An Introduction to Fire Dynamics E-Book

Dougal Drysdale

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 998

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

"Drysdale's book is by far the most comprehensive - everyone in the office has a copy...now including me. It holds just about everything you need to know about fire science."
(Review of An Introduction to Fire Dynamics, 2^nd Edition)

After 25 years as a bestseller, Dougal Drysdale's classic introduction has been brought up-to-date and expanded to incorporate the latest research and experimental data. Essential reading for all involved in the field from undergraduate and postgraduate students to practising fire safety engineers and fire prevention officers, An Introduction to Fire Dynamics is unique in that it addresses the fundamentals of fire science and fire dynamics, thus providing the scientific background necessary for the development of fire safety engineering as a professional discipline.

An Introduction to Fire Dynamics

• Includes experimental data relevant to the understanding of fire behaviour of materials;
• Features numerical problems with answers illustrating the quantitative applications of the concepts presented;
• Extensively course-tested at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Edinburgh, and widely adopted throughout the world;
• Will appeal to all those working in fire safety engineering and related disciplines.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

About the Author

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the Third Edition

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Fire Science and Combustion

1.1 Fuels and the Combustion Process

1.2 The Physical Chemistry of Combustion in Fires

Problems

Chapter 2: Heat Transfer

2.1 Summary of the Heat Transfer Equations

2.2 Conduction

2.3 Convection

2.4 Radiation

Problems

Chapter 3: Limits of Flammability and Premixed Flames

3.1 Limits of Flammability

3.2 The Structure of a Premixed Flame

3.3 Heat Losses from Premixed Flames

3.4 Measurement of Burning Velocities

3.5 Variation of Burning Velocity with Experimental Parameters

3.6 The Effect of Turbulence

Problems

Chapter 4: Diffusion Flames and Fire Plumes

4.1 Laminar Jet Flames

4.2 Turbulent Jet Flames

4.3 Flames from Natural Fires

4.4 Some Practical Applications

Problems

Chapter 5: Steady Burning of Liquids and Solids

5.1 Burning of Liquids

5.2 Burning of Solids

Problems

Chapter 6: Ignition: The Initiation of Flaming Combustion

6.1 Ignition of Flammable Vapour/Air Mixtures

6.2 Ignition of Liquids

6.3 Piloted Ignition of Solids

6.4 Spontaneous Ignition of Solids

6.5 Surface Ignition by Flame Impingement

6.6 Extinction of Flame

Problems

Chapter 7: Spread of Flame

7.1 Flame Spread Over Liquids

7.2 Flame Spread Over Solids

7.3 Flame Spread Modelling

7.4 Spread of Flame through Open Fuel Beds

7.5 Applications

Problems

Chapter 8: Spontaneous Ignition within Solids and Smouldering Combustion

8.1 Spontaneous Ignition in Bulk Solids

8.2 Smouldering Combustion

8.3 Glowing Combustion

Problems

Chapter 9: The Pre-flashover Compartment Fire

9.1 The Growth Period and the Definition of Flashover

9.2 Growth to Flashover

Problems

Chapter 10: The Post-flashover Compartment Fire

10.1 Regimes of Burning

10.2 Fully Developed Fire Behaviour

10.3 Temperatures Achieved in Fully Developed Fires

10.4 Fire Resistance and Fire Severity

10.5 Methods of Calculating Fire Resistance

10.6 Projection of Flames from Burning Compartments

10.7 Spread of Fire from a Compartment

Problems

Chapter 11: Smoke: Its Formation, Composition and Movement

11.1 Formation and Measurement of Smoke

11.2 Smoke Movement

11.3 Smoke Control Systems

References

Answers to Selected Problems

Author Index

Subject Index

This edition first published 2011

© 2011, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

First Edition published in 1985, Second Edition published in 1998

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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Drysdale, Dougal.

An introduction to fire dynamics / Dougal Drysdale. – 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-31903-1 (pbk.)

1. Fire. 2. Flame. I. Title.

QD516.D79 2011

541′.361 – dc22

2011015485

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Print ISBN: 9780470319031

ePDF ISBN: 9781119975472

oBook ISBN: 9781119975465

ePub ISBN: 9781119976103

Mobi ISBN: 9781119976110

To my family—

Jude

David, Misol and Manow

Andrew, Catriona, Izzy and Alex

and Peter

About the Author

Dougal Drysdale graduated with a degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1962. He gained a PhD in gas phase combustion from Cambridge University (UK) and after two years' postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto, moved to the University of Leeds to work with the gas kinetics group in the Department of Physical Chemistry. He joined the newly formed Department of Fire Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 1974 and helped develop the first postgraduate degree programme in Fire Engineering under the leadership of Professor David Rasbash. He was invited to teach Fire Dynamics during the spring semester of 1982 at the Centre for Firesafety Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA. The notes from this course formed the first draft of the first edition of An Introduction to Fire Dynamics, which was published in 1985.

