Thesis (M. App. Sc.)--Carleton University. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-236). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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No description available.

Current test methodologies used to evaluate the performance of protective clothing do not adequately determine the provided level of protection. The heat fluxes imposed by current evaluation methods are not specifically related to fire environments typical to those the clothing is designed provide protection against. The U.S. Navy is in the process of developing an improved process for testing the fire resistance of daily wear uniforms and protective gear. The first phase of this project involves evaluating currently used evaluation methods and identifying the severity of fire environments that would be expected aboard Navy ships. The examination of the test protocols currently in use identifies major weaknesses, providing the justification for a new test protocol. The first step in developing an improved test protocol is to determine the types of fire scenarios that would be expected aboard Navy vessels. The nearly infinite number of possible fires are reduced to 6 typical cases involving spray fires, pool fires and furniture fires in both compartmented and unconfined cases. An analysis of the environments produced by these types of fires is presented. The effects of compartmentation parameters are also investigated to determine the critical factors that affect the expected fire environment. Expected heat fluxes for all scenarios are presented at a number of distances from the fire.

Thesis. 1976. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Engineering. / Includes bibliographical references. / by N. Albert Moussa. / Sc.D.

Thesis. 1976. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Engineering. / Includes bibliographical references. / by George Economou. / M.S.

Over the centuries, the assessment of risk has become an integral part of the decision process. Assessment techniques have developed to meet different applications, but all have problems and none is entirely suited to the assessment of risks relating to fire. This dissertation examines the development of risk assessment processes and frameworks, identifying common features and problems and key differences in approach. Despite generically similar approaches, different applications have led to the development of many different paradigms, none of which appears to be entirely suitable for application to building and infrastructure fires. Current fire risk assessment methods which incorporate important advances in fire modelling and Monte Carlo simulation, rely on a fire engineering approach. They tend to consider only the limited range of fire safety systems that are directly involved in construction, failing to address many of the procedural and other activities that can overwhelm traditional controls, and taking insufficient account of interactions between different controls and the factors that influence them. Further, comparative risk levels are generally evaluated against the ill-defined scenario of current practice, as defined in outdated prescriptive regulations. The result is that catastrophic consequences continue to occur, despite the presence of traditionally accepted controls. The problem is to find a framework that evaluates the sensitivity of levels of risk in fire against a defined, uncontrolled state, taking into account the effects of a comprehensive range of factors and controls. A new approach to risk assessment that addresses a comprehensive set of factors and controls and evaluates the event without, and with, controls, is considered. The framework, together with the steps for its implementation, appears to provide a versatile and flexible method of risk assessment. It is likely that the framework can be applied to all risk assessment situations. A study is undertaken to investigate the impact of factors and interactions that are not commonly taken into account in fire risk assessment. The chosen situation is a fire in the driver???s cab of a train. Current driver procedures are examined, and fire growth rates for specified materials are considered. Using the fire spread model CFAST, conditions in the cab for a range of ventilation conditions and fire growth rates are calculated. Threshold levels that determine response times for engineered and human controls and tenability, and common factors that influence consequences, can play a critical role in modelling the decision process. A driver???s decision model is proposed that determines the impact of the driver???s decisions to adjust ventilation by opening or closing windows and doors, and to extinguish the fire. The model takes into account time to respond and time to perform the necessary activities. The study shows that, even with a limited choice of actions, the decisions of the driver can have a critical effect on the outcome of a fire in the driver???s cab, altering the situation from a controlled to an uncontrolled state. Recommendations are made for further development of the new risk assessment framework, and for the development of fire modelling for risk assessment purposes. Finally, recommendations are made for the continuation of the development of the train driver response model that would result in the generation of driver decision support software.

Viewing the economic development of the recent years, complying with the advancement of the time, the change of society and the development of the electronic technology, the probability to cause fire accident becomes much higher and it means the beginning of a serious disaster happened to human beings. Most of factories or companies where the people work inside are built towards high leveled, under grounded, large-sized, and getting more like closed areas, furthermore, the numbers of the companies making or supplying hazardous or dangerous materials gets more and more, this phenomenon causes the same result - that is wherever there is a fire, it will cause very serious loss about human lives & financial stuffs in an extremely short time. So being an modern people, we should put more focus on how to prevent the damages or reduce to the least ones caused by fire Due to the high price increase of the land, people want to fully utilize about the land efficiency, the architecture skill is developed towards building large-scaled ones, so the factories & electronic companies are mostly having big square-measured land, complicated structure, using special built material, containing many people in and even the building¡¦s usage becomes very complicated. All of these cause it extremely hard to make urgent rescues when there is a fire and will easily cause enormous loss about lives & stuffs. Most of the people think that it is the government & the fire fighting organization¡¦s responsibility to do the job about ¡§fire fight or fire prevention¡¨ and people always blame the fire fighting unit does not do their best to make rescues when there is a fire. While a complete fire fight & rescuing procedure has very timing concern, which includes perceiving about the fire clue, calling to report, initial fire extinction and control, guiding people to escape, safety protection, emergency protection and making complete fire extinction. In most cases, when the fire fighting unit arrives & starts to work on fire fight, the fire very likely grows to a certain burning phase, so the initial fire extinction will depend on the factory¡¦s ability to act about fire prevention and to deal with urgent situation, but due to the lack of the relative research about the factories & building¡¦s fire prevention in our country, and especially there is too few regarding the fire prevention strategy & safety management, this research majors to review the relative information to understand the connotation of the factory¡¦s fire fighting strategy and the law about safety management, and try to sieve the factors and its relative importance about the factory & building¡¦s fire prevention strategy from the actual examples of the fire accidents. As a matter of fact, this research is trying to bring up the importance about the factory & building¡¦s fire fighting strategy and its safety management, in order to promote the factory¡¦s efficiency about fire prevention management.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: building performance -- fire safety -- fire spread -- fire detection and initial action -- automatic sprinkler systems -- smoke movement, control and toxicity -- structural frame -- fire brigade intervention -- life safety. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture