Introduction. Now many countries produce measures for a transfer of their economics to an application of a hydrogen energetics. Because of a high fire hazard of hydrogen a fire safety provision of infrastructural objects of the hydrogen energetics is a very important task. The infrastructural objects of the hydrogen energetics are the facilities aimed on a production and storage of hydrogen, transportation of gaseous (GH₂) and liquid (LH₂) hydrogen, an application of hydrogen for an energy generation, car refueling stations etc. Scientific basis for a creation of the fire safety normative documents was laid in studies of Russian and foreign investigators.

Russian normative documents. Russian normative documents in the area considered are analyzed in this work. A draft of the Technical Regulation on a safety of the facilities aimed on production, storage, transportation and application of hydrogen is the most important among them. This document contains a lot of specific requirements which should be used independently of a type of the hydrogen facility. Therefore this document can be considered as extremely “rigid” for a practical applications. A set of rules SP 162.1330610.2014 is aimed on the regulation of the safety requirements for the facilities using liquid hydrogen. The document PB 03-598-03 considers the safety requirements for a production of hydrogen by an electrolysis of water. A conclusion was made that Russian normative basis is not sufficient for a development of the hydrogen energetics.

Standard NFPA 2. The standard NFPA 2 can be considered as a most important normative document containing the safety requirements for the facilities for production, storage, transportation and application of hydrogen in a gaseous and a liquid phase. This standard contains both general and specific requirements for the infrastructural objects such as car refueling stations, storages of hydrogen in the gaseous and the liquid phase and also using metal hydrides, hydrogen production facilities, energy generation objects using hydrogen, technological equipment containing hydrogen, laboratory facilities, car parks for the cars using hydrogen as a fuel etc.

Conclusions. It was found that there is no comprehensive set of the normative documents regulating fire safety of infrastructural objects of hydrogen energetics. The series of the Russian normative documents in this area which should be created was proposed. A conclusion was made that the requirements of NFPA 2 can be used at a creation of the Russian normative basis of the hydrogen energetics.

Introduction. Tanks and tank farms are widespread in many constituent entities of the Russian Federation and are among the most important elements of the model for the production, treatment, transportation and processing of oil and oil products. It is relevant both at the Russian and global levels to ensure that fire safety is arranged for tank farms to reduce highest risk levels according to the risk-based safety model. In the context of information and communication technology (ICT) developments and introduction of ICT into the operation and management of various facilities, over the past decades advanced methods have emerged for predicting the occurrence and development of emergency situations at facilities and enhancing management decisions on containment and elimination of emergency situations including fires.

Goals and objectives. In this paper, the authors present a model that they developed to promptly forecast heat flows using artificial neural networks. The forecast model will improve the safety of fire brigade personnel responsible for extinguishing fires inside ground-based vertical steel tanks having protective walls. In the research, the authors place special emphasis on identifying dependence between the heat flow and the wind load. Methods. To achieve this goal, the authors arranged and conducted a series of experiments, collected experimental data on heat flows, and created training and test samples.

Results. Dependences between heat flows and environmental factors were identified by constructing adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems or adaptive network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS). Various types of membership functions, optimisation and system generation methods were compared and it was found out that for ANFISs, prediction of heat flows with regard to and disregarding wind loads were optimal, if subcluster and hybrid optimisation methods were used, as they had lowest error values for samples.

Discussion. The analysis shows that wind speed and tank location can rise temperatures of the air, tank wall and petrol. Therefore, despite the complexity of the analysis, the regard for all these factors makes it possible to identify a safe distance between a burning tank and firefighters.

Conclusions. The research made it possible to develop a model for prompt heat flow forecasting with the help of artificial intelligence elements (ANFIS). The results obtained in the course of the work make it possible to increase the efficiency of prompt forecasting of the dynamic behaviour of fire inside tanks and tank farms and optimize managerial decision-making by responsible persons.

