The late 90s and the early 2000s was a period with relative extensive research and innovation in the area of manual fire extinguishing methods and equipment for the fire service. New equipment such as the cutting extinguisher and extinguishing spears allowed to conduct offensive attacks from the exterior of a building, reducing the exposure of fire fighters to fire and smoke and their associated risks in general. This led to the development of new firefighting tactics, as for example the Quadrant Model of the Dutch fire service, which extends the “traditional” offensive interior attack and defensive exterior attack by the offensive exterior attack and defensive interior attack.Recently the research focus has furthermore increasingly shifted to environmental aspects, such as the water consumption and effect of additives (i.e., foam) on humans and the environment. Extinguishing with smaller amounts of water is beneficial for the environment, reduces water damage and lowers the burden on the water delivery system.ConclusionIn conclusion, the systems most relevant to be further tested in a fire situation in a small house or dwelling are the cutting extinguisher and the extinguishing spear.These systems are different in operation but have both shown to be promising with regard to fulfilling the different objectives of the overall project. Being relatively easy to utilize with the right training during internal extinguishing efforts executed from the outside of the building, and being only water based to minimize contamination, due to lower water consumption, of the surrounding areas give these systems advantages over conventional equipment.Especially if the systems are used in combination with an IR camera to locate the fire, the extinguishing efforts can be started early and effectively, and the water amount needed to control the fire may be reduced. The need for firefighters with breathing apparatus is reduced as well, hence reducing the smoke exposure to firefighters.The fact that the fire service also recognizes the potential of using these systems early in the extinguishing efforts, and is working on implementing them, prompts the need for scientific backup.

More than half of the incidents reported to EMSA relate to nautical events such as collision, groundings and contacts. Knowledge of accurate and high-integrity positioning is therefore not only a need for future automated shipping but a base for today’s safe navigation. Examples on accidents include Ever Given in the Suez Canal and HNoMS Helge Ingstad in Norway. A Network-RTK (NRTK) service can be used as an augmentation technique to improve performance of shipborne GNSS receivers for future positioning of manned and unmanned vessels in restricted areas, such as port areas, fairways, and inland water ways. NRTK service providers generate RTK corrections based on the observations of networks of GNSS reference stations which enables the users to determine their position with centimeter accuracy in real-time using a shipborne GNSS receiver. Selection of appropriate communication channels for dissemination of NRTK corrections data is the key to a secure positioning (localization) service. In PrePare-Ships project, the modern maritime communication system VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) is proposed to distribute SWEPOS (NRTK in Sweden) correction data to shipborne positioning modules. VDES is a very reliable technique and it is compatible with most onboard functionalities. In order to minimize the impact on the overall VDES data capacity in a local area, NRTK correction data shall only occupy a single VDES slot with a net capacity of 650 bytes. Update rates may vary but are preferably at 1Hz. However, NRTK correction data size changes instantly, depending on the number of visible GNSS satellites, and the data rate can therefore sometimes reach in excess of 1000 byte/s. In this study, a smart technique is proposed to reduce size of NRTK correction data to instantly adapt with the VDES requirements by choosing a combination of specific signals, satellites or even constellations such that the data rate is not more than 650 byte/s, and at the same time it achieves optimal positioning performance with the accuracy required by the PrePare-Ships project application. 

This work explores the challenges of using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis to provide easily accessible decision support for early product development in cases where intellectual property (IP) and privacy issues require special consideration. Innovation research projects with partners representing different links along the value chain are potential examples of such cases. A case study in which spreadsheet-based cradle to compounder's gate LCA and LCC screening tools were created for candidate flame retarded polymer formulations exemplifies the need for better solutions to overcome problems associated with lack of transparency due to IP/privacy concerns. These problems affect data quality, scaling up processes, and uncertainty of the results. The consortium in this case study had a common overall goal, although each of the partners had a unique perspective on the polymer development process and different IP/privacy needs. The measures used to overcome the challenges include aggregation, normalisation, and omission of costs and impacts common to all candidate compounds. The resulting LCA and LCC screening tools represent a compromise between providing the requested information at the level of detail required by the partners and reporting results that are as accurate and useful as possible. The findings are: in cases where absolute secrecy must be maintained, no one can learn which materials and processes provide the optimal results; appointing a trusted third party to handle sensitive inventory data can cause increased uncertainty of the results due to lack of peer review; the results of the work cannot be built upon by subsequent research.

In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in which responders arrive at the incident and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the vehicle or enclosure but do not suppress the fire. The Fire Impact Tool is not intended for use during an actual fire incident. This work does not answer every question for every possible fire scenario, but it does provide a framework for deeper, broader, more comprehensive training and pre-planning. This is a necessary step toward a future in which responders are prepared to make informed decisions about firefighting strategies and tactics that include environmental consequences.

Fortifikationsverket (FORTV) has expressed a desire to investigate the design, reliability, performance and cost of a sprinkler system for a typical underground fortification facility. Based on the cost and the benefit associated with a sprinkler system, a cost-benefit analysis was performed. In addition, water mist fire protection systems were studied. The installation cost analysis was based on two fictious facilities; a small facility with a net area of 1 000 m² and a large facility with a 5 000 m² net area.

The estimated installation cost for a traditional sprinkler system in the smaller type facility is about SEK 1,3 million and about SEK 3,3 million for the larger type facility. The installation cost for a high-pressure water mist system is higher than that of a traditional sprinkler system for the smaller type facility but comparable for the larger type facility. A low‑pressure water mist system seems to be the least expensive option for both types of facilities. This is probably because the system, unlike a traditional sprinkler system, requires smaller pipe sizes, smaller water pumps and a smaller water tank and unlike a high-pressure system uses normal steel pipes and less expensive centrifugal pumps.

