Fire Protection Engineering @

For and With the Fire Service

Kathy A. Notarianni, Ph.D.

Professor and Head, Department of Fire Protection

Engineering 8/8/2012

Three Points

1. WPI FPE is a vibrant and continually

growing world leader working at the

intersection of engineering, policy, and

economics

2. Overview of WPI’s multi-faceted work

with and for the Fire Service

3. Increasing capability through our new

laboratory under construction

FPE Department History

1898: Henry Phillips, wrote in the WPI Journal:

“It’s safe to prophesy that not many years will lapse before

scientific colleges will seriously consider fire protection

engineering and include regular lectures of courses upon it in

their curriculum.” The year was 1898.

1978: WPI establishes Center for Firesafety Studies & 1st

MS Curriculum is developed

1991: Ph.D. FPE Program established

1994: FPE Distance Learning Program started

1995: Current Fire Science laboratory completed

2004: FPE becomes a Department. Kathy Ann Notarianni

joins FPE as the Department Head.

2012: Game-changing new facilities to open @ Gateway

FPE Today – Who do you find here?

Today, the FPE Department is thriving; we are a huge melting pot of disciplines and an internationally vibrant entity

Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical, and Aerospace

Engineers

Environmental and Robotic Engineers

Firefighters and Fire Marshalls

Fire Investigators, Designers, Industrial Safety Experts

Chemists, Physicists, Mathematicians

Computer scientists and modelers

Material scientists

Experts in Risk, Policy, and Economics

Leading the World to Safety

Few corners of the world are less crowded and

developed than they were a decade ago. In many

places, this evolution occurs on a frantic scale in

population, complexity, and risk.

Preventing and controlling the dangers of fire has

never been more vital for individuals, organizations,

and society itself.

Educating this and future generations of engineers

dedicated to minimizing fire’s destructive potential has

never been more crucial.” WPI is and will continue to

be the world leader in solving this important world

problem.

Subjects Taught

FPE 521 – Fire Dynamics I

FPE 553 – FP Systems

FPE 570 - Bldg. Fire Safety

FPE 571 – Performance

Based Design

FPE 520 – Fire Modeling

FPE 580N - Human Behavior

FPE 573 – Industrial Fire

Protection

FPE 580 – Fire Protection for

Nuclear Facilities

FPE Applied Fire Dynamics

FPE 575 – Explosion

Protection

FPE 580 - Combustion

FPE 554 – Advanced Fire

Suppression

FPE 555 - Detection, Alarm

& Smoke Control

FPE 572 – Failure Analysis

CE 534 – Structural Design

for Fire Conditions

FPE 587 – Fire Science

Laboratory

Fire and Materials

…… and more!

Degree Programs Offered

MS - 30 Credits (thesis/no thesis)

Synchronous Learning – 40 countries - ADLN

PhD – 90 Credits - Industry and Practice Leaders

BS/MS - Can earn two degrees in 5 years; Brings

great strength of knowledge diversity

Corporate and Professional Education –

Like designer drugs, tailored to specific needs

Credit and non-credit

Ex. Training of fire Investigators; insurance industry, etc.

Firefighter Safety and Policy

100% of my

research is in

support of the

fire service

Residential Fireground Field Experiments • Multiphase study of the deployment of resources

as it affects firefighter and occupant safety

• More than 60 full-scale fire experiments were conducted to determine the impact of crew size, first-due engine arrival time, and subsequent apparatus arrival times on firefighter safety and effectiveness at a low-hazard residential structure fire.

• Major Findings:

• The four-person crews operating on a low-hazard structure fire completed all the tasks on the fireground (on average) seven minutes faster—nearly 30 %—than the two-person crews.

• The four-person crews completed the same number of fireground tasks (on average) 5.1 minutes faster—nearly 25 %—than the three-person crews.

National Fire Service Data Summit • Summit gathered major stakeholders:

– firefighters and chiefs – data entry specialists – data vendors – local union leadership – federal agencies – insurance industry – standards developing organizations

• Objective of the summit was to document data needed to support resource deployment decisions, identify current data collection deficiencies, and create a roadmap towards a national fire service data set.

Highrise Fireground Field Experiments

Purpose of this study was to determine the effect of crew size, alarm size, and means of vertical ascent on the ability of firefighters to effectively, and efficiently mitigate a fire in a high-rise event.

⁻ Alexandria City ⁻ Arlington County ⁻ District of Colombia ⁻ Fairfax City ⁻ Fairfax County ⁻ Howard County ⁻ Loudoun County

⁻ Manassas ⁻ Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority ⁻ Montgomery County ⁻ Prince William ⁻ Prince George County ⁻ Stafford County

Hundreds of firefighters participated!

Flashover Predictor

1st true

partnership

EE and FPE

September 16, 2004

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Mobilization / Fire & EMS

EMS Mobilization

Fire Mobilization

EMS Benchmark

Fire Benchmark

81% Criterion

Compares Actual, Ideal, & Consensus Standard Times

References NFPA Standards as Benchmarks

Real Emergency Response Data

• Multiple Fire Departments

• Comparable Data Collection

Real Data Not Meeting Standards

Alarm Handling Time/ Turnout Time

Longer Than Expected

Firefighter Face Masks

Radiant heat flux tests - three heat flux levels 10

kW/m2, 15 kW/m2, and 20 kW/m2.

•

Wildland Firefighting Research

Goal is to develop scientific tools useful for

firefighting and land management

A command structure of forest fire fighters and the USDA northern

research stations invited Prof. Simeoni: “Specifically, the data which he is

able to provide, coupled with access to the Pine Barrens as a location for

expanded experimentation, will help tremendously with the group’s efforts

to build robust physics based models that can be used to better understand

fire behavior.”

Related Research

Fire and Materials

Prof. Dembsey

Combustion and

Explosion

Protection

Prof. Rangwala

Regulatory Policy,

Risk, and

Engineering

Framework

Prof. Meacham

Rendering of Gateway II

NEW FPE Space

Fire Engineering Lab – 3,000 sq. ft.

Fire Fundamentals Lab – 2,500 sq. ft.

Bench Scale Experiments

Sample Preparation/Conditioning

Combustion/Explosion lab – 1,500 sq. ft.

Student Spaces –

Graduate Cubicles/Student Meeting Room

Nine Faculty Offices

Digitally Equipped Classroom

Open Collaborative Gathering Space

Thank You

Kathy A. Notarianni

kanfpe@wpi.edu

508-831-6786

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Fire/