Establishments Of Professor James Quintiere ( Fire Researcher)

Table of contents:

Table of contents: 1

Abstract: 2

Acknowledgment: 2

Introduction 3

Selected Papers: 4

Flash over and instabilities in fire behaviour. 4

Estimating room temperatures and likelihood of flashover using fire test data correlations 6

Conclusion 9

References 10

Appendix I 12

Abstract:

The contribution of Professor J. G. Quintiere into the field of fire protection is introduced and discussed, and as it is difficult to evaluate his whole contribution into the field which is divided into various topics, this document examines his contribution into the field of compartment fire behaviour, and in more precise scope it considers his researches and findings of the flashover phenomena through selected papers that were published in the 1980’s.

These papers were viewed briefly but technically, and have been critically analysed in order to examine their contribution to the area chosen for the scope of this document, its applications and how it would be used is also discussed, and finally how this paper influenced further work in relation to fire technology.

The papers are:

- Flashover and instabilities in fire behaviour.11

- Estimating Room Fire Temperatures and the Likelihood of Flashover Using Fire Test Data Correlations.15

Acknowledgment:

First of all I would like to thank God (ALLAH) for giving me this opportunity of studying, learning and developing, and also for giving me sanity and patience while studying abroad, and for everything else.

Then…

I would also like to thank Dr. J. Francis for his teaching and guidance through-out my course of study whether in his module or in general.

An appreciation is also a must to the support which has been in more than one form that I have had and still having from my family members, my friends, and my beloved fiancÐ"© Salma.

Of course at last but not least I would like to thank all the members, staff, and lecturers of the department of built environment at UCLAN for their support and hard work attempting to create the right environment for the students in which they can optimise their learning and achieve their goals

Ahmad Alsabt.

Introduction

Professor James G Quintiere works in university of Maryland in the US.

He awarded Bs degree from New Jersey institute of technology in 1962, an Ms Degree in 1966 and PHD in 1970 from New York University as a mechanical engineer.

He joined the National Bureau of standards in 1971 this when he joined the fire field as a researcher nowadays known as National Institute of Science and Standards (NIST) and left in 1989, to work in the department of fire protection engineering as a chief of fire science and engineering division.

Moreover he was the chairman of the K-11 committee on fire and combustion of the heat transfer division of ASME in the period of (1986-1989), and he is now the chairman of the International Association for fire safety science IAFSS.

His work into fire research was not limited into specific area, as it covers the following topics: 1

compartment fire behaviour : e.g. the study of fire phenomena in a compartment with limited ventilation2, and analysing of smoldering fires in closed compartments and considering their hazard3.

Another topic is fire growth on materials e.g. studying the effects of orientation on flame spread over thin materials4, and producing formulas for fire growth based on materials properties5.

Also he researched fire induced flows e.g. flows induced by fire in a compartment6.

His work also contributed in the scale model studies e.g. the applications of scaling in fire research7, and assessment of correlation between laboratory and full scale experiments8 and also for an experience in the field of fire research that lasted for 32 years and continuing professor Quintiere contributed into some major fire investigation such as suggesting a cause for the collapse of the world trade centre9 and investigation of the Waldbaum fire 1978 10 .

After such an introduction it is obvious that professor J. Quintiere has widely researched into the fire field, and to meet the objective of this document it is impossible to do this through viewing the entire contribution to the field, instead a selected papers will be reviewed and analysed as to evaluate the contribution to the fire protection field whether it was directly or it sets the basis for further work that led to contribution eventually.

Selected Papers:

Flash over and instabilities in fire behaviour.

Professor Quintiere has co-written this paper with P.H Thomas, M.L Bullen, and B.J McCaffrey in 1980. 11

With the purpose to demonstrate the mechanism of which one kind of flash over occur due to thermal instability, due to the thermal feedback of the fire and the enclosure to the burning fuel and whether or not this instability will cause occurrence of flashover.

The method taken to tackle the objective of this research is by implementing steady вЂ"state equation causing the fire development to be quasi steady and this assumption is taken to be valid only before and after the occurrence of flashover, so quasi steady changes may lead to a jump from one state to another causing flash over to happen, due to such discontinuity in the state of fire.

In this research two cases for heat release rate were taken first one is when the air is plenty in the compartment so the heat release influenced by the rate of heat transfer to burning surface , and second one deals with enclosures with limited ventilation which as considered by Quintiere in previous research, 12 as is mainly influenced by the flow rate of available air , also from previous work by Quintiere, 13 it is found that at specific values of the fuel surface area there are more than one result