The cost-benefit analysis for the fictitious type facilities shows that a sprinkler system is cost-effective, especially for the larger type facility. But it should be noted that the uncertainty in the data base is quite large, which means that the trends in the result can be used for further analysis, but that the actual values ​​of the benefit ratio should be viewed with some caution. The sprinkler system mainly has an effect to reduce the property loss. The expected benefit for personal injury is around one percent of the total benefit of the sprinkler system. This is because the risk of fatality and injuries in the event of a fire is small, as people can usually put themselves in safety. The reduction in property loss was assumed to be 75%, and an assumed lowered benefit of sprinklers (50% and 25% property loss reduction, respectively) leads to a lower benefit ratio but for the large type facility the benefit ratio is still above 1,0. The benefit of sprinklers also decreases if the assumed fire frequency is reduced. However, for the larger type plant, the calculation shows that there is still a benefit, even if the assumed fire frequency is halved. The same applies if the cost of replacement of expensive equipment is assumed to be half as high.

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. 

Fire safety of ships is a key issue as evacuation and extinguishment is more difficult at sea than it would be on land. There is therefore a long tradition and regulations in place to maintain the fire safety of ships. The current shift to more sustainable transport solutions has now led to the introduction of lithium-ion batteries for ship propulsion. These can offer significant benefits in terms of reducing greenhouse gas and particulate matter emissions. They also introduce new risks, however. When damaged, li-ion batteries may go into thermal runaway, a state that produces significant amounts of heat combined with flammable and toxic gas. This is a challenge, and safety is one of the key questions asked when introducing battery propulsion at sea. Extinguishment of battery fires is a piece of the puzzle when it comes to enabling safe battery propulsion at sea. Fire suppression systems are used today for such applications, yet no standard test method exists to evaluate their performance. This work proposes an approach that may be used to evaluate such systems and that can be used as input towards the development of a test method. Specifically, a test method aimed at evaluating the performance of fire suppression system under critical battery failures and at lowering the risk for module-to-module propagation. The test method designed here performed well and sustained the 18 tests that were done. Overall, repeatable test conditions were obtained that allowed for the performance of fire suppression systems to be investigated. All fire extinguishing systems had a positive impact in some position but not all points and it was not possible to draw any conclusion on their ability to mitigate the risk for module-to-module propagation. The tests showed that mitigating this can be possible with careful design of systems and perhaps combinations of different means.

The demand for lithium-ion battery powered road vehicles continues toincrease around the world. As more of these become operational across the globe,their involvement in traffic accidents and incidents is likely to rise. This can damagethe lithium-ion battery and subsequently pose a threat to occupants and respondersas well as those involved in vehicle recovery and salvage operations. The project thispaper is based on aimed to alleviate such concerns. To provide a basis for fire safetysystems to be applied to damaged EVs, hazards have been identified and means forpreventing and controlling lithium-ion battery fires, including preventive measuresduring workshop and salvage activities were studied. Tests were also performed withfixed fire suppression systems applying suppressant inside traction batteries whichshowed to improve their safety.

The report provides a review of three different international test methods where testing of the performance and function of extinguishing systems intended for vehicles and machines is presented. The test methods show that there are large differences in execution even if the basic processes are based on similar principles. The results of the tests with the limitations given in the methods can be used for the design of extinguishing systems based on risk analysis leading to installation instructions for the vehicles or machines to be protected.

To be able to set more performance-based and other types of procurement requirements than just refer to the Swedish method used today with the aim of getting more robust systems installed. There is a need to review and compare the processes and methods of risk analysis that lead to the design and installation of extinguishing systems.

Engineered mass timber materials such as CLT have been increasingly implemented as a structural material for tall or larger buildings in recent years. Most studies have been conducted on the structural performance of timber exposed to fire, but the number of studies focusing on post-fire rehabilitation of mass timber have been limited. As increasingly large timber buildings are being realized, for insurance purposes it becomes increasingly important to ensure that a building can be repaired after a fire. This report presents a case study of the repair of a section of a CLT ceiling after a significant fire. The specimen is obtained from a recent compartment fire test and is positioned and oriented in a way that is representative for on site rehabilitation. The repair was done in six steps: 1. Mapping the thickness of the charred or damaged layer 2. Design and planning 3. Removal of the char layer 4. Planing of the surface including corners 5. Gluing procedure of replacing lamella 6. Finish the surface to meet architectural requirement A new method for determining the grade of damage, the method for planing the specimen, the adhesive type, the glue pressing methods were designed for the rehabilitation exercise. In addition, the layup of the CLT is changed to prioritise flexural stiffness and bending capacity over shear capacity, as they generally govern the structural capacity of CLT floors. After the six-step repair was done, the specimen was cut in half to perform two similar structural bending tests. The results indicate that the flexural stiffness which is generally governing the load bearing capacity of floors, is fully restored by the rehabilitation work. The results also indicate that bending capacity, which can be governing for relatively short floor spans, is restored and possibly increased by the rehabilitation work. The shear capacity which is only critical for short floor spans in combination with very high loads is, however, reduced, as the experimental shear capacity is 18% lower than the characteristic shear capacity.

