ENFP 102: Engineering and Testing Creative Fire Safe Building Designs Instructors: Jim Milke, Ph.D., P.E., milke@umd.edu, Room 3104B JMP, 301-405-3995 Ken Isman, P.E., kisman@umd.edu, Room 3104L JMP, 301-405- 3993 TA: Location: JMP 1109 Time: M-F, 9-1. Ayesh, ayesh.com@gmail.com Description: This course will introduce students to Fire Protection Engineering (FPE). Discussions on contemporary fire safety topics are designed to raise your interest and understanding of fire, its impact on people, property and the environment and methods to mitigate the threat of fire. Students will have hands-on experiences through a set of demonstrations and a final experiment to explore fire behavior and the performance of fire safety systems. The final experiment will apply the principles of fire behavior and fire safety systems to build and test a fire safe, smallscale residence. Grading: Grades will be based on: Assignments 30% Examination 20% Final Paper 30% Presentation 20% Total 100% Requirements Assignments: Assignments reinforce topics covered during the class meetings (see schedule). Assignments will be due at the beginning of the next class meeting. Examination: An in-class examination will be provided near the middle of the term to gauge student understanding of basic fire protection principles (provided in all class meetings prior to the examination). Final paper: Final paper will summarize the experiment conducted on the last class. The paper should describe the design selected for the apartment (with a brief discussion supporting why the various design aspects were selected), the observations/measurements from the experiment and conclusions. Conclusions should include a comment on whether the design was successful and what would be changed in a 2 nd -generation apartment. Presentation: Each group will provide a presentation during the last class meeting. The presentation will provide an overview of the project design and results. Late submissions will be penalized 10% per day. Extensions to paper deadlines may be granted in extraordinary circumstances if you contact me before the due date. All papers will be graded for clarity, creativity, depth, and style. Academic Integrity: Preserving academic integrity is essential. Information on Academic Integrity can be found at: ww.inform.umd.edu/campuslnfo/departments/jpo/code_acinteg.html. Any student with special needs or concerns should contact any instructor as soon as such concerns become evident.
Day Activity Instructor(s) Assignment 1 Monday July 9 2 Tuesday July 10 Introduction to Department Milke HW 1 (FPE, fire Project Description Milke and history) History of FPE and America s fire Isman problem Lab Safety Will do the candle demo, etc. so that they have a basic understanding of fire Fire Behavior and Material Isman Flammability Wildfire Dr. Gollner Guest Lecture Gollner Lab demos. HW 1 due HW 2 (Fire Behavior and Material Flammability) 3 Wednesday July 11 Fire Alarm/Detection Demos fire alarm display or tour of buildings pointing out fire alarm equipment Isman Isman/ HW 2 due HW 3 (Fire Alarm) 4 Thursday July 12 Suppression Demos include, Sprinkler Lab Demos include Ken s water demo Isman Isman/ HW 3 due HW 4 (Suppression) 5 Friday July 13 Structural Smoke control Lab demo includes placing loaded beams of different materials over a fire to see how they respond. Will also have a small 1-story box with a plexiglas top. smoke will be introduced into the box to show how smoke moves and effectiveness of ventilation systems Milke HW 4 due HW 5 (Structural and Smoke Control)
6 Monday July 16 Life Safety Milke HW 5 due Speed of walking and evacuation experiments. Begin use of Pathfinder 7 Tuesday July 17 8 Wednesday July 18 9 Thursday July 19 Studying FPE at Maryland Dr. Sunderland Guest Lecture Use of computer models in FPE Hollywood Sunderland Midterm CFAST workshop Isman Tour of Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC Isman, and Milke? HW 6 (Pathfinder) HW 6 due 10 Friday July 20 Mr. Noah Ryder Guest Lecture / Arduino Workshop Review Project, Presentation, and Report requirements Begin Construction/Report writing Ryder Isman/ Final Project Begins 11 Monday July 23 12 Tuesday July 24 13 Wednesday July 25 14 Thursday July 26 15 Friday July 27 Isman/ Isman/ Isman/ Isman/ Project burns performed Isman/ Final Project Time allotted for students to add burn results and conclusions to presentations and report Report and Presentation due Student Presentations
