PROMETHEI et ATHENAI for fire safety
The fire research work at LEMTA is carried out by a team combining skills on fire and heat transfer by radiation. It concerns fire safety engineering, prevention and risk analysis. Current studies are aimed at understanding the mechanisms of ignition, propagation and extinction of fires.
Experimental studies are performed on the PROMETHEI and ATHENAI platforms in order to provide some experimental databases, such as freely accessible results on natural fires. These experiments are also combined with modelling work that simulates the progress of a fire front over time.
Concerning the confined fires, the studies deal with the mechanisms of ignition, propagation between rooms (application in the field of buildings and transport) and fire suppression by the use of water. Numerous collaborations are underway with the fire rescue services (SDIS 54 and Brigade des Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris), on the performance of the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and the topic of evacuation.
Specificities
- Thermal degradation
- Fire spread
- Radiation
- Fire fighting by sprays
- Evacuation
Application sectors
- Scientific and technical centres on fire safety
- Fire expertise
- Fire rescue services
Keywords
- Radiative heat transfer
- Thermal metrology
- Numerical simulations (CFD
PROMETHEI is a platform for operational research and thermal metrology dedicated to fire tests. It enables controlled experiments on natural fires to be carried out on a laboratory scale according to wind conditions, slope, heat load, etc.
A second plateform, called ATHENAI, is dedicated to “confined” fires, where the conditions of ignition of materials, smoke flows and protection and fire-fighting procedures, in particular by sprinkling, are analysed.
- Experimental setup from laboratory scale up to real scale
- Fire propagation modelling
- Experiments and numérical modelling on sprays: watermists, sprays and sprinklers.
- Thermal degradation
- Thermal and radiative properties of materials
- Radiation emitted by flames: experiments and numerical modelling
- Thermal metrology
Wood sample under a thermal heat flux provided by a cone calorimeter
- PIV Equipment (Particle Image Velocimetry)
- IR and thermal camera
- IR Spectrometer
- Cone calorimeter
- Experimental setup for sprays
Study of wooden structures in reaction to fires
This work is dedicated to the study of fire safety of wooden structures for housing (high-rise buildings) or public buildings (aerial car parks or others). Their purpose is to characterise the behaviour of wood when a fire occurs. These tests on the ignition and thermal degradation of wooden panels under a given radiative heat flux were conducted in partnership with LERMAB in Epinal.
Thermal degradation of wooden panels using for building construction
Analysis of fire smoke flows in tunnels during the construction phase
The fire teams from LEMTA worked on the assessment of the risks of fire and smoke propagation in the tunnels of the future Parisian underground metro during the construction phase. The study carried out combined full-scale numerical simulations and some experiments to test a solution for smoke containment by means of a water curtain.
General sketch-up of the reduced scale setup
Anthony Collin
Head of the fire team
anthony.collin@univ-lorraine.fr
Zoubir Acem
Head of the platform PROMETHEI
zoubir.acem@univ-lorraine.fr
Rabah Mehaddi
Head of the platform ATHENAI
rabah.mehaddi@univ-lorraine.fr
LEMTA
ATHENAI platform
2 avenue de la Forêt de Haye
BP 90161
54505 VANDOEUVRE-LES-NANCY CEDEX
PROMETHEI platform
site expérimental de la Bouzule
La Grande Bouzule Nord
54280 Champenoux
Plan ci-contre