Presentation of the contribution of KULeuven to the IWT SBO project on fire safety and explosion safety in car parks.

1. Fundamental design approaches for
improvement of the fire safety in car parks
Research activities planned
by the Industrial Safety
research group of
K.U.Leuven
Dr. Filip Van den Schoor
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

2. Overview
Industrial Safety research group
Objectives
Planned research activities
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

3. Industrial Safety research group
Past and current main research activities:
• Flammability limits
• Auto-ignition limits
• Consequence modelling
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

4. Industrial Safety research group
Laboratory for Industrial Safety (LIV)
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

5. Industrial Safety research group
Spin-offs that originated from the Industrial Safety research
group:
• Adinex: expert advice on explosion safety (prevention,
protection and mitigation, incident analysis,...)
• Protec Engineering (now part of M-tech): safety reports
(risk analysis, consequence modelling)
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

6. Industrial Safety research group
Mechanical Engineering Department
Division of Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion
Applied Combustion
Energy & Environment
Engine Technology
Industrial Safety
Thermal and Fluids Engineering
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

7. Industrial Safety research group
Relevant research activities by other research groups:
• Turbulence modelling
• Combustion modelling
• Particle image velocimetry
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

8. Objectives
The study focuses on the following aspects in car parks:
• smoke control in case of fire;
• explosion risk;
• structural aspects (structural integrity and reliability
assessment).
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

9. Objectives
With respect to the explosion risk, the objectives are:
• to carry out an approximate quantitative risk analysis (QRA)
of the explosion risk in closed and semi-closed car parks due
to the presence of vehicles fuelled with LPG and hydrogen;
• to gather experimental and simulation data for the
derivation of simplified calculation methods for the design of
gas detection and ventilation systems, for closed and semi-
closed car parks.
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

10. Planned research activities
Gas dispersion experiments and modelling (WP 3)
Hot surface ignition experiments (WP 3)
Quantification of explosion effects (WP 3)
Reliable design calculation methods (WP 5)
Quantitative risk analysis (WP 7)
Dissemination (WP 8)
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

11. Planned research activities
Gas dispersion experiments and modelling:
full-scale
CFD simulations
reduced-scale
full-scale
wind tunnel
field experiments
experiments
reduced-scale
CFD simulations
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

12. Planned research activities
Hot surface ignition experiments:
objective: to experimentally study the ignition of stagnant
and flowing flammable mixtures by hot surfaces in order
to determine the probability that an accidental fuel
release will lead to a vapour cloud explosion
possible “hot spots”: engines, exhausts, brakes,...
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

13. Planned research activities
Quantification of explosion effects:
explosion scenarios:
• rupture of a fuel tank filled with a liquefied fuel
BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion)
• delayed ignition of a leak of a fuel tank
VCE (vapour cloud explosion)
explosion effects: blast pressure, thermal radiation and
fragments
based upon exisiting analytical calculation methods
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

14. Planned research activities
Gas dispersion experiments and modelling (WP 3)
Hot surface ignition experiments (WP 3)
Quantification of explosion effects (WP 3)
Reliable design calculation methods (WP 5)
Quantitative risk analysis (WP 7)
Dissemination (WP 8)
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

15. Planned research activities
Reliable design calculation methods:
ventilation system: smoke control and flammable gas
dispersion
gas detection system: e.g. spacing of gas detectors
guidelines for explosion risk reduction
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

16. Planned research activities
Quantitative risk analysis:
defining potential accident scenarios (fire, BLEVE,...)
estimating consequences
estimating probabilities
estimating and evaluating risk
identifying risk reduction measures
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

17. Planned research activities
Gas dispersion experiments and modelling (WP 3)
Hot surface ignition experiments (WP 3)
Quantification of explosion effects (WP 3)
Reliable design calculation methods (WP 5)
Quantitative risk analysis (WP 7)
Dissemination (WP 8)
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven

18. Fundamental design approaches for
improvement of the fire safety in car parks
Research activities planned
by the Industrial Safety
research group of
K.U.Leuven
Dr. Filip Van den Schoor
Laboratorium Industriële Veiligheid
Departement Werktuigkunde, K.U.Leuven