Title: Fire hazard assessment of combustibles in big terminals

Authors: W.K. Chow

Addresses: Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Abstract: It is observed that some big terminal buildings were functioning as more than just a passenger terminal, leading to the placing of combustibles in the big hall. For example, polyurethane sofas were put in areas providing catering services. A preliminary fire hazard assessment based on the identified scenario on burning those combustibles will be reported in this paper. Hazard assessment included studying the heat release rate, smoke filling in the hall and the air temperature distribution. Full-scale burning tests, empirical equations on key parameters and computational fluid dynamics are used. It is not good practice to close businesses in this economic climate. Therefore, remedial actions such as spraying fire retardant coatings which can stand higher radiative heat fluxes in case of accidental fire and implementing appropriate fire safety management are recommended.

Keywords: fire hazard assessment; transport terminals; heat release rate; fire modelling; risk assessment; fire hazards; fire risk; air temperature distribution; smoke filling; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; burning tests; fire safety management; fire retardant coatings; risk management; combustibles; polyurethane foam; smoke protection; terminal buildings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2005.006704

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2005 Vol.5 No.1, pp.66 - 75

Published online: 02 Apr 2005 *

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