Jack Mawhinney of Hughes and Associates in Baltimore, Maryland will present
the season's opening presentation on: Fire Protection Challenges and
Solutions in Rail and Road Tunnels. Jack has an international reputation as
a fire protection engineer- partly as a result of his work on water mist
systems. He has done much to further the cause of fire research and its
application to difficult design problems.
Jack started his engineering career in British Columbia before joining the
National Research Council in Ottawa. He joined Hughes and Associates in 1996
as a research engineer.
Jack was chair of the National Fire Protection Association technical
committee for the Standard on Water Mist Systems (NFPA 750) from 1993 to
2003.
Beginning with testing of a water mist system for Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV)
transport rail cars for the Channel Tunnel in 1997, he has participated in
full-scale fire testing of water-based suppression systems conducted at
tunnel test facilities in Switzerland, Spain, Norway and England.
Jack and his colleagues at Hughes have applied CFD modeling to extend the
usefulness of test data. By
using specific fire test data to calibrate a CFD model of the test
structure, they made it possible to examine
tunnel configurations and ventilation conditions that differ from the test
arrangement (within limits), thus increasing the value of the test data.
Current design approaches for passive structural fire protection, and for
ventilation systems in tunnels are based on assumptions of unsuppressed
fires. Jack is particularly interested in incorporating the benefits of
suppression systems into standard design procedures for structural fire
protection and ventilation systems in highway and rail tunnels.
We are pleased to welcome Jack back to his hometown for this important SFPE
Chapter 30 presentation.
Date: September 10, 2013
Time: Registration and Reception 5:30pm
Location: False Creek Yacht Club (1661 Granville Street)
Cost: Members - $30; Non-members $35. Please bring cash or a cheque payable to BC Society of Fire Protection Engineers to cover the cost of dinner.
Registration Deadline: September 7, 2013
Free parking is available in the Yacht Club parking lot.