How will the buildings of the future burn? Braunschweig Fire Safety Days 2021 digital
Construction and buildings are changing. Climate change and sustainability require greater use of renewable raw materials. With the energy transition, more and more innovative products and energy storage systems are being introduced into buildings. Likewise, digitalisation is changing construction. But what about fire safety? In the newly founded Center of Fire Safety Research (ZeBra) at Technische Universität Braunschweig, researchers will investigate these topics. The researchers will report on this at the Braunschweiger Brandschutz-Tage (Braunschweig Fire Safety Days) on 15 and 16 September 2021. This year, the symposium will take place as an online event.
Fires can be analysed at various scales in the new Centre of Fire Safety Research at TU Braunschweig. Photo credit: iBMB/TU Braunschweig
From battery cells to facade constructions made of renewable raw materials to coaches: the Centre of Fire Safety Research at the East Campus of TU Braunschweig creates unique opportunities to systematically analyse fires on different scales. The presentation of the new centre is the focus of the 35th Braunschweig Fire Protection Days. Professor Jochen Zehfuß, scientific conference director and head of the fire protection department at the Institute of Building Materials, Concrete Construction and Fire Safety (iBMB): “We already have a large number of fire furnaces in Braunschweig for investigating the fire resistance behaviour of building components. The outstanding innovation at ZeBra are the large-scale calorimeters with which we can investigate fire dynamics, fire phenomena and release rates of fire gases.”
In the ZeBra, experts from Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, Modelling and Mechanical Engineering from TU Braunschweig, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research and other partners work together alongside Civil Engineers. Their goal is to design new construction methods using renewable raw materials and digital manufacturing as well as new products of the energy transition (e.g. energy storage) in a fire-safe manner and to be able to predict the course of the fire more accurately
Fire protection in timber construction and high-rise buildings
At the Fire Protection Days on 15 and 16 September 2021, more than 500 experts will discuss current topics such as fire protection in timber construction, easing of fire protection requirements for stairwells in existing buildings, new European fire protection standards, new fire protection regulations for high-rise buildings in England compared to German regulations, as well as innovative fire protection concepts, including for Frankfurt Airport.
In addition to the Fire Protection Days, the Symposium Fire Safety Design will be held as an online event on 14 September 2021. The workshop “Fire Extinguishing Systems” will also be held online directly before the Fire Protection Days on the morning of 15 September 2021.
The speakers’ presentations will be recorded and streamed live at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Braunschweig. Access to the stream is only possible for individual participants after registration and payment of the participation fee.
The Center of Fire Safety Research (ZeBra)
The new research building is being constructed on the East Campus of TU Braunschweig on the grounds of the Institute of Building Materials, Concrete Construction and Fire Safety (iBMB) in Beethovenstraße. The centrepieces of the experimental level are the calorimeters for various fire tests.
- 5 calorimeters, 2 of them with up to 20 MW firing power (largest calorimeters in Europe)
- Production value with large-scale equipment: 23.5 million euros
- of which construction 12.5 million euros
- Groundbreaking: June 2020
- Completion: mid-2022
- Commissioning: autumn 2022
About the Fire Protection Days
The “Braunschweig Fire Protection Days” are among the most important fire protection conferences in the German-speaking area. Since 1987, more than 500 engineers working in fire protection from building supervisory authorities, fire brigades, insurance companies, engineering offices, industry, testing institutes and research facilities have come together at the invitation of the Institute of Building Materials, Concrete Construction and Fire Safety at TU Braunschweig to exchange information and ideas.
Further information:
www.brandschutztage.info