The expansion ratio (defined as the ratio of the expanded thickness to the original thickness) of intumescent coatings is the most important quantity that determines their fire protection performance. This thesis explores two possible methods of predicting intumescent coating expansion: an analytical method, and a detailed numerical simulation method using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH).The analytical method is based on a cell-model and predicts bubble growth due to pressure increase in viscous liquid with constant viscosity. It has been extended to non-uniform temperature field and temperature-dependent viscosity of intumescent melt. Accuracy of this extended analytical method is assessed by comparison against the cone calorimeter and furnace fire tests on intumescent coating protected steel plates with different intumescent coating thicknesses, steel plate thicknesses, and heating conditions. The extended analytical method is then used to investigate how intumescent coating expansion and intumescent coating effective thermal conductivity are affected by changing the coating thickness, the steel thickness and the fire condition (including smouldering fire). The main conclusion is that the expansion ratio decreases as the rate of heating increases. Therefore, the intumescent coating properties obtained from the Standard fire exposure may be safely used for slower realistic fires, but would produce unsafe results for faster fires. The second method explores the potential of a meshless numerical simulation: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). SPH modelling of intumescent coating expansion has been implemented using the SPHysics FORTRAN open-source code as a platform. To check the validity of this modelling method, the modelling results are compared against theoretical solutions for surface tension (Young-Laplace theorem), and available numerical and analytical solutions for bubble expansion. A new algorithm for representing the mass transfer of gas into the bubble using SPH particle insertion and particle shifting scheme is presented to simulate the bubble expansion process. Close agreement with an analytical solution for the initial bubble expansion rate computed by SPH is obtained. Whilst this research has demonstrated the potential of using SPH to numerically simulate intumescent coating expansion, it has also revealed significant challenges that should be overcome to make SPH a feasible method to simulate intumescent coating expansion. The main challenges include:• Simulating gas-polymer flows when expansion is occurring where there are vastly different properties of these two fluids with a density ratio of about 1000. This high density ratio may easily cause numerical pressure noise, especially at the liquid-gas interface.• Extremely high computational cost necessary to achieve sufficient accuracy by using a large number of particles (higher resolution), especially for the multi-phase SPH program, and very small time step for the lighter fluid (air). • The behaviour of intumescent coatings involves expansion ratios on the order of 10-100 with thousands of bubbles which grow, merge and burst. Based on the results of this exploratory research, future improvements are outlined to further develop the SPH simulation method.

Introduction: Non-compliance with respiratory protection programs among firefighters may put them at increased risk of injury and illness from occupational exposures during fire extinguishing activities. This research aims to characterize respiratory protection practices among Florida firefighters. This information will allow better understanding of factors that are associated with non-compliance with respiratory protection guidelines. Methods: Survey questionnaire was used to characterize Florida fire departments in this cross sectional study. Four hundred and seventy-seven surveys were administered to Florida firefighters both in person and electronically to collect information regarding firefighter knowledge and participation in their respective respiratory protection programs during the past twelve months. Survey questions were developed from the model set by the National Fire Protection Association which provides standards and regulations regarding firefighter protections. Collected data were used to produce summary statistics regarding firefighter department size, coverage area, and firefighter employment type. Further data analysis used Statistical Analysis Software to compute multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results: The 477 respondents were 91% male with a mean age 39 years old (range 21-65 years). The majority of respondents, 76%, were non-smokers, 21% former smokers, and 3% current smokers. In regards to ethnicity, respondents were 77% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 3% African-American, and 4% other. Most respondents were career firefighters, 97%, with less than ten years of experience, 44%, working in a fire department with at least 21 firefighters, 98%. Most respondents, 80%, had a written respiratory program in place. The most cited reason for not having implemented a written respiratory program was lack of knowledge related to the program. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of departments with response areas of at least 250,000 square miles produced a statistically significant 0.44 odds ratio for having a written respiratory program as compared to those with a less than 10,000 square miles response area. Conclusion: Additional resources need to be given to Florida fire departments to ensure that all firefighters receive adequate respiratory protection in accordance with National Fire Protection Association guidelines. There is an association between fire departments with large response areas and non-compliance with respiratory protection guidelines in regards to: having a written respiratory program, the frequency of respiratory fit testing, and the frequency of medical fitness testing. This suggests that rural fire departments need additional resources to ensure fire fighters are adequately protected. Additional research should focus on why these differences exist in the rural fire departments. Respondents stating a lack of knowledge or no requirement for a written respiratory program suggest that future efforts should focus on respiratory protection education and training.

