Many industrial processes are run at non-atmospheric conditions (elevated temperatures and pressures, other oxidizers than air). To judge whether and if yes to what extent explosive gas(vapor)/air mixtures will occur or may be generated during malfunction it is necessary to know the safety characteristic data at the respective conditions. Safety characteristic data like Explosion limits, are depending on pressure, temperature and the oxidizer. Most of the determination methods are standardized for ambient conditions.
In order to obtain determination methods for non-atmospheric conditions, particularly for higher initial pressures, reliable ignition criteria were investigated. Ignition tests at the explosion Limits were carried out for mixtures of methane, propane, n-butane, n-hexane, hydrogen, ammonia and acetone in air at initial pressures up to 20 bar. The tests have been evaluated according to different ignition criteria: visual flame propagation, temperature and pressure rising. It could be shown that flame propagation and occasionally self-sustained combustion for several seconds occurred together with remarkable temperature rise, although the pressure rise was below 3%. The results showed that the combination of a pressure rise criterion of 2% and a temperature rise criterion of 100 K seems to be a suitable ignition criterion for the determination of explosion limits and limiting oxidizer concentration at higher initial pressures and elevated temperatures. The tests were carried out within the framework of a R&D project founded by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology.
Computer simulation tools were used to evaluate pedestrian movement. This study compares the reliability of three simulation tools and the calculation method by Predtetschenski und Milinski with a controlled evacuation exercise of a lecturer room. The comparison shows that each simulation tool used underestimate the total evacuation time and that an indicator for a low level of fitness does not necessarily lead to a long evacuation time. Results revealed that calibration of simulation tools is required to model heterogeneous population properly. Therefore, further experiments with a realistic, heterogeneous composition of participants have to be made.
This paper describes experiences and results of experiments with several metallic dusts within the nanometer range. The nano dusts (aluminium, iron, zinc, titanium and copper) were tested in a modified experimental setup for the test apparatus 20 L-sphere (also known as 20-L Siwek Chamber), that enables the test samples to be kept under inert atmospheric conditions nearly until ignition. This setup was already introduced in earlier papers by the authors. It was designed to allow the determination of safety characteristics of nano powders under most critical circumstances (e.g. minimisation of the influence of oxidation before the test itself). Furthermore the influence of passivation on explosion behaviour is investigated and additional tests with deposited dust were carried out to describe the burning behaviour of all dusts. For a better characterisation all samples were tested with a simultaneous thermal analysis (STA). To minimise the influence of oxidation all samples were handled at inert conditions until shortly before ignition or start of the test respectively.
Um den Anforderungen der Bauordnung an den Brandschutz für Gebäude gerecht zu werden, sind bauliche Anlagen so zu errichten und zu betreiben, dass der Entstehung eines Brandes und der Ausbreitung von Feuer und Rauch vorgebeugt, die Rettung von Menschen und Tieren sowie wirksame Löscharbeiten ermöglicht werden.
Hierbei besteht, einer steigenden Komplexität sowie einem differenzierten Nutzungskonzept öffentlicher Gebäude geschuldet, häufig die Notwendigkeit von normativen Vorgaben abzuweichen und dennoch ein gleichwertiges Sicherheitsniveau nachzuweisen.
Es werden Personensimulationsmodelle eingesetzt, die einerseits das Vorhandensein eines Schutzzielniveaus durch die Abbildungen von Personenbewegungen nachweisen können und andererseits durch Parametervariation eine szenarienabhängige Betrachtung ermöglichen.
Der vorliegende Beitrag vergleicht die Ergebnisse einer kleinskaligen Evakuierungsübung mit drei mikroskopischen Personensimulationsmodellen und geht der Frage nach der Aussagekraft dieser Bewertungsmethode nach. Es zeigt sich, dass die alleinige Betrachtung absoluter Entleerungszeiten keine zuverlässige Beurteilungsgrundlage für das komplexe Schutzziel Personensicherheit darstellt.
