9:30 a.m.
Fire and Risk Alliance Conference Room (3106 JMP)
For More Information:
Christine O'Brien
cobrien3@umd.edu
Title: Understanding the different scales of compartment fires
Speaker: Vinny Gupta, Ph.D.
Date/Time: October 6, 2021 at 9:30 a.m.
Location: Fire and Risk Alliance Conference Room
Abstract:
Developments in the understanding of fire behaviour for large open-plan spaces typical of tall buildings have been greatly outpaced by the rate at which the characteristics of these buildings are changing. High-profile fire-induced failures, such as the WTC Towers and the Grenfell Tower Fire, have highlighted the inadequacy of existing tools and standards when applied to highly optimised modern tall buildings. Understanding the performance of complex fire safety and structural systems under fire exposure requires an appropriate characterisation of the fire. This has traditionally been provided by a body of seminal research into small under-ventilated compartment fires, which diverges in terms of applicability from large open-plan compartments. This seminar details the scaling-up of the fundamental physical processes that enable the characterisation of large compartment fires. Experiments conducted at the bench-scale through to the large-scale are presented, along with analyses and simplified analytical solutions developed to elucidate the mechanisms controlling the fire behaviour. This analysis enables simplified yet robust solutions to be developed to describe the evolution of large compartment fires and their thermal solicitation, which can then be used in building design.
Biography:
Vinny Gupta is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney within the Clean Combustion Group. His work focuses on applying laser-based diagnostics to study vertical wall fires, chemical inhibition of flames, and water mist suppression. Vinny completed his PhD at the University of Queensland on the fire dynamics of large open-plan compartments. He is actively engaged in several multi-scale experimental research projects investigating the fire dynamics of timber structures and the vertical fire spread risk of cladding systems.
This Event is For: Campus
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