Five real scale fire tests of compartments constructed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber, compliant with product standards specified in current US model building code, were performed. Four of the tested compartments were designed to result in a representative and severe fire scenario in a residential fire compartment, using a probabilistic approach. The other tested compartment had additional openings and a greater opening factor, which was aimed to be representative of buildings designed for business occupancy. The interior of the compartments had surface areas of exposed mass timber that varied from approximately the area of the floor plan to approximately two times the area of the floor plan. The tests included measurements to study the internal compartment exposure, the temperature development at gypsum protected surfaces, the temperature development in the structural timber, oxygen concentrations at locations of interest and exposure to exterior surfaces of the wall and façade above the openings. The fire in the compartment with a greater opening factor had two layers of fire-rated gypsum board protection on the back wall and all other surfaces of CLT and glued laminated timber exposed. Despite having the highest peak combustion rate, this compartment fire had the least severe internal and external fire exposure. The fire decayed relatively quickly after flashover and continued to decay until the test was stopped at 4 hours after ignition. This fire resulted in less structural damage than the fires in compartments with fewer and smaller openings. The compartments with fewer and smaller openings had similar temperatures for approximately the first 10 minutes after flashover. The compartment with only the ceiling (including the glued laminated timber beam) exposed started to decay after 22 minutes of post-flashover fire and continued to decay until the end of the test at 4 hours after ignition. The other three tests had, in addition to the ceiling, significant areas of exposed wall and column surfaces. To accommodate for the extended fire duration that was expected in these configurations an extra layer of gypsum board protection was applied to the protected surfaces. The additional exposed surface areas of walls led to an increase of the fully developed fire duration by 6 - 9 minutes. One of the compartments included corners where two exposed walls intersect. Significantly increased damage was observed in the lower part of these wall corners, and an overall higher radiative exposure in the test with such corners. After more than three hours of decay, surface flaming developed on the walls in that test. The fires in the tests without such corners exhibited continual decay for the full 4-hour test duration. Post-test analysis showed that the structural damage was lower in exposed ceilings than at the bottom of the exposed walls for all tests. After the tests, remaining smoldering and hot spots were reduced using relatively small amounts of water mist. Overnight measurements to study the thermal wave going through the loadbearing structure indicated no post-test reduction of structural capacity.

Predictive modelling of the fire duration, fire temperatures, heat release rates and the structural capacity during building fires can be used to show compliance with performance-based building code requirements. The predictive models presented in this report focusses on the post flashover fire including the decay phase and extinction of flaming combustion for mass timber structures. A priori predictions of five recent compartment fire tests have been set against experimental results and compared. After the tests, the model has been updated, mostly for increased ease of use and increased accuracy for the decay phase. The model consists of a single-zone model which uses an energy equilibrium approach to obtain gas temperatures and surface temperatures of compartment boundaries. The energy contribution of charring mass timber is included using through-depth temperature calculations of the structure and experimental relationships to determine the combustion rate. The through-depth temperatures of mass timber members also serve to provide information for structural calculations using temperature dependent reduced material properties. However, the structural calculations are out of the scope of the current report. The radiation conditions (and total thermal exposure to walls ceilings and floors) predicted by the updated model were accurately described the of recent full-scale experiments within the variations between and within the tests. The comparisons with experiments showed that the total heat is, however, underestimated in some cases and surface temperatures were underestimated in the decay phase. Local effects caused by a radiative feedback loop between surfaces that show significant char oxidation, which occurred in a part of the test, is not included in the model.

An evacuation experiment in smoke-filled environment and with different evacuation route marker lights was performed in the Masthamn tunnel in Stockholm in 2019. In this report, detailed information about the experiment procedures is given and the results are presented. This includes the participants’ movement speeds, evacuation strategies and the influence of the three types of evacuation route marker lights that were tested in the experiment.

Lagging fires – A summary of the current knowledge

Lagging fires often occur as a result of a leakage of a liquid from e.g. a pipe or a vessel to its lagging. This work highlights risks associated with this type of fires and proposes mitigative actions. A summary of the current knowledge, based on contacts with representants from the industry and on review of literature, is presented in the present work.

This report is divided into the following sections: introduction (to lagging fires); different types of laggings; knowledge gathering; case studies; detection; and recommendations to mitigate and prevent lagging fires. The section dealing with knowledge gathering is based on statistics from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), experience from the industry and from literature. The case studies section presents sequencies of events and lessons learned from seven incidents. Three of the case studies occurred in Sweden, while the other four are international case studies identified in the literature. Two of the international incidents resulted in total losses while the worst incidents in Sweden caused loss of production for up to one week.

The current work presents a review of lagging standards, in this work CINI was the only identified organisation having commercial standards describing how lagging fires may be prevented. The current work also presents examples on alternative, company internal, methods on how lagging fires may be mitigated.

In combination with learnings from the industry, from contacts with MSB and from review of literature some indicative factors if a lagging fire will occur have been identified (e.g. type of contaminant or a relationship between flash point and auto ignition temperature). Finally, the report presents different detection methods and their pros and cons.

The aim of this study is to investigate what women do in disaster situations and how both men and women perceive and discuss the work of women. These patterns were evidenced in the stories that were told following the fire. The study is based on 31 retrospective interviews with volunteers involved in a large Swedish forest fire and focuses on stories about the supportive work of women during this fire. The results indicate that women were praised when they followed the traditional norms but were denigrated when they performed what was perceived as male-coded tasks. The stories reveal norms about what a woman is and is not by focusing on women's age and clothing and by directly and indirectly questioning their abilities and authority. The norms are also rendered visible by the positive attention that women receive while describing doing what is expected of a woman. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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.

