Under certain conditions dust explosions occur in the alimentary industry. Following ATEX and other guidelines have not eliminated accidents. Therefore, more knowledge is needed. The current work delivers experimental results describing phase transitions and decomposition of dusts. Dusts from wheat flour, chili powder, corn starch, milk powder, cocoa powder, and by-product of grain are investigated. The temperature of pyrolisation has been identified using TGA to be in the range [250°C, 600°C] in air and [300°C, 450°C] in nitrogen. It was found that the compositions of the pyrolysis gases depend on temperature. Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen were the main contributors to the pyrolysis gases. The distributions are described with a polynomial or Gaussian fit. The current paper proposes coefficients for Gaussian polynomials expressing the concentration for the four primary pyrolysis gases. 

With the purpose to increase the knowledge on human behaviour when evacuating along elevated platforms, an experiment was carried out at the subway station of Skarpnäck, Stockholm, in October 2016. The overall project objective was to develop basic data for guidelines regarding fire safety design concerning evacuation along elevated platforms. The experiment was designed as a group experiment divided into five different scenarios. In total, 111 persons of mixed gender and age participated. The results from the experiment show that the flow rate along the elevated platform decreased as the walkway was getting narrower. It could also be seen that along the first half of the walkway, where a train was located on the rail track next to the elevated platform, the flow rate was higher and the width of the walkway was used to a lager extent compared to the second half of the walkway where the platform was open to the track area. One of three wheelchair users who participated in the experiment expressed discomfort caused by the height and the width of the walkway and nearly half of the participants experienced problems with passing others walking slower than themselves.

It is our pleasure to hand over to you this book of abstracts for the Nordic Fire & Safety

Days 2017 organized by RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden in collaboration with the

Technical University of Denmark, Lund University, Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, University of Stavanger, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences,

Lulea University of Technology and Iceland University as well as VTT Technical Research

Centre of Finland Ltd, the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology and Aalborg

University in Copenhagen.

We are very proud to present the abstracts of 62 Nordic and international contributions

in the present book of abstracts. The work demonstrates a significant scientific depth

and societal relevance. The conference is a response to the extensive interest in the

areas of fire and safety engineering in the Nordic countries in the past decades. As the

programme and the abstracts show, the NFSD follow up on challenges with respect to

safety dealing with aspects of fire and actions of the rescue service as well as human

behavior and risk management. This year there is a special focus on fire safe furniture

and the intervention of the rescue service.

Preface

It is our pleasure to hand over to you this book of proceedings for the 9th international conference on pedestrian and evacuation dynamics, held on August 21-24, 2018 in Lund, Sweden. The conference was organized by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden in collaboration with Lund University. The three-day conference hosted about 135 participants.

Every day at the conference was introduced by a keynote lecture. The first lecture Putting the Pedestrian back into PED: the need to reunite our diverging field helt by Dr. Aoife Hunt, Associate Director and specialist in crowd planning at Movement Strategies AS. The second day was opened with the lecture Pedestrian movement in buildings using BIM (Building Information Modelling) by Jan Karlshøj, Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. The topic of day three was Universal design - accounting for people by Per Olof Hedvall from Associate Professor at Lund University and head of Certec, the center for Rehabilitation Engineering and Design.

The scientific program of the PED conference included many topics related to pedestrian dynamics as well as evacuation. The parallel sessions covered the following areas:

•Data collection•Experimental evacuation•Human behaviour•Model development•Simulations

The papers peer reviewed and published as open source by RISE and Collective Dynamics. We are very proud to present the peer reviewed papers. The publications demonstrate a significant scientific depth and also a high societal relevance.

When materials are tested and classified before entering the market, they are mainly tested as newly produced. However, it is known that material properties change with time and when exposed to temperature, humidity, wind and light. As a result, it is important to have knowledge of how material age and which parameters are affected in order to retain safety. Studies show how the mechanical properties change when the materials age. But not much can be found in literature about the ageing effect on fire properties. In the present study, accelerated ageing testing was made with a composite material of phenolic resin and basalt fibres. Selected ageing methods applied were thermal ageing at 90 C and moisture ageing at 40 C and 90 % Relative Humidity. Samples were collected from ageing chambers after one, two and four weeks. To investigate the ageing effect on the fire properties of the composite, fire testing was conducted using cone calorimetry according to ISO 5660-1. The test results showed that ageing does matter. There was an impact on the material and the fire properties were affected. The ignition time decreased for the aged samples and the heat release rate slightly increased. Also, the smoke production increased with ageing. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