His research interests include various aspects of fire dynamics, including ignition and the fire growth characteristics of combustible materials, compartment fire dynamics and smoke production in fires. He was a member of the Editorial Board for the third and fourth editions of the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering and was Chairman of the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) from 2002–2005. From 1989–2009 he acted as editor of Fire Safety Journal, the leading scientific journal in the field. He has been involved in a number of major public inquiries, including the King's Cross Underground Station fire (London, 1987), the Piper Alpha Platform explosion and fire (North Sea, 1988) and the Garley Building fire (Hong Kong, 1996). More recently, he was a member of the Major Incident Investigation Board which was set up following the explosions and fires at the Buncefield Oil Storage and Transfer Depot (Hemel Hempstead, England, 11 December 2005). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. His awards include: ‘Man of the Year’ (1983), the Arthur B. Guise Medal (1995) and the D. Peter Lund Award (2009) of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the Kawagoe Medal of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (2002), the Rasbash Medal of the Institution of Fire Engineers (2004) and the Sjolin Award of FORUM, the Association of International Directors of Fire Research (2005).

He is married to Judy and has three sons and three grandchildren, all living in Edinburgh. His interests are music, hillwalking, curling and coarse golf.

Preface to the Second Edition

The thirteen years that have elapsed between the appearance of the first and second editions of Introduction to Fire Dynamics have seen sweeping changes in the subject and, more significantly, in its application. Fire Engineering—now more commonly referred to as Fire Safety Engineering—was identified in the original preface as ‘a relatively new discipline’, and of course it still is. However, it is beginning to grow in stature as Fire Safety Engineers around the world begin to apply their skills to complex issues that defy solution by the old ‘prescriptive’ approach to fire safety. This has been reflected by the concurrent development in many countries of new Codes and Regulations, written in such a way as to permit and promote engineered solutions to fire safety problems. The multi-storey atrium and the modern airport terminal building are but two examples where a modern approach to fire safety has been essential.

Preparing a second edition has been somewhat of a nightmare. I have often said that if the first edition had not been completed in late 1984 it might never have been finished. The increased pace of research in the early 1980s was paralleled by the increasing availability of computers and associated peripherals. The first edition was prepared on a typewriter—a device in which the keyboard is directly connected to the printer. Graphs were plotted by hand. In 1984 I was rapidly being overtaken by the wave of new information, so much so that the first edition was out of date by the time it appeared.

In 1984, the International Association for Fire Safety Science—an organisation which has now held five highly successful international symposia—was still to be launched, and the ‘Interflam’ series of conferences was just beginning to make an impression on the international scene. The vigour of fire research in the decade after 1985 can be judged by examining the contents of the meetings that took place during this period. The scene has been transformed: the resulting exchange of ideas and information has established fire science as the foundation of the new engineering discipline. This has been largely due to the efforts of the luminaries of the fire research community, including in particular Dr. Philip Thomas, the late Prof. Kunio Kawagoe, Prof. T. Akita, Prof. Jim Quintiere and my own mentor, the late Prof. David Rasbash. They perceived the need for organisations such as the IAFSS, and created the circumstances in which they could grow and flourish.

A second edition has been due for over 10 years, but seemed an impossible goal. Fortunately, my friends and colleagues at Worcester Polytechnic Institute came to the rescue. They took the initiative and put me in purdah for four weeks at WPI, with strict instructions to ‘get on with it’. Funding for the period was provided by a consortium, consisting of the SFPE Educational Trust, the NFPA, Factory Mutual Research Corporation, Custer Powell Associates, and the Centre for Firesafety Studies at WPI. I am grateful to them all for making it possible, and to Don and Mickey Nelson for making me feel so welcome in their home. Numerous individuals on and off campus helped me to get things together. There was always someone on hand to locate a paper, plot a graph, discuss a problem, or share a coffee. I am grateful to David Lucht, Bob Fitzgerald, Jonathan Barnett, Bob Zalosh and Nick Dembsey for their help. I am indebted to many other individuals who kindly gave their time to respond to questions and comment on sections of the manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank (alphabetically) Paula Beever, Craig Beyler, John Brenton, Geoff Cox, Carlos Fernandez-Pello, George Grant, Bjorn Karlsson, Esko Mikkola, John Rockett and Asif Usmani. Each undertook to review one or more chapters: their feedback was invaluable. Having said this, the responsibility for any errors of fact or omission is mine and mine alone.

It is a sad fact that I managed to carry out over 50% of the revision in four weeks at WPI, but have taken a further two years to complete the task. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for their support and tolerance during this project. This was particularly true of my secretary, Alison Stirling, who displayed amazing sang-froid at moments of panic. However, the person to whom I am most indebted is my wife Judy who has displayed boundless patience, tolerance and understanding. Without her support over the years, neither edition would ever have been completed. She finally pulled the pin from the grenade this time, by organising a ‘Deadline Party’ to which a very large number of friends and colleagues were invited. Missing this deadline was not an option (sorry, John Wiley). It was a great party!

