Car Parks And Tunnels Episodes
All the stuff on EV's, batteries and why if I was a fire, I would prefer to grow in a car park.
Picture credit - Trevor Hunt, Dublin Fire Brigade
Picture credit - Trevor Hunt, Dublin Fire Brigade
Oct. 2, 2024
171 - Exploring Water Mist Systems with Max Lakkonen
I approach modelling water mist with caution. Not that I don't understand it, but because I lack clarity in the goals and objectives, as well I'm usually aware I may not deliver the expectations of my clients in terms of the ...
Sept. 18, 2024
169 - Engineering car parks for EV's with Ali Ashrafi and Pawel Woelke
EVs are becoming more of a 'normal' part of fire safety engineering rather than an 'exotic problem'. I've invited two colleagues from Thornton Tomasetti - Ali Ashrafi and Pawel Woelke, to discuss what this engineering looks l...
Aug. 21, 2024
165 - Best Practice vs. Appropriate Practice with Arnold Dix
Is the "best practice" always the best approach to solving an engineering problem? Can we consider "best" and "appropriate" practices synonymous, and if not - how big is the gap between them? Join us as we welcome Professor A...
June 26, 2024
157 - Revising Critical Velocity with Conrad Stacey and Michael Beyer
A critical velocity episode... who would have thought? Even though I'm not an enthusiast of this approach, I have to admire the new science and researchers striving to improve it. This week I welcome Conrad Stacey and Michael...
Jan. 9, 2024
135 - Contemplating a design fire for car parks
In episode 48, my guest Mike Spearpoint said that in mid '90s, he participated in experiments on vehicle fires, as at that time, there were doubts if the design fires of that time (developed in the '80s) were representative o...
Nov. 8, 2023
126 - Where is the challange with tunnel smoke control? with Wojciech
I'm known for my rant about critical velocity concept in tunnel ventilation systems, and I tried to really control myself and not go into podcast with it :) But in recent weeks, when I was enjoying sake at IAFSS in Tsukuba tw...
Oct. 18, 2023
123 - Futureproofing fire safety systems with Jaime Cadena Gomez
Balancing the cost and the potential to change a system in the future is a difficult act. Discover a new perspective on this aspect of fire safety systems with our guest, Jaime Cadena Gomez. We discuss the significance of lon...
May 3, 2023
099 - Electric vehicle fires in tunnels with Peter Sturm
Do you have any idea how bad the tunnel fire will be if there is an EV involved? That is a question I hear a lot, way more often than I would like. And usually, my answers do not get approval. I guess telling people "doesn't ...
Feb. 22, 2023
090 - Objective driven suppression system for Swedish tunnels with Ulf Lundström
If you want to design a suppression system for a certain application, you have a lot of technical solutions to choose from and most likely a handful of codes to follow. It seems pretty straightforward for most applications, r...
Jan. 25, 2023
086 - Experiments that changed fire science pt. 4 - Runnehamar tunnel with Haukur Ingason and Anders Lönnermark
Would you rather do 20 published experiments and take your impact factors, or make one that truly changed the world of fire science? Or maybe a different way, would you pursue something that is quick, easy and gives immediate...
June 22, 2022
055 - The future is exciting with Arnold Dix (part 2)
I once said the future looks stupid... but after this discussion with Arnold Dix, I know - future is exciting. And for Fire Safety Engineers and others involved in fire protection - the future seems to be super exciting! In t...
June 15, 2022
054 - The sustainability talk, tunnels and fire safety with Arnold Dix (part 1)
A few episodes ago I called for better communication in fire safety. And in this episode, tunnel fire safety legend Prof. Arnold Dix is answering that, by teaching us the ways of the 'sustainability' talk - how to communicate...
May 4, 2022
049 - What burns inside a battery with Francesco Restuccia
So we all know batteries burn... but do we know what exactly does burn? What is inside this tiny metal cylinder that scares so many of us? We try to understand it a bit more with Dr Francesco Restuccia of Kings College London...
April 27, 2022
048 - Car parks, design fires and the broad world of fire science with Mike Spearpoint
Did you know first car parks were built for electric vehicles? Or what clever techniques can be used to model the spread of fire between vehicles? Or what challenges scientists meet burning vehicles, and why pneumatic suspens...
March 30, 2022
044 - Improving fire safety of battery systems with Ofodike Ezekoye
Since Episode 6, the fire safety of battery systems was not very much visible in the show - a good time to change that! And we do this with a true legend of fire safety - Ofodike Ezekoye. In the last year, I have learnt a lo...
March 2, 2022
040 - Resilient road tunnel infrastructure with Ingo Riess
This week I've invited a guest, that I was looking to talk to for a good while... Dr Ingo Riess from Riess Ingenieur-GmbH is someone I look up to in the field of tunnel fire safety, in which I am very active in the last few y...
Jan. 12, 2022
033 - Science, theatre or engineering? Polish take on hot smoke test with Piotr Smardz and Janusz Paliszek
Have you ever heard about the hot smoke testing approach? If you had, there is a great chance you have not heard anything positive about it... From our experience, this method is often downplayed as useless, unrealistic and i...
Dec. 15, 2021
031 - Suppressing tunnel fires with water mist with Johny Jessen
Can water mist be used in tunnels? I wondered that for a long time, and with every tunnel project, many questions around this issue were piling in my head. When dealing with large infrastructure projects you really need to wo...
Dec. 1, 2021
029 -Busses, flammability and an unknown force holding good solutions back... with Anja Hofmann-Böllinghaus
This is not a fun episode. It starts with a tragedy, that fueled a whole field of research. Continues into disbelief, that one aspect of fire safety can be at the same chosen as the sole foundation of fire safety within a bra...
June 29, 2021
007 - AI in smart firefighting and the future of FSE PBD with Xinyan Huang
Everyone is talking about AI, but how can we really use it in fire safety engineering and firefighting? Prof Xinyan Huang of HK PolyU will explain his research in this field, and we can consider it as a time travel to the fut...
June 23, 2021
006 - EV's, rapid fires and car parks
In Episode 6, our host, dr Wojciech Wegrzynski, explains his experiences with modelling rapidly growing fires in car parks. Such fire growth may be typical for EV fires that originate in battery and pose a different set of ch...
June 16, 2021
Battery fires with Roeland Bisschop
Today I've talked to Roeland Bisschop, Project Manager in RISE, about his first-hand experience with battery fires. Roeland explained to me how do battery fires look from a scientific perspective, and how my perspective was k...