Behavior of dust/air mixtures is very complex and difficult to predict since it depends on material properties as well as boundary conditions. Without other influences airborne particles deposit due to gravity but the time it takes for total deposition as well as easiness of resurrection depends very much on the specific dust sample and the boundary conditions. It still lacks a complete understanding of all interacting reasons and one approach is using experimentally determined characteristics, one is named dustiness.
Dustiness is the tendency of dust to form clouds and to stay airborne. Dustiness is determined with two basic principles, which are light attenuation and ratio of filled-in and measured mass. Assessment of dustiness of industrial powders has been done for a long time regarding work place safety. Dustiness is used there to determine inhalable fraction and to evaluate health risks. Lately it became interesting in dust explosion protection as well. Dustiness could be used to optimize determination of zones, adaption of venting area and/or for positioning of suppression systems.
Dustiness can be useful in many ways but is not a physical property of dusts, therefore it depends on material properties such as density, particle size distribution, shape and water content as well as boundary conditions or determination method. This makes it very difficult to compare dustiness for different techniques and apparatuses and determination method as well as results should be considered carefully. This work gives an overview of existing standards, recent research and suggests improvements to the new dustiness as proposed for dust explosion protection.
Gegenstand des Aufsatzes ist die experimentelle Untersuchung der Auswirkungen verschiedener Zündquellen sowie der Systembeschaffenheit auf das Brandverhalten EPS-basierter Wärmedämm-Verbundsysteme (WDVS). Dazu wurden Brände ausgewertet, die mit EPS-basierten WDVS in Verbindung stehen. Ergebnis dieser Auswertung war, dass nicht wie bisher angenommen der Brand in dem Gebäude (z. B. der Wohnungsbrand), sondern vielmehr der Brand außerhalb des Gebäudes, insbesondere der des Abfallbehälters, das häufigste und kritischste Brandszenario für EPS-basierte WDVS darstellt. Daraufhin wurden an der BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung Brandversuche in der Single Burning Item-Prüfeinrichtung (SBI) an nicht intakten EPS-basierten WDVS-Ausschnitten durchgeführt. Mit zunehmender Beschädigungsgröße und -tiefe stieg die vom System freigesetzte Wärmefreisetzungsrate an. Zusätzlich werden Brandversuche eines Sockelbrandszenarios mit einer abfallbehälteräquivalenten Brandlast vorgestellt. Aus den Brandversuchen werden Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung der Systemsicherheit abgeleitet.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The influence of different ignition sources and conditions of the systems on the fire behaviour of external thermal insulating systems (ETICS) have been investigated experimentally. As a basis of the investigations real cases with EPS based ETICS have been analysed. The analysis showed that the fire in front of the building is the most common and critical fire scenario for these systems. These fires are often caused by waste containers. This result contradicts the former common assumption that the fire inside the building is the most critical fire scenario for ETICS. Intermediate scale experiments in the Single Burning Item (SBI) test apparatus have been performed at BAM with ETICS specimens. The render of the systems was partially damaged. The measured heat release rate of the specimens increased significantly with size and depths of the damages. Additionally results of large scale experiments with a waste container equivalent ignition source are presented and recommendations to enhance fire safety of these systems are given.
The amount of heat, which is released by fire loads during the combustion
process, depends on the material characteristics, the ventilation
conditions, the storage density and the distribution. To evaluate the
structural stability of buildings in case of fire, the fire load has to be
quantified. In Germany, the fire load is quantified by using the combustion
factor m, while internationally the combustion efficiency χ is
applied. Both factors assess the burning behavior of materials, but the
determination is carried out in different ways. Since the testing facility
was abolished fifteen years ago, it is not possible to determine the combustion
factor m anymore. So, it should be found out, if the combustion
efficiency χ is a convenient method to quantify the fire load under the
consideration of the German standards. As a part of the research, combustion
efficiencies χ were determined for eight materials in the cone
calorimeter and the single burning item test at different heat fluxes.
The values of the combustion efficiencies χ as well as the corresponding
combustion factors m were discussed and compared to the values of the
literature. The results show an influence of the testing facility on the
combustion efficiency. The values of the combustion efficiency determined
in the single burning item test were higher than the values from
the cone calorimeter.