Proceedings of the Second International Energy 2030 Conference,
November 4-5, 2008, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

Fire Dynamics: A Practical Oriented Course for Safety Engineers

David G. Lilley
ConocoPhillips, USA

Abstract
The topic of “Fire Dynamics” is extremely important in fire protection engineering and building design engineering. The goal is to improve scientific and technical understanding of fire behavior for safety engineers. Problems may begin from the extremely dangerous release of toxic, flammable and/or explosive materials into the atmosphere. Focused topic areas are: fire investigation, combustion, evolution of flammable material, dispersion and ignition of flammable materials, burning rates, simplified calculations, radiant ignition of other items, fire spread rates, ventilation limit imposed by size of opening, flashover criteria, computer modeling and sample problems and solutions. These are the main components related to the fire dynamic issues involved in real-world structural fires. The goal is to provide an understanding of the physics of fires and to improve our ability to more accurately predict their occurrence and simulate their fire growth and hazards. Information, analysis and calculations of fire dynamic phenomena can assist in understanding and applying scientific information to real-world fire situations, an important aspect of safety engineering.