During the autumn of 2015, Europe experienced a sharp increase in refugee influx, and many refugees arrived in the European Øresund Region. Refugees travelled through Denmark and over the Øresund Bridge, arriving in the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö. Private, public and voluntary organizations in Malmö had to change the way they worked to meet the new entry demands. Flexible adaptations to changing circumstances can be described as resilient performance and are supported or hindered by societal and organizational drivers and barriers. Qualitative interview data from Swedish organizations managing the refugee reception in Malmö were analyzed through the theoretical lens of Resilience Engineering (RE). The analysis results showed that necessary adaptations were not supported by the managerial design of the responsible public organizations. The analysis also showed that preconditions created from societal steering hinders value responsiveness at the public management level, i.e., the public management level has barriers towards becoming familiar with the organization’s value structures. Familiarity with the system value and goal structure is essential for an efficient prioritizing of conflicting goals, which is why it is suggested that this aspect be explicitly included in RE principles.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the emerging COVID-19 threat a pandemic following the global spread of the virus. A year later, a number of governments are being handed the concluding reports of national public inquiries tasked with investigating responses, mishaps, and identifying lessons for the future. The present article aims to identify a set of learning obstacles that may hinder effective lessons drawing from the COVID-19 pandemic responses. The seven obstacles discussed in this article are: (1) retaining lessons and implementing them effectively, (2) effectively drawing lessons from other countries, (3) the potential for reforms to introduce unanticipated vulnerabilities elsewhere in the system, (4) political pressure, (5) drawing the conclusions from observations, (6) experts versus decision makers, and (7) reforms may not be related to the actual crisis. Exploring these obstacles will be central to future discussions concerning which kinds of responses will set precedent for future pandemics and global health crises. 

There are many uncertainties associated with the estimation of extreme loads acting on a wave energy converter (WEC). In this study we perform a sensitivity analysis of extreme loads acting on the Uppsala University (UU) WEC concept. The UU WEC consists of a bottommounted linear generator which is connected to a surface buoy with a taut mooring line. The maximum stroke length of the linear generator is enforced by end-stops. Initially, a Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) was carried out in order to identify the largest input uncertainties. The system was then modelled in the time-domain solver WECSIM coupled to the dynamic mooring solver Moody. A sensitivity analysis was made by generating a surrogate model based on polynomial chaos expansions, which rapidly evaluates the maximum loads on the mooring line and the endstops. The sensitivities are ranked using the Sobol index method. We investigated two sea states using equivalent regular waves (ERW) and irregular wave (IR) trains. We found that the ERW approach significantly underestimate the maximum loads. Interestingly, the ERW predicted wave height and period as the most important parameters for the maximum mooring tension, while the tension in IR waves was most sensitive to the drag coefficient of the surface buoy. The end-stop loads were most sensitive to the PTO damping coefficient.

Fires in waste facilities represent significant potential social, economic and environmental challenges. Although the awareness of fires in waste facilities and their consequences has increased in recent years, significant fire safety challenges remain. Fires in waste facilities in Norway and Sweden have been studied to make an overall fire safety assessment and propose measures for increased fire safety. Common ignition causes include self-heating, thermal runaway in batteries, friction, human activity, technical or electrical error and unfavourable combined storage. High-risk wastes include general, residual waste, batteries, electrical and electronics waste, and paper and cardboard. Frequent fires in outdoor storage, increasing indoor storage and new types of waste appear to result in an increased reluctance by insurance companies to work with waste facilities. Measures are suggested for fire safe facility design, operations, waste handling and storage, as well as actions to limit the consequences for the environment and the facility during and after a fire. These actions may prevent fires and minimise the impact of fires that do occur. Increased fire safety at waste facilities may foster a better dialogue between the industry and insurance providers by reducing the potential economic impacts, and limit potential social costs and environmental impacts. © 2020 The Authors

This chapter explores some of the financial processes where maritime informatics could make a difference and improve existing practices. The chapter takes the principle logic of how maritime transport serves the cargo owner, the passenger, or the transport buyer. The chapter acknowledges different types of costs and risks associated with maritime transport, such as capital, operational, voyage costs and environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related costs to meet business needs and comply with regulatory requirements. Building upon the role of maritime informatics to achieve transparency, control, mitigate risks, and reduce the costs within each of these categories, different opportunities are acknowledged and associated with different shipping segments. Consideration is also given to economic advantage, resilience, compliance, and sustainability emerging from transparency in financial processes that comes with digital data sharing. The chapter provides a practical framework to identifying the role of maritime informatics in supporting financial management and decision-making by classifying cost/risk categories and digital data streams of relevance by looking at three dimensions: resiliency, compliance, and sustainability.

Sweden and the EU today have high expectations and goals for a circular economy. In several areas, however, there is a large gap between these goals and how recycling decisions are handled in practice. A previous RE:Source project in 2019 identified several overarching principles and factors for recycling waste decisions (Gehandler & Millgård, 2020). This study is a continuation and argues that ambiguity is an important factor in reducing the gap between political goals and recycling in practice. Ambiguity is partly about the interpretation and application of laws and concepts such as what is waste or product, and about how risks and benefits should be valued.

Programmet ”IMI-verktyget” (se länk till höger) är utvecklat för att ge räddningstjänst, studenter och forskare ett verktyg för att öka kunskapen angående konsekvenserna av taktiska val vid respons till en brand, exemplifierad av några fordons- och rumsbränder.

I rapporten till höger (”fulltext”) beskriver hur verktyget fungerar och innehåller också exempel på datorlabbar som skulle kunna genomföras inom en brandingenjörsutbildning eller räddningsledarutbildning.

Swedish recycling businesses argue that the Non-Toxic Environmental target gets too much weight and that resource efficiency gets too little focus, which results in decreased recycling. The purpose of this paper is to highlight different factors that recycling of waste decisions should consider, as well as contributing to a constructive discussion of the overall principles and policies for recycling. How recycling works in practice is explored based on nine interviews with stakeholders from the governmental agency level to recycling businesses. Theory with regards to ethics, risk, decision-making, governmental policy and laws is summarised. Finally, the discrepancy and connection between practice and theory is analysed. If recycling of waste is seen as a decision problem, the choice is between to recycle (in different ways) or not to recycle (i.e., energy recovery and/or landfill). Based on risk and decision theory, all relevant goals should be considered. This requires a broader problem framing when goals are in conflict. All parties agree that recycled and virgin material should be treated equally. From a higher policy perspective, it should then be demonstrated that any use of material (recycled and/or virgin) minimize environmental impact and promotes long-term sustainability. © 2020 by the authors.

