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Introduction to Fire Engineering. Fire ignition, flame spread and flame height. The performance of construction materials and fire resistance. People movement and behaviour during fires. Fire detection, suppression and smoke extract systems. Wildland fires, fire investigation, fire-fighting.
Fire engineering design of buildings is a large, complex and rapidly expanding multidisciplinary subject. This course provides a general introduction to fire science and engineering. The course is generally required for students who are looking to pursue Fire Engineering at the postgraduate level. The course mainly aims to:• provide an understanding of the hazards of fires in buildings and the dynamics of fire development;• describe the performance of building materials and structures in fire;• develop knowledge of the active and passive fire protection measures available to building designers;• examine how people behave in fire situations and• cover other fire science and engineering topics of interest such as wildfires and fire-fighting
This course provides an introduction to fire engineering. The course is generally required for students who are looking to pursue the Masters of Engineering in Fire Engineering (MEFE) / Masters of Engineering Studies in Fire Engineering (MEngSt(Fire)) post-graduate degrees. The course aims to:- Explain what fire is, the fire triangle and the fire tetrahedron (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, CE3- Understand the different types of combustion and flames from a laboratory demonstration (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2) (Washington Accord attributes: WA1, WA2, WA4)- Explain heat release rate, ignition, flame spread, burning rate, heat of combustion, mass loss rate, smoke production, fire plumes, fire growth, flashover and decay process in room fires; (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, EIE3) - Explain the different fire signature; (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, EIE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2)- Explain the different methods of fire detection and suppression. (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, EIE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2)- Interpret human behaviour in fires; (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, EIE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA2)- Understand structural fire design concepts;(UC Graduate attributes: EIE2) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA2)- Contrast fire severity and fire resistance; (UC Graduate attributes: EIE2, EIE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2)- Understand firefighting operations, and how these may affect design decisions (UC Graduate attributes: EIE1,CE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA2, WA6, WA8)- Understand NZ regulations and Risk Assessment methodologies (UC Graduate attributes: GA2) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA6, WA8)- Understand how fire affect communities nationally and internationally; (UC Graduate attributes:EIE3, EIE2, CE3) (Washington Accord attributes: (WA6, WA7, WA8)- Identify smoke management strategies (UC Graduate attributes EIE2)- Recall and utilise fire engineering terminology; (UC Graduate attributes GA2)- Perform simple heat transfer calculations; (UC Graduate attributes EIE3 (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1)- Distinguish between ignition of thin or thick solid (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1)- Calculate flame heights, burning rates, mass and volume flow plume rates, temperatures and velocities through axisymmetric plumes and ceiling jets (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1)- Calculate evacuation times (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2, WA3)- Calculate activation times of detection systems and flow rates of sprinklers (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2, WA3)- Calculate fire severity and fire resistance of simple beams (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2, WA3)- Calculate layer temperatures using MQH and estimate flashover conditions in rooms (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1, WA2, WA3)- Estimate time to ignition and flame spread on the surface of a given material (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1)- Estimate heat release rate for solid and liquid fuels (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA1)- Understand functioning of computer models and their limitations (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA5)- Use computer simulations to estimate loss of tenability in rooms (UC Graduate attributes EIE3, (Washington Accord attributes: (WA2, WA5)
Subject to approval of the Director of Studies
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Andres Valencia
Anthony Abu , Daniel Nilsson , Aatif Khan , Luke de Schot and Fearghal Gill
Special ConsiderationsAny student who has been impaired by significant exceptional and/or unforeseeable circumstances that have prevented them from completing any major assessment items, or that have impaired their performance such that the results are not representative of their true level of mastery of the course material, may apply for special consideration through the formal university process. The applicability and academic remedy/action associated with the special consideration process is listed for each assessment item below:Special Consideration for Assignments An extension will be granted for evidence-supported requests. Extensions will typically be for up to one week, but the duration will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students seeking an extension must contact the course coordinator as soon as possible with evidence of their situation, and preferably before the due date. A penalty of 10% per day will apply for late submissions. Special Consideration for Midterm Tests Serious/Severe Impact: Students will be offered an equivalent alternative test that will replace their original test mark. This test will be held at a date to be advised by the course coordinator. Moderate Impact: A derived mark based on performance relative to the class on all assessment items will apply. Special Consideration for Final Exam Serious/Severe Impact: Students will be offered an equivalent alternative test that will replace their original test mark. This test will be held at a date to be advised by the course coordinator. Moderate Impact: A derived mark based on performance relative to the class on all assessment items will apply.Note: All communication associated with the arrangement of equivalent alternative tests/exams will be conducted using official UC email accounts. The offer to sit an alternative assessment will come with a list of potential dates/times. Students will have a clearly specified amount of time to respond to the offer to sit the alternative assessment and accept one of the listed dates/times. If the offer is declined or no response is received in the specified time frame, the original assessment mark will be used to compute the course grade.