This thesis deals with solution of steel members under fire conditions. The goal of the thesis is to examine and compare unprotected steel members with steel members protected by different types of passive protection. Calculation is performed according to applicable design standards. ANSYS software is used for thermal and structural analysis.

Thesis advisor: Penelope Ismay / This dissertation traces the changing distributions of social responsibility for fire in Calcutta and London across the long-nineteenth century. While these two cities were the capitals of the British Empire, with similar adoptions of municipal fire brigades, the public trust systems that undergirded these institutions varied greatly, revealing how municipal fire protection required more than municipal authority and technological innovation to be effective and acceptable to urban citizens. This dissertation examines how these cities endeavored to limit the fire danger that went hand in hand with imperial economic growth and in the process created systems by which the social responsibility for fire was divided between urban citizens and newly-instituted municipal fire brigades. Specifically, I ask how did the British Empire approach the destructive force of fire as a social problem in the rapidly modernizing urban environments of the nineteenth century? Other historians have argued that growing municipal authority or technological innovation in the name of efficiency account for the changes in nineteenth-century fire protection, but this dissertation argues instead that expanded municipal control, adopting new technologies, and the creation of municipal firefighting institutions were all a response to breakdowns in trust. Solving the fire problem could not be entirely top-down, nor completely bottom-up, but required a trusting relationship between urban citizens and municipal governments that was rare in the nineteenth-century British Empire. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

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This essay is a feasibility study on alternative fire protection materials for CLT elements. The purpose isto investigate and compile reasonable alternatives to gypsum board and mineral wool which theproject can then continue to work on and to test and evaluate its fire engineering properties.The fire protection standards that exists today in Sweden and the EU for CLT elements are described inoverview as well as the process of material testing at a facility like RISE.The thesis concludes that clay in plaster and board format is a material with great potential from a firetechnical and environmental point of view and is the most suitable material to proceed with forfurther tests and evaluation.The report “Material properties of clay and lime plastics for structural fire design” by Johanna L, JudithK, Alar J, Birgit M, Siim P, 2019, reports good results for the clay's fire-technical properties and shouldbe used as guidance in the project for further studies.This essay also provides suggestions on cross sections to investigate further before testing it’s fireprotection properties.It is also clear that there is a great lack of harmonizing product standards when it comes to clay as abuilding material and that the environmental documentation is deficient compared to traditionalbuilding materials such as plasterboard. The same applies to building boards that are magnesiumoxide-based, these have also had problems with moisture and the quality assurance is uncertain. / Denna uppsats är en förstudie om alternativa brandskyddsmaterial för KL-träelement, korslimmadeträelement. Syftet är att undersöka och sammanställa rimliga alternativ till gipsskivor och mineralullsom ett framtida projekt sedan kan arbeta vidare med för att testa och utvärdera dess brandtekniskaegenskaper. Krav som ställs på KL-trä ur brandskyddssynpunkt samt även hur ett materialsbrandtekniska egenskaper testas hos, till exempel, RISE beskrivs övergripligt.Uppsatsen drar slutsatsen att lera i puts- och skivformat är ett material med stor potential urbrandteknisk och miljömässig synpunkt och är det lämpligaste materialet att gå vidare med förutförligare tester och utvärdering.Rapporten ”Material properties of clay and lime plaster for structural fire design” av Johanna L, JudithK, Alar J, Birgit M, Siim P, 2019, redovisar goda resultat för lerans brandtekniska egenskaper och böranvändas vägledande i projektet för vidare studier.Denna uppsats ger även förslag på tvärsnitt att undersöka vidare för att sedan testa dessbrandtekniska egenskaper.Det är även tydligt att det finns en stor brist på harmoniserande produktstandarder när det kommertill lera som ett byggnadsmaterial samt att miljödokumentationen är bristande jämfört medtraditionella byggnadsmaterial som gipsskivor. Det samma gäller för byggskivor som ärmagnesiumoxidbaserade, dessa har även haft problem med fukt och kvalitetssäkringen är osäker.

No / Based on temperatures measured in steel joints with different extents of fire protection, this paper proposes a simple method to calculate temperatures in steel joints with partial intumescent coating fire protection. The method combines the simple temperature calculation methods in EN 1993-1-2 (Committee of European Normalisation CEN, Eurocode 3: design of steel structures—part 1-2: general rules—structural fire design, 2005) for unprotected and protected steel structures through the introduction of an exposure factor, which is the ratio of the unprotected surface area of the joint region to the total surface area of the joint area. Using the measured temperatures for fully protected steel joints, this paper first extracts the effective thermal conductivity of the intumescent coating used in the fire tests. Afterwards, this paper presents validation results based on fire test results on joints with partial fire protection. Finally, this paper presents methods to calculate the exposure factor for different types of partially fire protected steel joints.