The study focuses on the behaviors of spilled liquid from a continuously leaked tank in sloped tunnels. Spillage width and area, which impact the potential heat release rates in case of fire, are investigated under different tunnel slopes and leakage flow rates by numerical simulations using interFoam based on the VOF method in the OpenFOAM toolbox following the validation. The simulation results show that the spillage width initially decreases rapidly and then slowly as the tunnel slope increases. Other parameters, including road surface roughness, physical properties of liquid and leakage source height, are also considered. Empirical models for predicting the spillage width and area are established considering both tunnel slope and leakage flow rate. The results may provide guidance for tunnel safety design and drainage system design affiliated with a tank leakage inside a tunnel. © 2021 The Author(s)

The study focuses on the mass flow rate of the buoyancy-driven gases exhausted from the shaft in naturally ventilated urban road tunnel fires. Theoretical analyses and numerical simulations are performed. The model to predict the mass flow rate of the incoming smoke exhausted by the nearest shaft is developed by considering that the smoke is exhausted along the four sides of the shaft separately. Based on the heat balance between the incoming smoke exhausted and the total gas flow exhausted, the model to estimate the total mass flow rate exhausted from the shaft (both smoke and entrained air) is also established. Meanwhile, a series of numerical simulation in a naturally ventilated tunnel considering the heat release rate (HRR), the shaft height, shaft length and width, shaft location was carried out. The simulation results show that the shaft height has a limited contribution to the mass flow rate of the incoming smoke exhausted while a larger shaft cross-sectional area shows a favorable performance in exhausting the smoke. Further, the air entrainment into the shaft increases with both the shaft height and shaft cross-sectional area. Comparisons of the mass flow rates of the incoming smoke and the total mass flow rates exhausted between simple calculations and simulations are made, showing that the simple models perform well. Further, it is found that there exist two regimes for the total mass flow rate corresponding to different smoke modes in the shaft (complete plug-holing, plug-holing and without plug-holing), which is caused by the different driven forces in the shaft. The outcomes of this work could provide some guidance for the design of vertical shaft and smoke control in naturally ventilated tunnel in urban area.

The paper presents a theoretical study on the ceiling jets induced by small fires in tunnels. The ceiling jet thickness, temperature rise and velocity are analyzed theoretically with Non-Boussinesq approximation. The study focuses on the radial and one-dimensional ceiling jets. Numerical solutions in the radial region and one-dimensional shooting region are obtained and new analytical solutions in the critical flow region are achieved. Analytical solutions indicate that the ceiling jet thickness increases with distance away from the fire source, which largely differs from the existing models implying that the ceiling jet thickness in the one-dimensional critical flow remains constant. Additionally, impacts of the air entrainment, friction and heat transfer on the ceiling jet are analyzed. It is found that in the radial and one-dimensional shooting flow regions, the air entrainment has a much more significant effect than the friction and heat transfer. However, in the one-dimensional critical flow region, the impact of air entrainment seems to be negligible and the flow is dominated by the friction and heat transfer. Further, validation of the present theory is made by comparing with previous theories, semi-empirical models, and experiments. The results show that the present theory provides a good prediction of the ceiling jet properties with natural ventilation for a small fire. © 2020 The Authors

The relationship between geographical and social forms of remoteness and the concepts of vulnerability and capacity remains unclear. Recognising that capacities and vulnerabilities tend to co-exist in a population, the article assumes that the dynamics between these concepts are situational. In this article we draw on three cases to analyse the issue. An Arctic case study provides insight on remoteness in terms of latitude, followed by an Andean case study reflecting on the role of altitude, and lastly an Island community case study provides a perspective on external isolation (recognising that island communities are also typically connected). From these cases we glean a number of preliminary insights for further investigation. One is that remote communities tend to avoid dependence on external actors when possible. Second, power dynamics between remote communities and centralised actors can make disaster management difficult if local capacities are overrun but trust is not present. Third, remoteness mainly becomes a direct source of vulnerability if remoteness translates into neglect, rendering places ‘peripheral’. Generalisable insights suggest that relationships take time to build and cannot be easily established after the fact. The cases hence suggest that remote areas typically have a strained relationship with centralised authorities which fosters local coping strategies but also a fear of external dependence, which may ultimately prove problematic in times of adversity. © 2021 The Authors

A series of fire tests was carried out to investigate the diffusion flame characteristics of double fires generated from separated burners in a naturally ventilated tunnel, considering different heat release rates and fire separation distances. The results show that the flame tilt angle, as well as the horizontal projected flame length, first increases with fire separation distance and then remains constant, but the vertical flame length first decreases and then remains constant, which is different from two fires in free spaces where flames do not tilt when the separation distance is relatively long. This difference is caused by the non-dimensional fire induced air flow velocity in the tunnel, which is mainly related to the tunnel cross-section dimensions and burner radius. Three regions can be identified, i.e. flame vertical merging, plume vertical merging and non-merging with flame tilted. The critical flame merging separation distance, estimated by the flame merging probability, is greater than that of two fires in an open environment due to the fire-induced air flows. The merging flame height is lower than that of a single fire with a same heat release rate. A correlation was proposed to estimate flame height of two fires in a tunnel by the modified non-dimensional heat release rate using an air entrainment perimeter as the characteristic length. This work enhances the understanding of diffusion flame behaviors of double fires in naturally ventilated tunnels.

Dust explosion is a constant threat to industries which deal with combustible powders e.g. woodworking, metal processing, food and feed, pharmaceuticals and additive industries. Physics-based, well-verified and well-validated models and numerically efficient codes are important tools for designing dust explosion protection systems where the current standards are not applicable. This work aims at (i) presenting a physics-based dust explosion model based on an open source code OpenFOAM, (ii) comparing the computed pressure traces with the measured ones for a vented corn starch dust explosion in a 11.5 m3 vessel, and (iii) highlighting the future work.

