Fire Hazards and Protection

Unique, innovative research on all fire hazards and how to prevent/protect from them, including:

  • Flammability and fire dynamics research, including pyrolysis, flame heat transfer, fire propagation, growth and extinction.
  • Fire protection research is focused on water-based fire suppression, large-scale fire testing and practical solutions to specific fire protection problems.
  • Material reactivity includes experimental and numerical studies of gaseous and dust explosions, evaluation of blast waves, and effects of turbulence and instabilities on flame propagation.

An internal open source fire modelling collaboration, resulting in a modern research tool that complements testing of large-scale industrial fires and engineering water-based fire protection.

Material Flammability Research

Understanding how materials react to fire is the first step towards fire prevention.

Our flammability experts developed state-of-the-art testing technologies to understand how materials behave in fire. With this knowledge we can predict which materials ignite and spread fire, and which cannot. We can also predict release of smoke and smoke damage in fires.

This fundamental flammability knowledge helps guide fire protection solutions and the development of new safer materials. In addition, material flammability is one of the integral pieces of Fire Modelling.

Helping you protect your property from fire loss. That’s resilience.

Explosion Research

An explosion occurs in less than half a second and can have far-reaching, damaging effects. We give you ways to understand it and to protect your business from damage.

Our explosion experts conduct experiments and develop computer models to understand the fundamental physics of how an explosion propagates and creates damaging overpressures.

They create a controlled dust or gas explosion in an enclosure and analyse how the explosion evolves and responds to different protection techniques using state-of-the-art diagnostics. Physics-based models are also developed to help us learn more from the experiments.

We use this research to identify effective methods that help you protect your property from explosion loss. That’s resilience.

Fire Suppression Research

When fire occurs, your business value is under significant threat. We provide you the most cost-effective and practical solutions to control and suppress the fire.

Our scientists in the suppression team constantly innovate, develop and study cutting-edge suppression technologies to assess their pros and cons, when they work and when they don’t. We evaluate a broad range of suppression methods from laboratory scale to full-size industrial applications, and develop innovative protection. With the assistance of advanced fire modelling, our fire suppression research helps you to select, design and develop loss prevention solutions to suit your business needs.

Helping you protect your property from fire loss. That’s resilience.