And we have officially started the second semester! The first weeks have been challenging since the pandemic, exacerbated by the winter season, is still bringing in several positive Covid cases. However, Sweden has already eased up on the restrictions and we are slowly being allowed to resume in-person classes. Imagine our excitement when we did our first physical lecture for the Advanced Fire Dynamics course! We all woke up early, donned on our best clothes, and traipsed to the V-building where most of our classes are held.
Aside from the lectures, we were also looking forward to finally experience the laboratory classes in the master’s programme. The coordinators have really been working tirelessly to give us the full experience – lectures and laboratories – and we are extremely grateful that they have accommodated us. I am always eager to enhance my knowledge of fire science through practical applications.
We did a cone calorimeter test which is just one of the many apparatuses that is housed in the Fire Laboratory at the Division of Fire Safety Engineering at Lund University. The Division of Fire Safety Engineering in Lund University is world-renowned in that its education and strong faculty have produced forth a lot of able and skilled fire safety engineers. Among the many equipment in the lab, there are also a third-scale ISO 9705 room for Room Corner Test, a developing laboratory for studying tunnel fires, and a micro combustion calorimeter.
A cone calorimeter works on the principle that the amount of heat or energy obtained is related to the amount of oxygen consumed during the combustion process. Aside from the amount of energy, we can also obtain smoke production and soot yield. The materials we tested were gas (propane in two different flows), liquid (methanol), and solid (wood crib). During the experiment, the group took note of the observed mean flame heights, initial masses, and colors emitted by each fuel. The group is tasked to calculate rate of heat release according to oxygen depletion, convective part, and mass loss rate from the retrieved data.
Thank you to Dr. Nils Johansson for the fun and educational laboratory session on the cone calorimeter test. I am looking forward to doing more laboratory sessions in the future.
IMFSE 