| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/D060524/1 |
| Title: |
Flames on building facades |
| Principal Investigator: |
Delichatsios, Professor M |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Built Environment |
| Organisation: |
University of Ulster |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 November 2006 |
Ends: |
30 April 2010 |
Value (£): |
176,046
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Building Ops & Management |
Combustion |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Flame spread up the facade of high-rise buildings or in the interior of atria is a serious risk because of its high consequences for life safety and property conservation. It is worthwhile to note that this fire risk increases because new building materials are introduced as the number of buildings and atria increases. In addition, new tall buildings and atria incorporate innovative architectural styles, which demand non-conventional considerations for fire safety. Flame and fire spread on the external walls of a building may be initiated from fully involved enclosure fires at a given floor of the building (or atrium), from a fire in an adjacent space or from other extreme events such as an external impact on the building or an earthquake. Even though significant early research in this area has been transferred to practical regulatory guidelines, large uncertainties and contradictions exist in the current methods for determining (a) the burning rates in fully involved enclosures, (b) the flow of air into the enclosure for under ventilated (post flashover) conditions, (c) the associated heat fluxes to the structure and (d) the heights and heat fluxes of the flames emerging out of openings of the enclosure. For example, serious questions have been raised in the ongoing debate regarding the conditions of burning (i.e. ventilation or fuel controlled) in the floor impacted by the airplane in the World Trade Center disaster.This proposal investigates these phenomena in enclosure and facade fires by studying the physics of burning and flow dynamics through 1. experiments in various enclosure and external wall geometries to provide accurate measurements of the heat fluxes , 2. similarity (non-dimensional) analysis to generalize the results to different size geometries and 3. numerical simulation (modified FDS and MILES)with an ultimate aim of providing new accurate calculation methods for assessing the fire hazard in enclosure and external fires.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ulst.ac.uk |