The Fire Engineering Laboratory aims at conducting research and development related to fire retardant, resistance, detection, extinction, limitation, modeling and escape with special reference to building and industrial sectors. The lab is provided with unique state-of the art facilities.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

  • Fire retardant behavior of building materials.
  • Design and development of passive fire protection systems.
  • Fire retardant treatment cotton textiles, canvas & pufoam.
  • Fire blocking layer
  • Fire resistant coatings
  • Fire barrier system for electrical cables
  • Fire damper and air conditioning ducts
  • Flame retardant and smoke suppressant for plasticized PVC
  • Suitability & application engineering sprinklers and detectors.
  • Automatic fire extinguishments and venting of smoke and toxic products
  • Analytical modeling and fire spread simulation
  • Extinguishments of fires in oil storage tanks (DFI technique, extinguishments set-up with rectangular/circular geometry(5,10220 m2size))
  • Studies on toxicity of fire smoke
  • Designing and commissioning of new fire evaluation facilities.
  • Fire  safety requirement analysis.
  • Passive fire protection engineering analysis and management
  • Fire engineering of structural concrete systems.
  • Water-mist fire suppression/extinguishments.
  • Studies on preflash-over fires in enclosure
  • Post-fire analysis & restoration.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERRED

  • Fire blocking layer for air craft cushion seats
  • Fire resistant metallic composite door of one hour and two hour rating
  • Cable fire stops system for electrical cables and cable trays in cable galleries and shafts.
  • CALFIRE- A user friendly software for fire calculations in enclosures
  • Micro-data casinet
  • Fire retardant coatings for electric cables and wood.

PATENTS

INDIAN PATENTS

  • Fire extinguishing material for extinction of fires in flammable liquids G.N. Badami & T.P. Sharma. Patent Number 143818
  • Improved automatic water sprinklers for use as fixed fire protection devices Gopal Krishan, A.K. Gupta & S.B. Gupta. Patent Number 161452
  • A Device for extinguishment of fires by injecting foam and/or DCP and a fixed/floating roof tank incorporating the device.T.P.Sharma, B.B.Lal, Jagbir Singh & R.S. Chimote.Patent Number 177234
  • An improved fixed roof flammable liquid storage tank with a fixed extinguishing device. T.P. Sharma & R.S. Chimote. Patent Number 177235
  • A composition useful as a flame retardant smoke suppressant for plasticized PVC. Sunil K. Sharma. Patent Number 196927

US PATENTS

  • Fixed roof flammable liquid storage tank. T.P. Sharma & R.S. Chimote. US 5548933
  • Apparatus for extinguishing fires in oil storage tanks. T.P.Sharma, B.B.Lal, Jagbir Singh & R.S. Chimote. US 5573068

FIRE PERFORMANCE & EVALUATION

Burning behavior of Materials

  • Non-combustibility (IS:3808, BS 476 Part-4, ISO: 1182)
  • Ignitability (BS:476-Part-5,ISO 5657,BS 476 Part 13)
  • Fire propagation (BS:476-Part 6)
  • Surface spread of flame (BS:476-Part 7)
  • External Exposure of roof (BS 476 Part-3)
  • Specific optical density of smoke (ASTM,E 662)
  • Flammability, Flame Penetration and Rate of Burning of FR Plywood(IS:1734 Part 3 & IS: 5509)
  • Horizontal BurningCharacte5ristics of cellular Plastics &cellular Rubber (BS: 4735,IS: 11239 Part 12)
  • Flame Proof Materials (Textiles)(BS:3119 &BS:3120)
  • Deterioration of visibility due to smoke (UIC 564-2-OR:App.15)
  • Flammability of  interconnecting gangway rubber flanges (UIC 564-2-OR:App. 10A)
  • Deterioration of fire retardance of rigid non-thermoplastic material. (UIC 564-2-OR:App.15)
  • Limiting Oxygen Index (as per ASTM D 2863, NCD 714,NES 1410)
  • Toxicity Index (As Per NCD 713,NES 1409)

SYSTEMS & COMPONENTS

  • Automatic sprinkler test (as per IS 9972)
  • Fire resistance evaluation of  building elements.
  • Fire resistance evaluation of  Safety and security Equipment
  • Fire resistance evaluation of Bulk Heads, Decks
  • Fire resistance evaluation of  Dampers
  • Fire resistance evaluation of Cable Firestop
  • Fire resistance evaluation of Fire Safe Enclosure
  • Fire resistance evaluation of air-conducting ducts
  • Water absorption, Ageing, vibration, Impact test on systems & components subjected to Fire Resistance evaluation
  • Fire performance of electrical cables (IEC-331.332,IEEE-383)
  • Fire performance & Burglary Evaluation Class A, AA, B, BB & C)
  • Fire sensitivity test on smoke detectors.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

Fire Engineering Laboratory is in a position to offer frontend consultancy services to government and private agencies for fire safety analysis and post-fire investigations and management. The laboratory undertakes technology development.

For further details, please contact:

Dr. Harpal Singh
Coordinator
Fire Safety Engineering Group
Phone     : +91-1332-283243
Fax         : +91-1332-272272
Email     : harpal [at] yahoo.com