Fire dynamics includes the study of the basic chemical, physical, and thermodynamic phenomena involved in fire development, behaviour, propagation and suppression. Concepts from chemistry and physics, coupled with the fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, are used to understand how structures and components will react under fire conditions, as well as to characterize ignition, fire growth and spread, and fire severity in various environments. Research also involves the study of the interactions between a fire and its environment, including aspects of fire ventilation, suppression, heat transfer from fires and transition from fire to explosion.
Compartment Fires | Fire Suppression | Pool Fires
Compartment Fires
House-scale, Timber, and Open‑plan compartments
Our compartment fire studies examine how fires develop in houses, mass‑timber rooms and open‑plan spaces, where geometry and ventilation dramatically affect behaviour. Experiments and modelling explore:
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Heat release rates and temperature evolution in different layouts.
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Smoke layer formation and movement under varied ventilation.
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The influence of timber construction and encapsulation on ignition, flashover and burnout.
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Ventilation‑limited fires.
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Heat transfer from fires through building assemblies.
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Fire behaviour on naval vessels.
These insights inform safe egress design and the development of performance‑based fire codes.
Fire Suppression
Water sprays, aerosols, chemical inhibitors and sustainable agents
Waterloo researchers work alongside municipal and naval firefighters to test hoseline tactics, sprinkler effectiveness and innovative suppression agents. Full‑scale burns in abandoned houses and the Live Fire Research Facility allow us to measure how:
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Water spray patterns (wide vs. narrow, direct vs. reflected) cool the thermal environment.
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Different suppression agents (including foams and emerging sustainable formulations) affect flame knockdown and re‑ignition.
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Firefighter positioning and hose advancement alter heat and gas flows.
Results are delivered back to fire‑service partners through seminars and training modules, improving understanding of how tactics influence conditions inside burning structures
Pool Fires
Sandia Helium Plumes and Medium‑scale liquid fires
Our pool‑fire program couples experiments and numerical models to understand liquid‑fuel fires. In medium‑scale burns (≈0.3 m diameter), acetone and methanol pool fires were instrumented with flow visualisation, and two‑component laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) and thermocoupled scanned over 125 locations. These measurements yield detailed velocity and temperature fields, allowing us to derive turbulence characteristics and vorticity to compare to high fidelity CFD models of pool fire behaviour. Ongoing work explores:
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Radiative heat transfer and soot‑particle formation.
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New diagnostics for soot concentration and radiation measurements.
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Air entrainment mechanisms at the base of liquid pool fires.
PIV velocity and PLIF-OH concentration data from Sandia helium plumes (1.0 m diameter) continues to form an integral component of the IAFSS MaCFP Working Group on development of CFD fire models. Other important outcomes provided new insights into impacts of crosswinds on large fire plumes, as well as use of heat flux gauges in fires.
This research helps improve models of pool‑fire behaviour and supports safe storage and handling of flammable liquids.