Introduction. The performance of a fire alarm needs to be analyzed to answer the question about its compliance with fire safety requirements. This type of research is frequently performed in the course of a forensic fire investigation. Therefore, it is necessary to identify conditions of fire escalation and safe evacuation of people to assess the fire alarm performance.

Purposes and objectives. The purpose of this work is the numerical study of the impact, produced by mathematical models of combustion, characteristics of fire loads and locations of fire beds, on fire alarm performance. Methods. Fire dynamics was field modeled to achieve the goal of this research. The analysis of flame propagation was performed with regard for various fire bed locations to simulate the fire alarm operation.

Results and discussion. The fulfillment of safe evacuation conditions for cases of irregular arrangement of smoke detectors was analyzed to develop and test the algorithm for the calculation of the evacuation start time. It is shown that the estimated time of fire detection depends on combustion models employed (their average or complex level), the size of the computational grid, fire load specifications and the location of the fire bed.

Conclusions. It is shown that the results of the field modeling of fire propagation and detection time are influenced by combustion models used, fire load specifications and the location of the fire bed in relation to smoke detectors. If the fire alarm fails to perform its functions and, consequently, safe evacuation conditions are not fulfilled, it is necessary either to improve the combustion model or to compare the modeling results obtained for actual and standard smoke detector location patterns.

Introduction. Fires of voltage-carrying electrical units are most dangerous and difficult to put out. Personnel of fire emergency response units are at high risk of electric shock when extinguishing such fires. Electrical units have recently obtained a new are of application, that is, electric cars. Electric car design entails the use of high-capacity batteries and high voltage electrical equipment, which pose a higher fire hazard. The objective of this article is to analyze potential assets to be protected and assess existing electrical fire extinguishing methods to substantiate principal areas of research into design of safe fire extinguishing systems designated for electrical units installed on motor vehicles.

Main (Analytical) part. The fire extinguishing of the items, that have electrical units to be extinguished without any electricity outage, must be performed by the fire departments that have appropriately trained and equipped personnel. However, in the event of an electric car fire, it is impossible to forecast which fire department will be nearby and how well it will be equipped. The design features of electric vehicles show that potential sources of the fire hazard include lithium batteries and electrical circuit elements. These factors explain the need to consider the problem of extinguishing self-contained electrical fires inside motor vehicles from the standpoint of electrical safety. It is suggested to identify the fire extinguishing method in furtherance of the analysis of a set of principal fire extinguishing methods with regard for the design of efficient firefighting appliances that ensure safe extinguishing of electric car fires.

Conclusions. It is expedient to use the pulse application of a fire-extinguishing agent that prevents current leakage while extinguishing various types of electrical appliances, including those installed on motor vehicles. The effects of exothermic reactions, involving lithium-containing elements, were not analyzed when solving this problem. This research will serve as the basis for conceptual technological solutions designated for fire emergency response units responsible for extinguishing electric car fires.

Introduction. The fire protection of metal structures is a relevant present-day problem; its solution implies better fire resistance performance of structures attainable through the application of intumescent fire-proof coatings whose service life expectancy is limited.

Goals and objectives. Comprehensive studies of domestically made coating samples were performed to analyze the changes in the chemical composition of intumescent coatings containing ammonium polyphosphate, melamine, and pentaerythritol. The samples were exposed to artificial climatic ageing (3, 6, and 9 years). Methods. Optical and scanning electron microscopies were used to study the appearance of samples, the morphology of inclusions and the surface microstructure. X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy were employed to study the phase and structural states of samples, and the swelling ratio of fire-proof coatings was also examined.

Results and discussion. It’s been found out that the swelling ratio of samples goes down to a significant extent as the time progresses, and when the residual life of a coating reaches 30 %, the fire resistance limit of the structure goes down. Sample ageing is the reason for gradual phase composition changes due to the melamine content reduction by 40 %, ammonium polyphosphate content reduction by 15 % and redistribution of other components that change the microstructure of coatings, as well as their fire retarding properties.