New materials and designs enter the market every day. They have a great market potential needed for many applications. The future market for development and production of fibre reinforced composite materials (lightweight materials) is very promising, not only within advanced application such as aeronautics, but also in maritime industries, on modern ship vessels and in railway vehicles. As a result of this it is important to know the material properties and fire behaviour in order to ensure a high safety level [1].Materials are tested as “new” and un-aged, which means testing is performed on newly produced products and materials. Very little research has been done regarding fire performance of materials after aging [5].Accelerated ageing can be performed with different aspects and in numerous ways. One type of these can be called weathering and there are mainly four basic types of this ageing used for products and materials. They are: thermal ageing, exposure of high temperature during a selected time; moisture ageing, exposure of water or moisture; UV exposure, and radiation ageing. [5]These types of ageing can be performed in many ways and combinations. For example, thermal ageing can be performed at a selected temperature and time. But it can also be one part of a climate cycling were you have fixed periods with temperature exposure followed by moisture exposure and UV exposure. This cycle can be repeated a numerus of times [7].The degradation of composite materials and change in properties is slow at room temperature. It gets faster with increased temperature. Accelerated ageing is an intentional way to expose materials and products to a proper simulation of long-term usage. Within a few days, weeks or months the damage and degradation of the materials can occur, which normally would be after years in normal climate and after normal usage. Accelerated ageing can cause the material properties to get worse, and an undesirable loss of functionality may be evolved [4].The behavior and material properties of fibre reinforced composites, after exposure of aggressive environmental conditions, shows changes, compared to new materials. After exposure of moisture, the fibres may result in damage and the material structure might be changed. After exposure of moisture and high temperature the durability of the composite is reduced [2].The Arrhenius Rate Law of accelerated ageing can be used to correlate the time in ageing climate. A generalization, supported by the Arrhenius Rate Laws, is that for a reaction in room temperature, the reaction rate doubles every 10°C increase in temperature [6].The objective of this work is to gather the most common methods to perform accelerated ageing, to see the variations between the methods and within the method.

The market for lightweight fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is growing. This is seen within advanced applications for e.g. aeronautics, modern ship vessels and railway vehicles. FRPs are often used to save weight, but the downside is that they are ignitable, which implies a potential higher fire risk. It is thus important to thoroughly characterise the material properties of FRPs, including the fire performance, in order to ensure a high safety level. Fire performance testing is made with newly produced materials to show the conformance to required standard test. However, the impact of ageing on the fire performance of materials and products is not mandatory information and hardly ever known. This is still an overlooked matter that is important to address for combustible materials in transport applications, where the requirements of personal safety are especially high. Accelerated ageing is a method to expose materials and products to various environmental parameters for a simulation of long-term usage. Within a few days, weeks or months the damage and degradation of the materials can occur, which normally would be after years in normal climate and after normal usage. Fire performance testing of test samples subjected to accelerated ageing would potentially give important information on the long-term safety of the end-use application of FRPs. The objective of this paper is twofold. One is to find out if the industry, society and research need to deal with the effect of ageing on materials in relation to fire safety as this is not dealt with in fire regulations. And further to identify the state-of-the-art of accelerated ageing methods relevant for Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials. In summary, the findings in the literature were limited of reported ageing effects of FRPs, with respect to the fire behaviour. An important conclusion is that there is a major lack of knowledge regarding material aging and fire behaviour, especially for FRPs. However, the identified ageing studies showed that both fire and mechanical properties were affected by ageing. The accelerated ageing methods described in literature was not consequently applied. The ageing methods were special designed for each study and application of material. All methods need a proper validation applying real time ageing. 

As material age, the durability, strength, and other mechanical properties are impacted. The lifespan of a material generally decreases when exposed to weathering conditions such as wind, temperature, humidity, and light. It is important to have knowledge of how materials age and how the material properties are affected. Regarding materials´ fire behaviour and the effect of ageing on these properties, the knowledge is limited. The research questions of the current work are: Are the fire properties of composite materials affected by ageing? And if so, how is it affected? The study is on material at Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL). In this study, three composite fibre laminates developed for marine applications were exposed to accelerated ageing. Two different ageing conditions were selected, thermal ageing with an increased temperature of 90°C and moisture ageing in a moderately increased temperature of 40°C and a relative humidity of 90%. Samples were collected after one, two and four weeks of ageing. The reaction-to-fire properties after ageing was evaluated using the ISO 5660–1 cone calorimeter and the EN ISO 5659–2 smoke chamber with FTIR gas analysis. The test results showed that the fire behaviour was affected. Two of the composite laminates, both phenolic/basalt composites, showed a deteriorated fire behaviour from the thermal ageing and the third composite laminate, a PFA/glass fibre composite, showed an improved fire behaviour both for thermal and moisture ageing. The smoke toxicity was affected by the accelerated ageing, especially for the PFA/glass fibre composite that showed a higher production of CO and HCN, both for the thermal aged and the moisture aged samples. © 2021, The Author(s).

It is our pleasure to hand over to you this book of abstracts for the Nordic Fire & SafetyDays 2019 organized by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden in collaboration Technical University of Denmark, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Lund University, Aalto University, Luleå University, University of Stavanger, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Iceland University as well as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd and Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology.We are very proud to present the abstracts of 63 Nordic and international contributions in the present book of abstracts. The work demonstrates a significant scientific depth and societal relevance. The conference is a response to the extensive interest in the areas of fire and safety engineering in the Nordic countries in the past decades. As the programme and the abstracts show, the NFSD follow up on challenges with respect to safety dealing with aspects of fire and human behaviour as well as rescue service and risk management.

Anne S. Dederichs, RISE Research Institutes of SwedenConference chair