Determination of Critical Separation Distance Between Dwellings in Informal Settlements Fire

Wang, Y.; Gibson, Lesley; Beshir, Mohamed; Rush, David

doi:10.1007/s10694-020-01075-w

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition to the previously mentioned publications, there are some other studies on the fire spread in ISs looking at other different aspects, e.g. detecting the fire history via Geographic Information System (GIS) [19], understanding -theoretically-critical separation distance between the ISDs in a couple of SA ISs [20], creating ISDs blocks within each settlement based on the critical separation distances [21], and studying the effect of the wind on the fire dynamics within the ISDs [22]. Therefore, there is a need to link between the detailed experimental and numerical studies for the ISs dwellings and the large scale risk mapping and GIS research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling the Effects of Boundary Walls on the Fire Dynamics of Informal Settlement Dwellings

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Characterising the risk of the fire spread in informal settlements relies on the ability to understand compartment fires with boundary conditions that are significantly different to normal residential compartments. Informal settlement dwellings frequently have thermally thin and leaky boundaries. Due to the unique design of these compartments, detailed experimental studies were conducted to understand their fire dynamics. This paper presents the ability of FDS to model these under-ventilated steel sheeted fire tests. Four compartment fire tests were modelled with different wall boundary conditions, namely sealed walls (no leakage), non-sealed walls (leaky), leaky walls with cardboard lining, and highly insulated walls; with wood cribs as fuel and ISO-9705 room dimensions. FDS managed to capture the main fire dynamics and trends both qualitatively and quantitatively. However, using a cell size of 6 cm, the ability of FDS to accurately model the combustion at locations with high turbulent flows (using the infinitely fast chemistry mixing controlled combustion model), and the effect of leakage, was relatively poor and both factors should be further studied with finer LES filter width. Using the validated FDS models, new flashover criteria for thermally thin compartments were defined as a combination of critical hot gas layer and wall temperatures. Additionally, a parametric study was conducted to propose an empirical correlation to estimate the onset Heat Release Rate required for flashover, as current knowledge fails to account properly for large scale compartments with thermally thin boundaries. The empirical correlation is demonstrated to have an accuracy of ≈ ± 10% compared with the FDS models.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling the Effects of Boundary Walls on the Fire Dynamics of Informal Settlement Dwellings

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The wind speed was not found to aggravate the spread in these cases, but it cannot be ignored, especially for those areas with higher wind speed. Some studies have also analyzed the effects of fire separation distance and ventilation in IS [ 2 , 36 ]. Safety evacuation: From the perspective of safe evacuation, we try to fully consider the factors that affect the evacuation (See Appendix B ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Risk Assessments of Informal Settlements Based on Fire Risk Index and Bayesian Network

Xie

Shu

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The specific risk assessment of informal settlements (IS) is important for the management of IS and protection of environmental safety and public health. In this paper, we introduced the different types of IS in China, and conducted the fire risk assessment on 26 burning buildings in these IS, providing a semi-quantitative and scenario fire risk perception of IS in China for the readers. Two methods, the risk index and the Bayesian network, are proposed and adopted for the fire risk assessment in IS. First, a risk index system with a total of 69 factors is used to assess the degree of fire risk of buildings in IS semi-quantitatively, and the result shows that fire equipment and fire safety management on IS are seriously lacking. Then, a Bayesian network of building fire risk with a total of 66 nodes was established to assess the fire risk from ignition to spread as well as the safety evacuation. Overall, the possibility of ignition is high, but due to the role of fire equipment and fire protection design, the possibilities of fire from ignition to spread is gradually reduced. Finally, we also put forward some feasible suggestions for occupants in IS, community organizations and emergency managers to reduce the fire risk from the aspects of fire equipment and fire safety management.

show abstract

“…One such model was produced by Cousins et al (2002). The model uses the maximum distance a fire can spread from one building to another under prevailing wind speed and direction (known as the critical separation distance: CSD) to model fire spread (Cousins et al, 2002;Scheele et al, 2019, Cicione et al, 2021Wang et al, 2021). CSD is directly proportional to wind speed (Table 3) and is represented in the model as a buffer which is created around an ignited building and extended in the direction of the wind until the CSD is reached.…”

Section: Fire Spread Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire From Volcanic Activity: Quantifying the threat from an understudied hazard

Quah¹,

Hayes²,

Fitzgerald³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fire from volcanic activity (FFVA) is a highly dangerous and largely understudied hazard arising from volcanic activity. FFVA can be caused by a variety of volcanic hazards and can greatly compound the damage and losses associated with volcanic activity, in addition to creating complications for event response and mitigation. In this study, we develop a FFVA ignition probability model underpinned by a widely applicable fault tree, which identifies the mechanisms that can lead to fire ignition from volcanic activity. By assigning values to each node of the fault tree, our model can be used to consider the relative probabilities associated with different fire ignition mechanisms. We couple this model with a fire spread model to evaluate hazardous areas and associated impacts caused by FFVA. To demonstrate the applicability of our model, we use an eruption scenario for volcanic ballistic projectiles (VBPs) in the Auckland Volcanic Field (Aotearoa New Zealand). We found that burn zones were highly sensitive to wind conditions and fuel availability. The maximum credible damaging wind permutation for VBP-ignited FFVA in Auckland results in over NZ$3.9 billion damage to buildings and infrastructure, four times greater than if fire spread was not considered. This case study demonstrates the potential for FFVA to compound and greatly increase the impacts caused by other volcanic hazards and we suggest that more study is needed to better understand, evaluate and plan for FFVA.

show abstract

Determination of Critical Separation Distance Between Dwellings in Informal Settlements Fire

Cited by 17 publications

References 21 publications

Modelling the Effects of Boundary Walls on the Fire Dynamics of Informal Settlement Dwellings

Modelling the Effects of Boundary Walls on the Fire Dynamics of Informal Settlement Dwellings

Fire Risk Assessments of Informal Settlements Based on Fire Risk Index and Bayesian Network

Fire From Volcanic Activity: Quantifying the threat from an understudied hazard

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About