Dust explosion is a constant threat to industries which deal with combustible powders such as pellets producers, food industry, metal industry and so on. The present work aims atdeveloping a numerical tool by (i) implementing a premixed turbulent combustion model into an open-source CFD software OpenFOAM, (ii) verifying the implementation using analytical solutions,and (iii) validating the approach in unsteady 3D RANS simulations of cornflour dust explosions investigated experimentally using the Leeds fan-stirred bomb [1-3]. A detailed description of thiswork is reported in a recent publication [4].

A vented corn starch dust explosion in an 11.5 m3 vessel is studied using both experimental and numerical methods. The reduced explosion overpressure in the vessel is recorded using two pressure sensors mounted on the wall inside of the vessel. Unsteady three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of the experiment are performed using the Flame Speed Closure (FSC) model of the influence of turbulence on premixed combustion. The model was thoroughly validated in previous studies and was earlier implemented into OpenFOAM CFD software. The self-acceleration of a large-scale flame kernel is associated with the influence of combustion-induced pressure perturbations on the flow of unburned reactants ahead of the kernel. Accordingly, the FSC model is extended by adapting the well-known experimental observations of the self-similarity of the kernel acceleration. Influence of different turbulence models on the simulated results is also explored. Thanks to the extension of the FSC model, the measured time-dependence of the pressure is well predicted when the k-omega-SST turbulence model is used. © 2021 The Authors

Dust explosion is a constant threat to industries which deal with combustible powders such as pellets producers, food industry, metal industry and so on. The current standards regarding dust explosion venting protecting system are based on empirical correlations and neglecting complex geometry, which may lead to failure in estimating explosion overpressure and therefore risk for fatalities at workplaces. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a reliable tool for vent protection design in the process plants. The objectives of this presentation are (i) to implement a model that focuses on turbulent burning of a dust-air cloud in an open source platform OpenFOAM, (ii) to verify the implementations against analytical solutions for 1-D planar and 3-D spherical premixed turbulent flames and (iii) to validate the model against Leeds cornflour dust explosion vessel experiments.

Dust explosion is a constant threat to industries which deal with combustible powders such as woodworking, metal processing, food and feed, pharmaceuticals and additive industries. The current standards regarding dust explosion venting protecting systems, such as EN 14491 (2012) and NFPA 68 (2018), are based on empirical correlations and neglect effects due to complex geometry. Such a simplification may lead to failure in estimating explosion overpressure, thus, increasing risk for injuries and even fatalities at workplaces. Therefore, there is a strong need for a numerical tool for designing explosion protecting systems. This work aims at contributing to the development of such a tool by (i) implementing a premixed turbulent combustion model into OpenFOAM, (ii) verifying the implementation using benchmark analytical solutions, and (iii) validating the numerical platform against experimental data on cornflour dust explosion in a fan-stirred explosion vessel, obtained by Bradley et al. (1989a) under well-controlled laboratory conditions. For this purpose, the so-called Flame Speed Closure model of the influence of turbulence on premixed combustion is adapted and implemented into OpenFOAM. The implementation of the model is verified using exact and approximate analytical solutions for statistically one-dimensional planar and spherical turbulent flames, respectively. The developed numerical platform is applied to unsteady three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of the aforementioned experiments. The results show that the major trends, i.e. (i) a linear increase in an apparent turbulent flame speed St,b with an increase in the root mean square (rms) turbulent velocity u' and (ii) and an increase in St,b with an increase in the mean flame radius, are qualitatively predicted. Furthermore, the measured and computed dependencies of St,b(u') agree quantitatively under conditions of weak and moderate turbulence. © 2020

Dust explosion is a constant threat to the Swedish industries which deal with combustible powders such as pellets producers, food industry, metal industry and so on. This project aims at (i) development of high-fidelity and well-validated models which address important combustion phenomena during a dust explosion, (ii) development of an efficient numerical tool based on an open source toolbox for predicting consequences of dust explosions and (iii) simulation of dust explosions in scenarios of process industries in cooperation with the reference group members of this project. The project result will improve the understanding of complicated combustion phenomena associated with dust explosions, and it will help the process industries in designing better vent system in case of dust explosion. During the first year, the Flame Speed Closure (FSC) model for premixed turbulent combustion, has been implemented in the open source platform OpenFOAM, which was installed at RISE in the beginning of the project. The implementation of FSC model has been verified against analytical solutions for 1-D planar and 3-D spherical turbulent flames. Verification shows correct implementation of model in the OpenFOAM platform. Currently, the developed code is being validated against small-scale dust-explosion experiments performed using the well-known Leeds combustion vessel. The first test of the code show that the trend, i.e. an increase in turbulent velocity fluctuation, an increase in flame speed, is predicted by the code. A further test shows that the code and model can predict the flame speed quantitatively using proper model parameters. In the next step, the model and code will be developed for considering the heat losses and radiation. Later the developed numerical platform will be applied to unsteady 3-D RANS simulations of large-scale experiments performed at REMBE® Research and Technology Center for vent relieving with different vent geometry.

Dust explosion is a constant threat to the Swedish industries which deal with combustible powders such as pellets producers, food industry, metal industry and so on. This project aims at (i) development of high-fidelity and well-validated models which address important combustion phenomena during a dust explosion, (ii) development of an efficient numerical tool based on an open source toolbox for predicting consequences of dust explosions and (iii) simulation of dust explosions in scenarios of process industries in cooperation with the reference group members of this project. The project result will improve the understanding of dust explosions, help the process industries in designing better vent system in case of dust explosion, and create a safer working environment. During the end of the first and the beginning of the second year, the developed numerical platform including the dust explosion model was validated against experimental data on corn starch dust explosion in a fan-stirred explosion vessel, obtained by Bradley et al. (1989), under well-controlled laboratory conditions. After that, a collaboration was established between the project members and Rembe Research and Technology Center in order to apply the developed numerical platform for simulating large-scale industrial vented dust explosions. In parallel with the collaboration with Rembe, a collaboration with Gexcon was established in order to perform a joint study of dust explosion modelling using the developed numerical platform and the commercial code FLACS-DustEx.

