Fire Science Living Lab for Flashover Prediction

Abstract

There is a huge demand for new techniques and technologies to tackle life-threatening in fire emergencies. Enclosure fires are a type of emergency involving firefighters whose lives are sometimes put at risk. In any confined fire, the emergency team may encounter two types of combustion environments, ventilated or under-ventilated. The rapidly changing behaviour of this scenario depends on multiple factors such as enclosure size, ventilation, or type and quantity of fuel involved. However, the difficulty of handling this situation coupled with the potential for human error, even if there is undivided attention to the task in hand, remains an unresolved challenge for firefighters today. New technologies based in Thermal Imaging Cameras can help firefighters to prevent this situation. Fire Science Living Lab is presented as a solution to test new technologies for this area. This papers shows a resume about the process to develop a prediction system in a living lab for one of the most dangerous situation for firefighters, flashover.