ENFE602-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026

Fire Dynamics

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 16 February 2026
End Date: Sunday, 21 June 2026
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 March 2026
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 10 May 2026

Description

Introduction to heat transfer problems in fire engineering including steady state and transient conduction, convection and radiation. Fundamentals of burning objects from combustion chemistry, ignition, flame spread, flame heights and fire plumes.

Fire Dynamics is one of the key competences required for practicing fire engineers nationally1 and internationally2. This core skill deals the fundamental behaviour and underlying physics of fire at different stages, and fire engineers need sound knowledge of all areas in this skill set. This course provides in depth knowledge of fire dynamics via lectures, videos, tutorials and laboratory practical work.

Learning Outcomes

  • Heat transfer mechanisms (convection, conduction and radiation) involving fires, surfaces, and gases, and their implication in several fire scenarios.
  • Ignition of gases, liquid and gases, including practice laboratory work and their implication in several fire scenarios.
  • Thermochemistry applied to fire engineering, including combustion reactions in ventilated and under ventilated environment, heat of combustion, pyrolysis and species yields.
  • Heat release rate from pool fires and burning solid fuels and the oxygen depletion calorimeter method, including practical work on cone calorimeter and “furniture” calorimeter.
  • Mass loss rate of liquid fires and solid materials, including pyrolysis and burning behaviour of wood and plastics.
  • Design Fires, including their use and implications in the fire design process of buildings.
  • Fire plumes and jet ceilings, including their application in fire engineering and limitations

Prerequisites

Equivalent Courses

ENCI663

Timetable 2026

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Intensive Block Course A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 17:00 E10
16 Feb - 22 Feb
Intensive Block Course B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00 E10
16 Feb - 22 Feb
Intensive Block Course C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 E10
16 Feb - 22 Feb
Intensive Block Course D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 Apr - 26 Apr
Intensive Block Course E
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 Apr - 26 Apr
Intensive Block Course F
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 Apr - 26 Apr

Course Coordinator

Andres Valencia

Lecturers

Aatif Khan and Andres Valencia

Assessment

The assessment for this course will comprise three main components – a test, a final exam, and assignments. The weighting for each of these is given below.

Competency and Mastery test
Percentage of grade: 55 %

Virtual Design Fire Report and presentation
Percentage of grade: 20%

Ignition lab report
Percentage of grade: 12.5%

Cone Calorimeter lab report
Percentage of grade: 12.5%

Total: 100%

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Hurley, Morgan J. et al; SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering ; Springer New York : Imprint : Springer, 2016.

Karlsson, Bjorn. , Quintiere, James G; Enclosure fire dynamics ; CRC Press, 2000.

As a UC student you have free access to the following electronic course textbooks that will be used in this course:

A Heat Transfer Textbook, 5th edition → https://ahtt.mit.edu/

Fire Engineering Design Guide → https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/15062

Enclosure Fire → https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/b22214/enclosure-fire-dynamics-secondedition-bj%C3%B6rn-karlsson-james-quintiere

Principles of fire behavior→ https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781315369655/principles-firebehavior-
james-quintiere

SFPE Handbook of Fire Engineering → https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781315369655/principlesfire-
behavior-james-quintiere

Ignition Handbook → Available in EPS library

Some lecture handouts will be made available on LEARN. The lecture notes are provided for your convenience and might contain errors and omissions. It is the students’ responsibility to ensure that the missing information are identified, understood and corrected appropriately as part of the learning process. Please ensure any equations or relationships applied in the assignment, lab reports, project and tests are attained from credible references and not directly from the lecture notes.

This course, especially the Virtual Design Fire Project will require your ability to formulate scientific, engineering based justifications to support the assumptions and inputs you proposed in your design fires. Several fire engineering journals within the literature, such as Fire Safety Journal, Fire Technology, Fire and Materials etc. can be accessed from the UC Library, and will be useful sources of information.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,344.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Civil and Environmental Engineering .

All ENFE602 Occurrences

  • ENFE602-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026
  • ENFE602-26X (C) General non-calendar-based 2026