Many studies show that humans contribute to accidents, but research rarely addresses all the accidents that are avoided thanks to human capabilities. Today there is an interest in autonomous vessels and automation within shipping, often with arguments for safety and efficiency. Research from other domains suggests that automation can have unintended side-effects. Instead of increasing safety, automation may undermine people’s ability to understand the situation and make decisions, introducing new risks to the processes. To conclude that the frequency of accidents will be reduced proportionally to the people removed from the system neglects the dynamics of the socio-technical system and the positive human impact on maritime safety. Although shipping around Åland is not free of accidents and incidents, the system has a very good safety performance. The main purpose of the analysis is to analyze human impact on safe operation and performance exemplified by the vessels in Åland’s ferry lines. 

The levelized costs of energy (LCoE) of wavepower is still not fully competitive with other sourcesof renewable energy. However, wave energy is partlyin a different phase than other renewable energy typesand could thus contribute to a better predictability andsmoothed power output. This work focuses on co-locationof wave and wind power by investigating the intermittencyof wind and waves power based on measured historicaldata from several hundreds of locations worldwide. Employingwind power curves and wave power matrices, thesites are evaluated based on several different metrics. Theresults indicate that there are several spots where wavepower has a much lower intermittency than wind powerproviding reliable energy supply. Best sites for co-locationin terms of energy yield was found in North-WesternEurope. However, both wind and wave production have thesame seasonal variability in these sites. Only a handful ofsites found in California showed the possibility of seasonalpower smoothing using the combination of wind and wave.

Tank ships sail a large share of their time in ballast conditions, depending on their trading patterns up to half of the time at sea.The aim of this project use case is to test the usage of machine learning and big data approaches based on existing historical ship operation data to improve energy efficiency on ballast trips. Founded on the analysis, guidelines on how to improve the energy efficiency of ships can be made by collecting real-time operational data.The energy needed to propel a vessel is largely dependent on the total weight of it and of the speed it is operated at. Substantial savings in energy consumption and correspondingly to reduced fuel costs as well as to reduced emissions can be achieved by either lowering the speed or optimising the load taken onboard.Ships are normally designed for optimal operation at one single or a few defined load conditions. By analysing off-design conditions (such as partial load, slower speed, and ballast conditions), significant improvements in efficiency can be obtained. Figures achieved by different means range typically from 10 to 40 percent by improving the crew’s methods to load and operate the vessels, increasing resistance and delivered power [1]. Looking at operational regimes of tankers, the crews can only to a limited degree adjust the operational conditions for the loaded voyages when on hire, while when sailing off-hire or in ballast voyages allows for certain flexibility.Building on a grey machine learning model with an underlying hydrodynamic model of the vessel, the data analysis provides a guidance to the mariners on summer ballast conditions that allow for fuel savings. The conditions derived by the model have been demonstrated by the shipping operator in full scale trials. Based on the analysis made, summer ballast conditions imply a reduction in fuel consumption in the range of 10-14% on the feasible trips.

Smoke control is a key issue in tunnel fire accidents. While jet fans have been widely used in road tunnels, mobile fans provide a good complement, due to its flexibility to operate, especially if there are no fixed jet fans present. To confirm the feasibility of a mobile fan system, full scale fire tests were conducted in Kalldal tunnel in Sweden, with fire size in the range of 1–2.6 MW and a mobile fan placed at the tunnel portal. In the tests, it takes about 4–5 min to establish full flow in the opposite direction and the final flow velocity can reach 1.5–1.9 m/s. To describe the transient behavior of flow development inside tunnel, a one-dimensional lumped theoretical model has been developed. The model takes into account the pressure losses of external wind, the stack effect of fire and friction losses over tunnel walls and two portals. The model is validated using the data from Kalldal tunnel fire tests. Results show that the model can well predict the initial and final steady state velocity, but underestimates the flow development. The model gives prediction on the safe side.

This investigation studied the utilization of intumescent thermal resistive mats to provide surface protection to the core natural fibre-reinforced Elium® composite structural integrity. The intumescent mats contained flame retardant (FR) i.e. expandable graphite (EG) with four different expansion ratios and alumina trihydrate (ATH). All natural fibre thermoplastic composites were fabricated using a resin infusion technique. The impact of char thickness and chemical compositions on the flammability and smoke properties was investigated. It was found that surface protection significantly reduced the peak heat release rate, total smoke release, smoke extinction area and CO2 yield, and substantially enhanced UL-94 rating, time to ignition and residual char network, depending on the EG exfoliation ratio, ATH and mineral wool fibre. The glass transition temperature increased for the FR composites containing EG with lower expansion ratio. Inclusion of intumescent mats increased the strength of the composites while it had a negative effect on the modulus. 

