The Dalmarnock fire tests are a series of fire experiments that were conducted in a real high-rise building in the United Kingdom. In 2006, the

BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering The Edinburgh Fire Research Centre (formerly the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering) is the research group at The Institute of Infrastructure and Environment, University of Edinburgh conducting research in fire, structures and environment. Th ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, conducted this series of large-scale fire tests in a high-rise building in collaboration with the BBC series ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

'',

EPSRC The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...

Glasgow Housing Association Wheatley Homes Glasgow (formerly Glasgow Housing Association or GHA) is the largest social landlord in Scotland with 40,000 homes across Glasgow. Wheatley Homes Glasgow is a not-for-profit company created in 2003 by the then Scottish Executive fo ...

, Strathclyde Fire Brigade,

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University ( gd, Oilthigh Chailleannach Ghlaschu, ), informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley, is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and G ...

, Lion TV, Arup,

BRE British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, ...

Xtralis Xtralis, now part of Honeywell, was a privately held firm. It manufactures smoke detection, gas detection and video surveillance security products for the early detection, visual verification, and prevention of fire and intrusion threats. Compa ...

and Powerwall Systems Ltd, among other contributors.

Description

The building, a 23-storey reinforced-concrete tower located at 4 Millerfield Place in

Dalmarnock Dalmarnock (, gd, Dail Mheàrnaig) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated east of the city centre, directly north of the River Clyde opposite the town of Rutherglen. It is also bounded by the Glasgow neighbourhoods of P ...

, Glasgow, was scheduled for demolition and hence was evacuated of tenants. Three main experiments were conducted over two days, from 25 to 26 July 2006. Tests One and Two took place in identical flats, the main compartment of which had been fitted with regular living room and office furniture, arranged to provide conditions that favour repeatability. Test Three was a smaller smoke management experiment held in one of the two main emergency exit stairwells. Tests One and Two were fully instrumented with a high sensor density, including measurements of temperature, incident heat, gas velocities, smoke obscuration, wall temperature and structure deflection, among others. The tests varied in that Test One allowed the fire to develop freely to post-

flashover A flashover is the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated, they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flashover occurs w ...

conditions, while Test Two incorporated sensor-informed ventilation management and was extinguished before post-flashover conditions were attained. Both tests had approximately 300 sensors monitoring several different characteristics of the fire environment, but Test One had about 160 additional sensors monitoring the structural response. These experiments endeavoured to establish a highly monitored fire in a realistic residential scenario, allowing for several different modern fire safety engineering tools to be tested. The comprehensive set of data collected is being used for validation of different

mathematical model A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, ...

s of fire dynamics. Because the data has a spatial resolution high enough to be comparable to typical resolutions of CFD fire models, the tests are specially well suited for validation of this type of models. The tests also form an integral part of the research conducted for the FireGrid research project, that is, the development of emergency control systems that use continuous sensor data and computer modelling, to provide forecast of the fire evolution and aid the efficient deployment of resources.

Analysis and dissemination

The overall aim of the Dalmarnock fire tests is to improve understanding of how building fire emergencies can be handled in the most effective manner, while providing further insights into the fundamentals of compartment fire dynamics and fire-induced structural behavior. Dissemination of the findings includes several related journal and conference papers; a one-day seminar introducing the tests and highlighting the analysis and conclusions (Edinburgh, November 2007); and a book detailing the tests and analysis published in November 2007. The book, entitled ''The Dalmarnock Fire Tests: Experiments and Modelling'', comprises material covering characterization and comparison of both the Test One and Test Two fires; experimental error analysis; evaluation of the fire detection systems; calculation of heat transfer to the structure; analysis of the structural behavior; evaluation of ceiling fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) performance; and comparison of both

a priori and a posteriori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...

computational fire modelling against experimental data.

References

{{reflist

External links

FireGrid Project (web.archive.org)

"Skyscraper Fire Fighters"
''

'', aired 24 April 2007 on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

"Glasgow tower block to shed light on 9/11 fire"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''
Digital collection of papers on The Dalmarnock Fire Tests
at the Edinburgh Research Archive Fire protection Building engineering Fire and rescue in the United Kingdom Fire prevention Bridgeton–Calton–Dalmarnock 2006 in Scotland

Description

Analysis and dissemination

See also

References

External links