The subject of this dissertation is Prague Fire Brigade. The purpose of this thesis is a basic element of integrated rescue system presentation in a context of legislative requirements and their practical impletion. A complex insight on fire brigade functioning, which provides fire protection in the metropolis, should eventuate.

In the diploma thesis "Cooperation of Fire Rescue Brigade of Central Bohemia Region and Voluntary Fire Brigade Corps Units of Municipalities with Predestination for Traffic Accident Interventions", the author dealt with the evaluation of possibilities of cooperation in traffic accidents between fire brigade units of Central Bohemia and voluntary fire brigade units of municipalities destined for rescue and liquidation accidents. In the theoretical part of the thesis there are given the basic terms from the area of rescue of injured persons from crashed vehicles, legal and internal regulations dealing with this issue and criteria for fulfillment of predetermination for rescue work in traffic accidents - professional training, numbers and equipment with mobile fire equipment and material means fire protection for rescue. The next chapter in the theoretical part is the concrete activities of fire protection units in the type of traffic accident. The conclusion of the theoretical part consists of the existing situation in the Central Bohemian Region - description of transport infrastructure, area coverage of the region by fire protection units destined for rescue work in traffic accidents and statistics of accident rate on roads for 2018, in which the fire brigade of the Central Bohemia Region and units of voluntary fire brigade units of municipalities intervened predestined for rescue work in traffic accidents. The practical part presents the results of the questionnaire survey. For this questionnaire survey, the first representative sample of the survey was selected by the commanders of voluntary fire brigade units of municipalities of the Central Bohemian Region destined for rescue operations in traffic accidents. The second representative sample of the survey was selected by guarantors for individual territorial departments of the Central Bohemian Fire Rescue Service for rescue together with instructors for rescuing injured persons in road accidents at individual stations of the Fire Rescue Service of the Central Bohemia Region. The survey was carried out for a defined set in the form of a semi-structured questionnaire. Individual questionnaires were evaluated on the basis of the survey in Chapter 3. Discussion. This evaluation found that no one is a clear opponent of volunteer fire brigade units in municipalities destined for rescue operations in traffic accidents and their traffic accidents are desirable, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. As a measure to increase the efficiency of cooperation between the fire brigade units of the Central Bohemian Region by voluntary fire brigade units of municipalities with a predestination for rescue work in traffic accidents, it was recommended to newly determine the units of voluntary fire brigades of municipalities for rescue work in road accidents in the Central Bohemian Region where unit of Fire Rescue Brigade of Central Bohemia Region has a long range. Furthermore, it was recommended to create internal regulations regulating the minimum equipment of mobile fire fighting equipment and material fire protection equipment for rescue of volunteer fire brigade units of municipalities destined for rescue work in traffic accidents and to develop a new internal regulation regulating the requirements of training fire brigade units as they are confusing.

Background: Hotels are considered a risky environment because guests are not expected to be awake and are expected to have poor local knowledge. Although hotels doesn’t have acceptable fire protection according to the only previously known study in this area. This is a problem because every four to five days there is a hotel fire. The hotels would be able to reach an acceptable fire safety by pursuing a systematic fire protection and take certain construction actions. Aim: Identifying details that need to be introduced in hotels daily work with fire protection based on the Swedish law and case studies. Method: A literature review and two case studies of hotel fires. Results: The hotel in Sweden followed the Swedish legislation in force in 2009 and had a good organizational fire protection. The hotel mainly needed to improve was the structural fire protection, adapted for disabled people, control of the acoustics in the evacuation alarm and had more smoke detectors. The hotel in England didn’t follow the law in force in England in 2007 and was nearly entirely lacking fire protection. They needed primarily improve the structural fire protection, adapted for disabled people, upgrade their alarm, had several smoke detectors and had a systematic fire protection. Conclusion: Swedish legislation still needs to be clear up because there is still room for interpretation of the laws as they are functional requirements. It is good that the Swedish legislation has adapted to fires that already has occurred in Sweden, but what could be done better today is motivate hotels to get involved in their fire protection. A committed management in hotels means better systematic fire protections and more money spend on the fire protection. One way to motivate hotel managements is to further inform about the consequences of a fire and to encourage hotels to certify themselves. But is not enough to only have a good systematic fire protection, the technical fire protection also needs to upgrade. It should be introduce higher demands that the hotels should be more handicap-friendly and update their fire alarms, because it saves lives and lower the material damage.