Project Overview Goals The goal of the project is to design a space that represents a typical apartment. The design should seek to: Provide early detection of the fire Suppress the fire so it does not spread to the front room Realistically represent a typical apartment The Judging Rubric provided below shows the categories that will be evaluated for the structure and its behavior under a prescribed fire Cost is a driving factor in the FPE industry. Detection and suppression systems only become popular if they are effective and affordable. This is why the total estimated cost, including donated materials, and the detection/suppression effectiveness are evaluated categories. Livability is a category for judging the realistic nature of structure and furniture. Past students have built furniture of steel and concrete that was placed in rooms with no windows. This is not representative of an apartment that most people would live in. Similarly, in order to test the effectiveness of detection and suppression systems, the fire has to grow to a large enough size for activation to occur. Burn Time is a metric that goes hand-in-hand with Suppression Effectiveness. A system may activate quickly, but if it is not capable of limiting spread or extinguishing the fire, the fire will continue to burn. All fires will be allowed to burn for 5-7 minutes (to be decided on the burn day). After this time, fires will be manually extinguished by a professor. Similar to suppression effectiveness, Room Spread shows whether the fire was able to spread past the room of origin. Keeping the fire contained to the room of origin is an important parameter in fire protection.
Building Requirements Requirement Money Structure Openings Furniture Wall and Floor Finishing s Details Each team may spend up to $90 for materials used for the project. All materials must be accounted for, even if donated or free samples. The structure will be 24 x16, with a ceiling height of 9. Walls, floor and ceiling will be comprised of provided materials. There will be two rooms: one 16 x16, the second 8 x16. The ceiling MUST be removable. The interior needs to be accessible for inspecting the furniture and for igniting the fire. Systems that reach more than a foot above the roof must be approved prior to construction. Systems must remain within the footprint of the building. There must be one doorway (6.5 x2.5 ) leading out of the front room of the compartment (to outside) and one doorway of the same size connecting the two rooms by means of the interior wall. There must be one window per exterior wall for the larger room (two windows.) Windows must be at least 3 wide and 2 high, not to exceed 9 in 2 in area. Openings may be closed as part of your design, but must be open initially. See Furniture Requirements below. The floors of both rooms must be carpeted. Curtains for both windows or two 3 x 3 posters must be included to provide for realistic wall fire loading. Furniture Requirements Each team must build and furnish their room with the following furniture. The furniture must be representative of real furniture, so materials selected for furniture must be similar to materials used in real life. Some materials will be provided and are required to be used, such as foam plastic, wood, and cloth. Qty. Furniture Size (LxWxH in inches) Back room (16 x 16) 2 Beds 6 x 4 x 2 (bed should be lifted 1 in. above the floor) 2 Desks 5 x 3 x 4 2 Dressers 2.5 x 1.5 x 4 Front room (8 x 16) 2 Chairs 2.5 x 2.5 x 2 Design Testing Components of the design should be tested prior to the Burn Day to insure design feasibility. This could include testing of components or full systems.
Additional Information From past designs, it has been shown that filling a water bottle with water and sealing the mouth shut with hot glue or plastic does not work well as a suppression system. This is because the water cools the glue or plastic enough to stop it from melting. Unless it can be shown to work effectively and repeatedly, this system design should be avoided. Arduino microprocessors and sensors will be provided and should be incorporated into system designs. These can be used to act as a notification system once the fire is detected or as part of the suppression design. The Arduino programming software is available free online and can also be found on the FPE computer lab computers. Judging Rubric All buildings will be evaluated using the following rubric. Judging Rubric Total Estimated cost [ $ ] Livability [ 1-5 ] Detection/ Notification Activation [ s ] Time Suppression Activation Time [ s ] Suppression Effectiveness [ 1-5 ] Room spread [ 1 or 2 ] Creativity [ 1-5 ]
Wall height under discussion