Multiple Vehicle Design Fire Scenarios in Car Parking Buildings by Mohd Zahirasri bin Mohd Tohir Supervised by Associate Professor Michael Spearpoint and Professor Charles Fleischmann 2015 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the PhD Degree in Fire Engineering Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch, New Zealand Abstract Over recent years, there is considerable interest in the research of vehicle fires in car parking buildings. The acceptance towards performance-based design engineering approach around the world has led the use of engineering approaches to the assessment of fire safety in structures. In fire safety context of performance-based design, one of the fundamental components is design scenario. The aim of this thesis is to formulate an approach that is able to develop appropriate design fire scenarios for vehicle fires in car parking buildings using probabilistic assessment methods as part of a risk-based approach. This is achieved by creating a probabilistic model to investigate the risks associated with vehicle fires in car parking buildings, such that fire risk is equal to probability multiplied by consequence. The probability component depends on a number of factors which are the vehicle parking distribution probability, i.e. the probability of vehicles being distributed in a particular pattern throughout the building at a given time; the vehicle classification i.e. the composition of different vehicle types in a fleet; and the vehicle fire involvement, i.e. the likely number of vehicles involved in a fire. The consequence component is defined as the severity of the fire in terms of fire growth, energy released, and number of vehicles involved in burning. The thesis consists of three tasks; the first task is the collation of results for single passenger vehicle experiments and the application of probabilistic assessment model for vehicle fire scenarios in car parking buildings. In the first task, probability distributions for fire severity characteristics for a single passenger vehicle are introduced and a probabilistic quantitative fire risk analysis is performed. The second task enhances specific probabilistic assessment components based on the findings made in the first task. Two main focuses in this task are to introduce probability distributions of characteristics for the design fire curves for a single vehicle, and to develop an approach of predicting the time to ignition for subsequent vehicle given the first vehicle is already burnings as there is a need to assess the fire spreading between vehicles. The final task applies the enhanced components obtained from the second task into the probabilistic assessment model. As a result, a conclusion is drawn following the completed work in the final task. I Example demonstrations of the application of the probabilistic model are also shown in the thesis. One is using probabilistic model to determine the fire load energy densities for risk-based design of car parking buildings. The other work is about the analysis of the probability of fire spread from a vehicle to another vehicle in car parks. II Acknowledgement This thesis would not have been possible without the tireless assistance, guidance and motivation provided by my main supervisor, Associate Professor Michael Spearpoint. His patience, encouragement, and on-going support throughout the whole journey were invaluable to me. I will be forever indebted to him. I would like to extend my appreciation to Professor Charles Fleischmann as my associate supervsior; Dr. Anthony Abu from Fire Engineering teaching staff; Greg Baker from BRANZ; Colleen Wade from BRANZ; Neil Challands from the NZFS; the Fire Engineering research group; and other postgraduates students for all their help and guidance. I apologise to anyone whom I forget to mention here. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia for funding my PhD studies at University of Canterbury. I could not have completed this thesis without the unwavering support and assistance given by my parents; Mohd Tohir and Siti Zalehah, my in-laws, my brothers and my sisters. My deepest appreciation goes out to my wife, Hafisha and our 2 children – Nusayba and Usayd. Thank you for your patience, faith and presence during this last four years. Thank you for simply being the joy that brightens my life. Most importantly I thank God for giving me the opportunity to partake in this academic endeavour and for reminding me that this thesis is only a start of another journey. III List of publications, presentations and supervised project The thesis is based on the following papers: 1. Tohir, M.Z.M., and Spearpoint, M., (2013) Distribution analysis of the fire severity characteristics of single passenger road vehicles using heat release rate data, Fire Science Reviews 2:5, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2193-0414-2-5 2. Tohir, M.Z.M, and Spearpoint, M., (2014a) Development of Fire Scenarios for Car Parking Buildings using Risk Analysis. Fire Safety Science (in press). http://www.iafss.org/publications/fss/11/141/view 3. Tohir, M.Z.M, and Spearpoint, M., (2014b) Simplified approach to predict heat release rate curves from multiple vehicle fires in car parking buildings. Published in the Proceedings from the 3rd International Fires in Vehicles Conference, Berlin, Germany. 4. Spearpoint, M., Tohir, M.Z.M., Abu, A.K., and Xie, P. (2015) Fire load energy densities for the risk-based design of car parking buildings. Case Studies in Fire Safety (in press). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csfs.2015.04.001 5. Tohir, M.Z.M., Spearpoint, M., and Fleischmann, C.M., Prediction of time of ignition in a multiple vehicle fire spread experiment. Submitted to Fire & Materials. In addition, the author gave a presentation related to one chapter in the thesis: 1. “The capability of B-RISK zone modelling software to simulate BRE multiple vehicle fire spread test” Presented at Society of Fire Protection Engineers‟ 2014 Engineering Technology Conference, Long Beach, California. The author also involved in the supervisory team for an undergraduate fire engineering research project related to the thesis. The project is: 1. Anderson C. M., and Bell N. M., (2014) Analysis of vehicle distribution in parking buildings. Proc. Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Research Conference, 18 Oct, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, vol. 2, 65-72. IV Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... I Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................... III List of publications, presentations and supervised project ...................................................... IV List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ XV List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ XIX Nomenclature ..................................................................................................................... XXIII Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Initiative for the research............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Objective of the research ............................................................................................. 8 1.4 Limitations of the research ........................................................................................ 10 1.5 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................ 10 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................. 13 2.1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 General review .......................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Li (2004) ............................................................................................................ 14 2.2.2 Jaspart et al. (2009) ............................................................................................ 16 2.2.3 BRE (2010) ........................................................................................................ 17 2.2.4 van der Heijden (2010) ...................................................................................... 17 2.2.5 Collier (2011) ..................................................................................................... 18 2.2.6 Fire safety & explosion safety in car parks research group, Belgium ............... 19 2.2.7 Special Issue Fire Safety Journal on car park fire safety ................................... 20 2.2.8 Other research reports ........................................................................................ 20 2.2.9 Conclusions drawn from the review .................................................................. 21 2.3 Review of key literature to the thesis