Fire Protection Services
CSE combines the traditional fire protection engineering discipline of active and passive fire protection design, smoke control and management, fire dynamics and modeling, human behavior, and risk analysis with our state-of-the-art capabilities to provide our clients with the highest level of fire protection engineering services. CSE's staff of fire protection, chemical and mechanical engineers have extensive design experience in all aspects of fire safety.
Fire Protection Research & Development
During the development and design phase of a product, it is important to understand the flammability and fire toxicity characteristics of the product prior to manufacture or expensive standardized testing. CSE has the capabilities to design and conduct both small- and large-scale fire tests (standardized or product-specific) to characterize material ignition, and fire growth and spread on a material. CSE can also combine their extensive fire modeling capabilities to analyze the behavior of a product or material within a compartment.
Selected Experience
Developed an advanced fire detector which combines conventional smoke detection and CO detection (US Patent No. 5,691,703).
Investigated the effect of scale and fuel type on the radiation properties of liquid-fuel pool fires from six inches to 50 feet in diameter.
Studied CO generation and transport in compartment fires.
Performed full-scale analysis of the thermal performance of fire fighter turn-out gear in compartment fires.
Determined fire properties of material through the use of small-scale testing (e.g. cone calorimeter), and via large-scale and full-scale testing.
Performed small and large-scale study of thermal radiative transmission and window breakage of double-pane glass.
Investigated ignition and flame spread on both adult's and children's clothing including children's sleepwear.
Developed Safe Awake, more information can be found at www.SafeAwake.com.
Engineering Services
CSE has widespread experience using the latest CFD codes for both analysis and design. CSE has previously used CFD models in performance-based design to analyze an array of fire protection engineering issues including fire toxicity, sprinkler and smoke detector response to specific fires; atrium smoke-control systems; vehicle fires (including the modeling of flame spread and thermal injury to passengers); smoke dispersion; water mist dispersion; and the effect of room geometries on smoke movement.
Selective Experience
Performed stochastic simulations of radiative output of turbulent pool fires.
Performed fire hazard analyses to determine time to HEPA filter failure as a result of fire in a radioactive material processing facility and to develop technical requirements for halon-alternative suppression systems in computer facilities, aircraft hush houses, and Navy frigates.
Developed a software tool to assist in the selection of halon-alternative suppression systems.
Developed an analytical model to predict surface temperatures required for ignition (due to self-heating) of unprocessed cotton due to asymmetric heating.
Developed and validated a smoke detector activation algorithm for incorporation in FDS.
Performed analytic examinations of the fluid dynamics within large atrium spaces using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to determine the minimum necessary requirements for a smoke control system to maintain a safe environment for occupant egress.
Chemical & Industrial Process Hazard Analysis
With a complement of fire protection, chemical, and mechanical engineers, CSE has the capabilities to analyze any chemical or industrial process hazard and determine the best ways to mitigate or minimize those hazards. CSE has the capability of incorporating various Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes for fire and near field vapor cloud dispersion modeling. CFD codes allow effective recreation of ignition sources and fire scenarios from both vapor releases and slow growth fires. Vapor cloud releases can be dynamically modeled to determine dispersion rates, concentration profiles (including flammable limits for electrical classification and other ignition source placement issues), in addition to chemical exposure limits for workers.
Industrial/process analysis experience includes: chemical reactors and reaction process, industrial furnaces, solids transport and packaging units, electro-plating processes, environmental combustors, gas turbines, gas distribution pipelines, along with general manufacturing and warehousing fires/explosions.
Nuclear Fire Protection
Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. and HSB Global Standards have teamed to provide the Nuclear Power Plant Industry with a full complement of fire protection engineering services, including risk-informed, performance-based support to meet NFPA 805 transition activities. Our skilled engineering team is experienced in providing cost-effective approaches and solutions to supplement your project needs whether you require traditional services or more comprehensive analysis such as fire modeling or risk assessment.