 1, Monday, 09:00 - 10:50, Zone: King's Buildings. JCMB 5215
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours:Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)Fire Science and Fire Dynamics 41:30
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 $ú 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


Transferable skills Not entered
Reading list Drysdale, D.D. &«Introduction to fire Dynamics, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 1998.

SFPE Handbook of Fire protection Engineering, NFPA, 3rd Edition, 2001.
Study Abroad Not entered
Study Pattern Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserProf Jose Torero-Cullen
Tel: (0131 6)50 5723
Email: J.Torero@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Laura Smith
Tel: (0131 6)50 5690
Email: laura.smith@ed.ac.uk
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