James G. Quintiere; Principles of FIRE BEHAVIOR ; Boca Raton, 2016.
Karlsson, Bjorn. , Quintiere, James G; Enclosure fire dynamics ; CRC Press, 2000.
Spearpoint, Michael. , New Zealand Centre for Advanced Engineering; Fire engineering design guide ; 3rd ed; New Zealand Centre For Advanced Engineering, 2008 (CD can also be purchased from the Dept).
• You will be given access to an electronic copy of the Fire Engineering Design Guide (3rd ed.) and you will be expected to read parts of the textbook as part of the course,• A useful recommended text is “Quintiere J G. Principles of Fire Behavior, Delmar Publishing”, ~$US130 from Amazon. Copies of this book will be available on 3-hour loan in the library,• Lecture handouts and online podcasts will generally be made available during the course on Learn.
Generative AI PolicyGenerative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is a new technology with clear implications for civil and natural resource engineering practice. In this course, the use of generative AI is permitted for report writing providing it adheres to this policy.Generative AI can be used to improve your writing and provide editing feedback. When using AI to alter your writing, it is important to check that the substantive message of the text has not been altered. It is recommended that your prompt end with “…and explain the changes that you made” so that you can gain feedback to improve your own writing. It is not recommended to use AI to generate original text. Rather, it is safer to place yourself in the role of author, and AI in the role of editor, so that it is only improving the communication of your original ideas.AI can be used to find, gather and summarize knowledge on a subject that is outside your expertise. However, it is important that you verify any information produced by AI. AI output can be convincingly wrong on technical matters. AI output can be incomplete, potentially omitting alternative hypotheses or views. AI output can be contradictory, offering concluding statements that are incoherent with arguments given earlier. Thus, it is important to verify AI-generated output. This includes checking source material, asking or reprompting an AI for alternative views, and challenging it to justify its statements. Verification may only possible when you are a subject matter expert, i.e., a competent engineer.An AI is not a substitute for a creative, problem-solving engineer. It cannot match the complex reasoning or emotional intelligence of a human. Relying on an AI to solve problems for you may prevent you from achieving course Learning Outcomes. Being unable to demonstrate your mastery of Learning Outcomes during an invigilated assessment (test or exam) when AI is unavailable could lead to you failing the course. If you decide to use AI to complete a course assessment, then it is important that you are transparent about this use. If you use AI to edit the text of your submission, then you must disclose this in your submission. Use of AI that falls within the policy described here will not result in a penalty. Students suspected of using AI outside the specifications of this document will be reported to the department Academic Integrity Officer. As part of their investigation, students may be invited to attend an interview, during which they may be asked to describe how the assessment was completed or to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. If it is determined that a student is likely to have misused AI, then disciplinary action may be taken, including partial or full denial of credit for an assignment or course, X-mark on transcript denoting breach of academic integrity, suspension, fines and expulsion. Further reading: Academic Integrity at the University of Canterbury. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about-uc/what-we-do/teaching/academic-integrity Engineering NZ guidelines on ethical use of Generative AI. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/engineering-and-ai/appropriate-safe-and-ethical-use/
Domestic fee $1,268.00
International fee $6,238.00
* 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 Natural Resources Engineering .