The two students are currently completing the third professional year of their civil engineering degrees. Photo / Supplied
The two students are currently completing the third professional year of their civil engineering degrees. Photo / Supplied
The university ritual of couch burning has helped two students from Christchurch in their research into fire behaviour.
Honours students at the University of Canterbury, Cindy Chantreux and Daniel Hunt, are currently completing the third professional year of their civil engineering degrees.
This year, the pair researched fire behaviour using3D modelling, and have been selected to present a poster at the 10th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, in October.
Mr Hunt said they stumbled into fire engineering when selecting their final year project.
Fire engineers played a vital role in ensuring the safe design of most commercial buildings, as the work of a fire engineer modelled the behaviour of a fire.
This helped when it came to determining the placement of ventilation, sprinkler systems, fire doors and evaluation plans, Mr Hunt said.
"Fire engineers work alongside the design team to model the fire safety aspects of a structure. It's about safety and cost efficiency," said Mr Hunt.
The pair explained how the standard practice used by fire engineers across the world was based on a 2D square plate fire surface, quite low to the floor.
However, Mr Hunt and Ms Chantreux modelled 3D surfaces and explored whether the shape of the fire had an impact on the fire's behaviour.
"So far we have been looking at how the shape of the fire affects mass flow in the fire plume. The fire plume is the column of flame and hot combustion products rising above the fuel source," Ms Chantreux said.
This was done by computer simulating the burning of a couch and other furniture shaped objects, she said.
The size and shape of this furniture was changed for different simulations, and although most of the results were consistent with the standard fire assumptions, the students observed a notable difference if the fire was long and thin.
"We have been modelling the behaviour of the fire plume, but the next stage is to model it in a different, more realistic setting to see if that makes any difference to what the fire does," she said.
As well as preparing their poster for the conference, the students will also make a presentation at the end of year student conference in Christchurch.