To gain legitimacy for climate change adaptation decisions, the distribution of responsibility for these decisions and their implementation needs to be grounded in theories of just distribution and what those affected by decisions see as just. The purpose of this project is to contribute to sustainable spatial planning and the ability of local and regional public authorities to make well-informed and sustainable adaptation decisions, based on knowledge about both climate change impacts and the perceptions of residents and civil servants on what constitutes a sustainable distribution of responsibility. Our aims are: (1) a better understanding of the practical implications of theories about just distribution of responsibility for the choice of local and regional climate adaptation measures; (2) knowledge about what residents and civil servants consider a sustainable distribution of responsibility for climate adaptation measures; and (3) a better understanding of conflicts concerning the distribution of responsibilities and systematic knowledge about the possibilities to manage them. In this interdisciplinary project, we study six municipalities and their residents, and two county administrative boards, all in Sweden, using mixed methods: value theory, document studies, interviews, focus groups, and surveys

Highly accurate and precise heave decay tests on a sphere with a diameter of 300 mm were completed in a meticulously designed test setup in the wave basin in the Ocean and Coastal Engineering Laboratory at Aalborg University, Denmark. The tests were dedicated to providing a rigorous benchmark dataset for numerical model validation. The sphere was ballasted to half submergence, thereby floating with the waterline at the equator when at rest in calm water. Heave decay tests were conducted, wherein the sphere was held stationary and dropped from three drop heights: a small drop height, which can be considered a linear case, a moderately nonlinear case, and a highly nonlinear case with a drop height from a position where the whole sphere was initially above the water. The precision of the heave decay time series was calculated from random and systematic standard uncertainties. At a 95% confidence level, uncertainties were found to be very low—on average only about 0.3% of the respective drop heights. Physical parameters of the test setup and associated uncertainties were quantified. A test case was formulated that closely represents the physical tests, enabling the reader to do his/her own numerical tests. The paper includes a comparison of the physical test results to the results from several independent numerical models based on linear potential flow, fully nonlinear potential flow, and the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. A high correlation between physical and numerical test results is shown. The physical test results are very suitable for numerical model validation and are public as a benchmark dataset. © 2021 by the authors.

The EU funded project LASH FIRE aims to provide a recognized technical basis for the revision of international IMO regulations, to greatly enhance fire prevention and ensure independent management of fires on ro-ro ships. The consortium is coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and comprises 26 partners from 13 Member States of the European Union, including industry partners, research institutes, universities, regulatory bodies, trade associations and experts in communication and external relations. LASH FIRE makes use of the great potential in using new and advancing technologies and procedures to propose cost-effective solutions that mitigate the risk of fires initiated in ro-ro spaces. The solutions are being assessed for feasibility and performance validation, and demonstrated with help of the involved ship operators and yards.

A series of tests was carried out to investigate the influence of different parameters on design fires for tunnels with water-based fire suppression systems in a 1:4 scale tunnel. The key parameters tested included fuel load covers, activation time, water density, nozzle type, ventilation velocity, sprinkler section length and tunnel width. Analyses of test data are presented with a focus on the influence of these parameters on the design fire. The main findings are that the fuel load covers, activation time and ventilation velocity all play significant roles in the fire development. Further, suggestions on design fires for tunnels with water-based fire suppression systems are proposed. © 2020 The Authors

To overcome the challenges that the maritime sector faces, the future must embody more efficient and effective collaboration. This cannot realistically be achieved without further digitalisation. This chapter identifies the principal tensions and opportunities that impact the inevitable and ongoing digitalisation process that is underway in the maritime transportation sector. The chapter also identifies the trends of development at large and those associated with the key stakeholders that are involved in global maritime operations. The digital trends emerging in shipping companies, ports with its actors, authorities and associations, and movements that are being made by diverse digital solution providers, within and outside the maritime domain are also identified. The discussion takes the point of view that shipping is a global phenomenon enabled by ship movements creating a global network of sea transport facilitated by ports. Achieving higher levels of collaboration through digitalisation requires that tools and systems are interoperable by adopting harmonised open standards. It requires the use of standardised formats and standardised interfaces for communication, building upon commonly agreed definitions of phenomena and processes associated with port call operations. The chapter closes with a brief discussion on the emergence of “smart” ports and “smart” ships, which rely heavily of digitalisation, collaboration and the continuous sharing of and access to relevant data.

To manage thermal-driven smoke from fires in a subway station, a mechanical ventilation system is usually installed. Such a system normally consists of an air supply system and a smoke exhaust system. In case of a platform fire, the ventilation systems will be activated to control the smoke and to provide better environmental conditions for personnel evacuation. This paper conducted a theoretical analysis and a series of CFD simulations to study the critical velocity (minimum air velocity) at the stairways for preventing smoke propagating from the platform to the upper floor through the stairways in case of a platform fire. Correlations for critical velocities are established for two typical types of stairways (i.e., with and without side slabs). It is found that the critical velocity is well correlated with the heat release rate by a 1/3 power law function for both types of stairways, but it varies with the height of the smoke curtain at the stairway by a 1.375 and a 2.55 power law function for stairways with and without side slabs, respectively. The results may serve as a useful reference for smoke control in subway platform fires.

This report includes the Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security (ISTSS) held in Münich, Germany, 11-13th of March, 2020. The Proceedings include 42 papers given by session speakers and 13 extended abstracts presenting posters exhibited at the Symposium. The papers were presented in 12 different sessions. Among them are Keynote sessions, Tunnel Safety Concepts, Fire Dynamics, Risk Analysis 1&2, Tunnel Safety Design Concepts, Poster Corner, Explosion Hazards, Active Protection 1&2, Emergency Management, Ventilation, Passive Protection and Evacuation.  

Each day was opened by invited Keynote Speakers (in total six) addressing broad topics of pressing interest. The Keynote Speakers, selected as leaders in their field, consisted of Anne Lehan, German Highway Research Institute, Germany, Marc Tesson, Centre for Tunnel Studies (CETU), France, Trond H. Hansen, Oslo Fire and Rescue Service, Norway, Mia Kumm, RISE, Sweden, Roland Leucker, Research Association for Tunnels and Transportation Facilities (STUVA), Germany and Rune Brandt, HI Haerter, Switzerland.   We are grateful that the keynote speakers were able to share their knowledge and expertise with the participants of the symposium.