Ceiling fires in timber buildings

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The construction industry is seeking to address its carbon emissions by using more sustainable, low-carbon building materials and systems. One method of construction that is becoming increasingly common is Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). This product allows huge slabs (and walls) of timber to be created by gluing lots of individual (smaller) planks together. One challenge with this way of building is that timber (unlike brick, stone, steel or concrete) burns. