Progress report 2024

Annually fires lead to major losses in terms of fatalities, injured people, and values. In response to this challenge, the Fire Research and Innovation Centre (FRIC) started in 2019. The main objective is to increase knowledge within the field of fire science in order to support decisions and develop better solutions providing increased fire safety in buildings. FRIC shall strengthen cooperation and lead to a long-term increase of competence and knowledge within the fire safety field.

Multidisciplinary collaboration is a prerequisite for the development of good solutions in the centre. FRIC is led by RISE Fire Research in Trondheim, with NTNU and SINTEF as research partners. The research centre has partners from the public sector, consultancy engineers, manufacturers of building materials and building installations, and within real estate development and management.

The centre is funded by Gjensidigestiftelsen via the Research Council of Norway and by partners in the centre.

The research is organised into four new work packages (WPs) starting from 2024. All publications, included recordings of webinars, are available on the webpage https://fric.no/en.  

Work package 1: Fire safety in a societal perspective

In the project Fire safety for persons at risk, we will contribute to developing solutions to increase fire safety for persons at risk, with a focus on elderly people who live in their own homes. This project is closely linked to the project Fire Safety in Dwellings from the first period in FRIC, where measures were mapped with regard to people who are vulnerable in a fire situation. Experiments to identify simple, cost-effective solutions to improve the fire properties of upholstered furniture have been carried out, and an article is ready for publication. Based on experiments with smoke detection, guidelines are being developed for how various technical and human aspects should be considered in order to reduce the large number of unnecessary fire alarms in homes. A report on how fire services and authorities in Norway communicate fire safety to the public has been published, and the effect Bjørnis the Fire Bear has on fire safety in Norwegian homes has been assessed and presented at an international conference. In the project Learning from fire investigations, we will further develop knowledge about how fires develop, and the effect of various fire safety measures and extinguishing methods. The project contributes to a more unified and systematic approach to learning from fires in Norway, and to the development of methods and tools for use in fire investigations. A fire in a municipal housing building in Bergen in 2021 has been analyzed, and a number of findings and learning points have been published in an open FRIC report.

Work package 2: Fire development and suppression

In the project Compartment fires, we will, through experiments and theoretical analyses, develop knowledge about how fires develop, including how ventilation affects fire development and smoke spread. Rooms with wooden surfaces will be a particular focus. The project Efficient fire suppression will investigate how fires can be controlled with small amounts of water in a safe manner. The focus will especially be on fire suppression in buildings with wooden constructions. Results from small-scale and medium-scale experiments have now been reported and prepared for publication. This project is a continuation of the project Fire suppression from the first period in FRIC, where a scientific article describing the effect of fixed sprinkler and water mist systems on façade fires has been submitted for publication. In the project Battery energy storage systems, the objective is to identify effective and safe ways to control fires in battery systems in buildings, both for the fire and rescue services and for other relevant stakeholders. Experiments with various suppression systems for batteries have recently been conducted, and the results are now being analyzed and reported.

Work package 3: Fire safe buildings
In the project Fire performance of products and constructions, the objective is to investigate how various products—and how the combination and installation of these—affect fire development in a building. This will include experiments and analyses, with a particular focus on materials with a low CO₂ footprint. A number of fire tests have been conducted in the project to study the fire properties of different types of combustible insulation. Results from fire tests on timber frames made of I-joists insulated with combustible insulation were published in a scientific article in 2023. The guide “Fire safety upgrading of heritage wooden doors” has been published both as an English and Norwegian report, and also as a scientific article. In the project Timber structures, two fire tests in a large room with exposed cross-laminated timber elements have been carried out. The results have been published in two scientific articles (#FRIC01 and #FRIC02), and presented at the World Conference of Timber Engineering 2023. A scientific article on numerical modelling of the tests has been submitted for publication. A guide for analytical fire design of larger timber buildings is ready for publication. In the project Existing and cultural heritage buildings, the focus is on describing solutions for how fire safety can be improved in existing buildings, and how we can protect our cultural heritage from fire. In the project Photovoltaic energy systems, we are developing knowledge about the fire risk introduced by PV installations on buildings from a holistic perspective, where the building constructions are also considered. It is important that solar cell installations do not lead to unacceptable consequences in the event of a fire in a building. Experiments, analyses, and simulations have been carried out. Three scientific journal articles have been published: on greenhouse gas emissions from fires in solar cell systems, on a large-scale fire test with building-integrated solar cells on a façade, and on how fire safety is ensured in the design of solar cell installations. This work package also utilize from results from the project Building-integrated energy systems and SMART technology from the first period in FRIC, where other technologies, such as energy storage and production, vehicle-to-grid technology, and smart ventilation systems, have also been assessed with a focus on fire safety.

Work package 4: Digitalisation for improved fire safety

In the new project Digital tools for firefighting and training, the goal is to develop digital solutions to increase the safety and efficiency of fire and rescue services during firefighting operations. This may include training with virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) systems, and the use of wearable sensors to detect harmful factors. This project is closely linked to the previous period’s project Personal protective equipment for firefighting personnel, where a test method to document the penetration of smoke particles into firefighters’ clothing was initiated. Results from experiments on how exposure to heat affects thermal stress and workload in firefighters during simulated smoke diving have been presented to several fire departments and at an international conference. In the project Digital tools for fire safety in buildings, we explore the use of building information modelling (BIM) for verifying and documenting fire safety. Methods will be developed that can implement and verify that fire safety requirements are met, and that fire protection measures are followed throughout the project and during the operational phase.

You may find FRIC and an overview of all our publications in the project bank of the Norwegian Research Council here.

Photo: Trøndelag fire and rescue service.