WPI Research Publication

FALL 2013

WPI Research is the research magazine of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It contains news and features about graduate research in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering, along with notes about new grants, books, and faculty achievements.

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notebook > GREEN BUILDING PRACTICES RAISE FIRE SAFETY CONCERNS IN RECENT YEARS, the construction industry has enthusiastically adopted a wide array of "green" technologies and materials, from lightweight engineered lumber to rooftop solar panels. But while sustainable construction practices foster energy effciency and more judicious use of natural resources, there is reason to believe that some of them may make buildings more vulnerable to fre, may make it possible for fres to burn hotter or spread faster than they would with conventional building practices and materials, or may result in increased risk and danger to frefghters. In 2012 a research team led by Brian Meacham, PhD, associate professor of fre protection engineering at WPI, under a commission from the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research arm of the National Fire Protection Association, undertook a comprehensive survey of the fre safety implications of green buildings. They conducted a global literature search and surveyed agencies around the world to assemble and assess a list of 78 green building elements that could have implications for fre safety. Photovoltaic panels generate green electricity, but a solar array on a building's roof will readily burn and may continue to produce electricity as long as the sun is out, posing an electrocution hazard for frefghters. Adding more insulation to a wall can help increase energy effciency, but some insulation materials can burn, potentially adding fuel to a fre. Fire retardant chemicals may be added to insulation materials to reduce fre hazards, but some can have adverse health effects. "Finding the right balance between sustainability and safety is not always easy," Meacham says. The team's report, "Fire Safety Challenges of Green Buildings," as well as presentations made by Meacham before national meetings of the National Fire Protection Association, the U.S. Fire Administration, and other organizations, spurred considerable The threat of electrocution from thousands of solar panels on the roof of the Dietz and Watson warehouse in Delano, N.J., slowed efforts to fght a 2013 fre. Photovoltaic arrays are one of many green building features and practices that raise fre safety concerns, research by WPI fre protection engineer Brian Meacham shows. (Photo by the Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.) discussion and pointed to the need for additional study. That continuing work can now get under way, thanks to a $1 million award from the Department of Homeland Security (Meacham will lead the new project with co-principal investigator Nicholas Dembsey, PhD, professor of fre protection engineering). The grant will fund a multi-pronged research effort aimed at quantifying fre hazards and risks associated with green building features, identifying ways to mitigate those hazards and risks, and better preparing the fre service to fght fres in buildings with green features and elements. Among other tasks, the researchers will explore ways to collect data nationally about fre incidents involving green building elements, particularly those resulting in frefghter injury or death, and they will investigate potential changes to frefghting tactics that may be more effective with buildings employing green construction technologies. They will also seek to quantify the increased fre risks or decreased fre performance associated with green building features by reviewing existing experimental and test data and by conducting burn tests in WPI's new Fire Protection Engineering Laboratories at Gateway Park. These will include large-scale tests of building envelope and structural systems and evaluation of natural versus mechanical ventilation in atria and large spaces. > GO FLY A KITE — UNDERWATER! IT'S A GREAT WAY TO GENERATE POWER UNSEEN, UNDER THE WAVES, winding along coastlines and streaming through underwater channels, are countless currents and tidal fows that bristle with kinetic energy. And just as wind turbines can convert moving air into electricity, there is the potential to transform these virtually untapped liquid "breezes" into vast amounts of power. One concept for an undersea kite (3): connected by a tether (2) to a platform (1) foating at the surface (6) and anchored to the sea foor with mooring lines (7), the kite will have a wing (4), a rudder and control surfaces (8), and ballast tanks (10). A turbine generator (5) produces power as the kite moves in a fgure-eight pattern (9). 6 > wpi.edu/+research That is the vision behind a new research program directed by David Olinger, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering, who has received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to explore ways to harness ocean currents using an unexpected technology — the kite. The research builds on several years of work, funded by the NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to develop systems that use kites to generate power from the wind.

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