Compartment and Wild Fires - Dr Bhisham Kumar Dhurandher

Abstract: In order to enhance the understanding of the burning behaviour of solid and liquid fuel under different ventilation conditions several full-scale fire experiments were carried out in a compartment having internal dimensions of 4.0 m length by 4.0 m width by 4.0 m height. The impact of sudden ventilation on the burning behaviour of cribs was significant. Using the fundamental energy balance equation an attempt has been made to determine the HRR for various intervals of time. The major portion of the energy release during fire went to heat the compartment boundaries followed by energy loss through compartment door opening and energy went to heat up the gases in the compartment. Firebrands are the leading cause of structure ignition in the wildland urban interface. They also act as fire spread vectors allowing fires to be ignited across fuel breaks and at large distances from the fire line. Quantifying the flux of firebrands arising from a fire is the first step in understanding the risk to infrastructure and the effect of firebrands on fire spread. To evaluate the flux of firebrands from real fires requires measurement of firebrand mass flux and firebrand condition.

Bio: Bhisham Kumar Dhurandher is currently working as postdoctoral Research Associate in the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at The University of Edinburgh, UK. He completed his PhD and Masters from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He holds Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering. His research focus in the area of compartment fire, heat transfer and wildfire.  His PhD research focused on burning behaviour of solid fuels and thermal environment within the compartment. He served as assistant professor at Amity University before joining here as research associate.