Conclusions. The changes, influencing the ability of a coating to maintain its fire retarding efficiency as declared by the manufacturer, take place in the course of operation of a coating exposed to external factors. The regularities, identified by virtue of this research, can be used to study the samples taken at fire-proofed facilities to identify deviations from the initial condition of a coating and to forecast its actual service life.

Introduction. Intumescent flame retardants are intensively used as passive fire protection means. Under fire conditions, these coatings foam and turn into coke, which turns into ash. These products have various fire resistant properties. These transformations are possible due to the foaming process, whose kinetics determines the fire protective characteristics of the compositions used. The paper considers the kinetics of the foaming process in the course of the pyrolysis of four different foaming compositions. The classical triad was used as a thermally expanding agent for the three of them, it includes ammonium polyphosphate, pentaerythritol, and melamine, and the fourth one has intercalated graphite.

Research methods. Thermal analysis is widely used to identify and study various materials, substances and fire retardants. However, we have not found any kinetic studies performed using methods of thermal analysis in the literature. In this work, methods of non-isothermal kinetics are used to identify the mechanism of foaming. For this purpose, four series of thermogravimetric tests were carried out at different heating rates for each composition under study. The results of the experiment made it possible to solve inverse and direct kinetic problems and identify mechanisms of the processes.

Results and discussion. Methods of non-isothermal kinetics were employed to show that low-temperature stages of thermolysis can be considered as gross-one-stage processes for all samples. The solution of the direct kinetic problem has helped to identify that the limiting foaming stage is described by the Avrami – Erofeev equation for all compositions under study, while the values of kinetic parameters differ significantly. Consequently, foaming proceeds are similar for samples having different compositions. The foaming of the sample containing intercalated graphite depends on heating conditions.

Conclusions. It was identified that the studied compositions transform into the viscous-fluid state at high temperatures. In this case, the limiting stage of the foaming process is the nucleation of primary bubbles in the volume of the liquid phase. This process determines the kinetics of foaming, coke properties and its thermophysical characteristics.

Introduction. Presently, there are several problems in the field of dry powder fire suppression that require the indepth study of the physics and technology of fire suppression processes using these substances. One of the ways to find the solution to these problems is the efficiency analysis (theoretical and experimental) of frequently implemented fire extinguishing patterns involving fire suppression systems spraying dry powder, when the term of interaction between the dry fire extinguishing powder and the burning material is close to the duration of principal fire extinguishing patterns, or thermal and heterogeneous inhibition of active flame centres.

Purpose and objectives. The purpose of the work was to assess the efficiency of principal fire extinguishing patterns (thermal and heterogeneous inhibition of active flame centres) amid non-stable heat exchange processes and heterogeneous inhibition of active combustion product particles by powder particles.

Methods. The pre-set objective was achieved through theoretical modeling of patterns of thermal fire extinguishing and heterogeneous inhibition of active flame centres by dry chemical powder particles.

Results. It was established that fire suppression with the help of general purpose dry chemical powder under non-steady conditions is the more effective, the smaller the effective size of powder particles, the longer the time of their stay in the combustion area and the shorter the characteristic period of heat transfer to powder particles and heterogeneous inhibition of active flame centres.

Conclusions. The results optimize conditions and patterns of dry fire extinguishing powder application to a combustion area to achieve the highest extinguishing effect and to conduct a targeted search for new dry chemical powders having pre-set thermal and physical specifications.

The possibility of using risk assessment in lightning protection for the purposes of ensuring fire safety of buildings and structures is considered. Examples of limited flexibility of application of existing regulatory requirements for lightning protection of facilities are shown. The need to introduce modern methods of risk assessment in the design of lightning protection systems is noted. Analysis and description of the methodology for determining the individual components of the risk of death of people with a direct lightning strike into an object and/or the occurrence of a fire (explosion) is performed. The main advantages and disadvantages of the existing risk assessment method and ways of its improvement are given.