| The work presented in this thesis includes the design, installation, programming and calibration of a fire Heat Release Rate (HRR) measurement system for Carleton University's large-scale experimental atrium. HRR is considered the most important parameter in characterizing a fire. The system uses the concept of oxygen consumption calorimetry, which is based on the assumption that any material being burned releases the same amount of heat per unit of oxygen consumed in the reaction. The system consists of a set of thermocouples to measure temperatures, bi-directional probes and pressure transducers for velocity measurements and a gas analyzer to record O 2, CO2 and CO concentrations in the gas exhausted through the ventilation chamber.;The results of the calibration tests were used to determine the time delays between the actual HRR and the measured HRR as well as a correction factor that characterizes the overall system.;Various Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) simulations and manual velocity measurements were carried out in order to determine the optimum design for the instrumentation in the fan chamber. Labview 8.6 was then programmed to receive and analyze the data from these sensors in order to provide a near real-time display of HRR as well as various other important variables. Labview 8.6 also writes all raw data and calculated values to a file that can be used for further analysis. A total of 14 propane calibration experiments and 3 heptane pool fires, as well as several FDS simulations, were carried out for the calibration of the system for the atrium. The system is accurate for most fire scenarios. |
