Safety first

It all seems a bit too real for a computer screen. Watching black smoke billow through a future Dubai metro station, it becomes clear just how useful fire modeling software can be.

Locke Carey has made it his business predicting what may seem to be the unpredictable in trying to keep buildings and people safe from the destructive force of fire.

A recent KTP project developed a new fire modeling software programme known as PHOENICS, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Programme that is now available to a larger market. The sophisticated programme vividly displays the likely path of fire and smoke through buildings – before they’re built – so designers and architects can work to create safer spaces. “It has allowed us to sell fire modeling software to a larger audience and it has increased our turnover significantly,” said Glenn Horton, industrial supervisor at Locke Carey. “Our business has doubled since beginning the KTP.”

The new fire modeling software has led to two major contracts; the upcoming Dubai Metro, and the multimillion dollar shopping and residential centre, The Mall of Arabia, also in Dubai. “But it’s not just important in the financial sense. Technology impacts, fire precautions and building regulations - all these kinds of issues are reducing the number of fire deaths,” Glenn commented.

Technology developed at Locke Carey has also been used by the Ministry of Defence. Glenn said the KTP programme has opened many doors at this company of just 12 employees. “It gives us a chance to get a good graduate to do some work. I don’t understand why more people don’t get involved. We couldn’t have done the research we have done without the support of the KTP.”

Locke Carey has had two KTP projects with Associates Ben Whittaker and Dominic Way. Both successful Associates have made Locke Carey a leader in the use of fire modeling software. Ben remained with the company for 3 years after project completion and earned his PhD in Fire Engineering during his project. He recently left Locke Carey to take a senior position with a similar company. Dominic’s KTP project built on Ben’s work and focused on decreasing fire detection time so that fires could be identified and stopped more quickly, reducing the potential damage to buildings and saving lives. “KTP has been good for me, I’m using CFD software which is commercially used all over the world,” reports Dominic.

After two successful KTP projects, Locke Carey is now considering their third. Professor Phil Nolan has used his specialist experience as academic supervisor on the projects. “We’ve been happy with the whole team at LSBU. If we have problems on technical issues they are a great source of information for resolving them,” Glenn praised.