Preface to the Third Edition

‘The thirteen years that have elapsed between the second and third editions of Introduction to Fire Dynamics have seen sweeping changes in the subject and, more significantly, in its application.’ I admit with some embarrassment that this sentence is virtually identical to the one that opens the preface to the second edition. The number 13 bothers me, not simply because of its association with bad luck, but because 13 years is a long time and it could be argued that enough new research had been published for a new edition to have been compiled by 2005. However, a textbook on Fire Dynamics cannot be a literature review—it should be limited to information and data that are deemed to be well-founded by the fire community. The evolution of research results into accepted knowledge takes time, requiring not only the initial peer-review process but also scrutiny by way of further research and application. The practice of Fire Safety Engineering is based on such knowledge but has been in existence as a recognized professional engineering discipline for a remarkably short period of time. Although it was being developed from the mid-1970s onwards by Margaret Law and others, it was not until c. 1990 that it was pulled into the mainstream with the introduction of regulations permitting the use of performance-based fire safety engineering design. At this time, the underpinning ‘fire science’ was at a relatively early stage in its development and research into many aspects of fire dynamics was still active.

Indeed, Fire Safety Engineering is very close to its research roots. It is significant that the Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, originally published by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers in 1988, is now in its 4th edition (2008). Its chapters cover all aspects of fire safety engineering, but those that deal with the scientific and engineering fundamentals are de facto review articles. The practitioner—and indeed the fire safety engineering student—should be alert to the fact that he/she is working in a field that is still developing and that it is necessary to remain aware of current research activities. Consequently, this book should be regarded as a snapshot of where we are at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

Compared to the first two editions, the third has been prepared under very different circumstances. On the previous occasions, I had the luxury of working on early drafts while at the Centre for Fire Safety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, away from the usual demands of academic life at Edinburgh University. The third edition has been written at Edinburgh University, but after retirement. I have been very fortunate to have been immersed in a very active fire research group, the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, led by José Torero. This has been a source of both inspiration and distraction. With so many new colleagues, I have had a unique opportunity to discuss the contents of the book and develop some new areas that were missing from the second edition. However, I have taken care not to change the style of the text, nor to create a tome which might be seen as an attempt to be a literature review. The first edition was close to being such, but the field has developed so rapidly during the last 25 years that such an approach would have been impossible, even if desirable. I am aware that there are some topics that deserve more emphasis and that some recent research has not been included, but I take full responsibility for the decisions regarding the content. I would welcome comments regarding the content as these would be helpful in planning for a fourth edition. Whether or not I will be the author, time (and John Wiley & Sons) will tell!

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a large number of people for helping me at various stages along the way. In particular, I would like to thank (in alphabetical order) Cecilia Abecassis-Empis, Ron Alpert, Craig Beyler, Luke Bisby, Ricky Carvel, Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Rory Hadden, Martin Gillie, Richard Hull, Tom Lennon, Agustin Majdalani, Jim Quintiere, Guillermo Rein, Pedro Reszka, Martin Shipp, Albert Simeoni, Mike Spearpoint, Anna Stec, Jose Torero and Stephen Welch. I can only apologize if I have missed anyone from the list. In the prefaces to previous editions I acknowledged many others who helped and inspired me at the relevant periods of time. Their contributions are part of this text and although their names are not included here, their roles should not be forgotten. However, I would like to acknowledge two individuals by name: my original mentor, the late David Rasbash who was responsible for establishing the first postgraduate degree programme in Fire Engineering at Edinburgh University, and Philip Thomas who has made so many outstanding contributions to the field and continues to be a source of inspiration. Finally, I wish to thank my wife Judy and our family for their unfailing support over the years and tolerating my highly erratic working practices.

Chapter 1

Fire Science and Combustion

As a process, fire can take many forms, all of which involve chemical reactions between combustible species and oxygen from the air. Properly harnessed, it provides great benefit as a source of power and heat to meet our industrial and domestic needs, but, unchecked, it can cause untold material damage and human suffering. In the United Kingdom alone, direct losses probably exceed £2 billion (2010 prices), while over 400 people die each year in fires. According to the UK Fire Statistics (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2009), there were 443 fatalities in 2007, continuing a downward trend from over 1000 in 1979. In real terms, the direct fire losses may not have increased significantly over the past two decades, but this holding action has been bought by a substantial increase in other associated costs, namely improving the technical capability of the Fire Service and the adoption of more sophisticated fire protection systems.1

Further major advances in combating unwanted fire are unlikely to be achieved simply by continued application of the traditional methods. What is required is a more fundamental approach that can be applied at the design stage rather than tacitly relying on fire incidents to draw attention to inherent fire hazards. Such an approach requires a detailed understanding of fire behaviour from an engineering standpoint. For this reason, it may be said that a study of fire dynamics is as essential to the fire protection engineer as the study of chemistry is to the chemical engineer.