Students’ couch burning leads to international showcase

30 June 2015

Students’ couch burning leads to international showcase

Couch burning by two University of Canterbury (UC) students has led to international recognition instead of trouble with the police, thanks to their academic focus and analysis.

The duo’s research on fire behaviour, all done with 3D computer modelling, will be presented at an international conference in Japan in October.

The news has delighted Honours students Cindy Chantreux and Daniel Hunt, who are completing the third professional year of their civil engineering degrees at UC.

Their research on fire engineering only began at the start of the year, but the students’ initial findings were conclusive enough to be accepted as a poster presentation for the 10th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan.

The two students stumbled into fire engineering when selecting their final year project.

“It wasn’t something we knew a lot about, but we wanted to work with Charley, so chose the topic from the list of options available,” says Daniel, who subsequently signed up for a Fire Engineering paper.

‘Charley’ is Professor Charles Fleischman, who is one of the project supervisors overseeing approximately 150 professional civil engineering students at UC this year. It was Charley who submitted the students’ work to the Japan conference committee.

Fire engineers play a vital role in ensuring the safe design of most commercial buildings. Their work models the behaviour of a fire to help determine the placement of ventilation, sprinkler systems, fire doors and evaluation plans.

“Fire engineers work alongside the design team to model the fire safety aspects of a structure. It’s about safety and cost efficiency,” says Daniel.

“When there is a tragedy and fire doesn’t behave as expected, it can result in changes to regulations, so modelling how a fire will behave could impact on industry guidelines like the C/VM2 Verification Method: Framework for Fire Safety Design, which is a key way of demonstrating compliance with New Zealand’s Building Code,” he explains.

The pair’s research has been done using Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) software, which is the standard fluid dynamics modelling software used in the fire engineering industry.

The standard practice used by fire engineers internationally is based on a 2-dimensional, square plate fire surface quite low to the floor, but Cindy and Daniel have been modelling 3D surfaces and exploring whether the shape of the fire has an impact on the fire’s behaviour.

“So far we have been looking at how the shape of the fire affects mass flow in the fire plume. The fire plume is the column of flame and hot combustion products rising above the fuel source,” explains Cindy.

The duo has done this by computer simulating the burning of a couch and other furniture shaped objects – changing their size and shape in different simulations. Although most of the results have been consistent with the standard fire assumptions, the students observed a notable difference if the fire was long and thin.

“We have been modelling the behaviour of the fire plume, but the next stage is to model it in a different, more realistic setting to see if that makes any difference to what the fire does,” says Cindy.

As well as preparing their massive A0-sized poster for the conference, the students will also make a presentation at the end of year student conference in Christchurch.

Their international success hasn’t affected their career plans so far, with both planning to stay in Christchurch after their studies. Daniel, who is originally from Ashburton and lived abroad for several years, already has a job lined up with a Christchurch structural engineering firm. Cindy was drawn to Christchurch from New Caledonia due to the easy access to the outdoors and recreational activities, and often takes a break from all the graphs and computer modelling to continue her passion for extreme sports.

ends

© Scoop Media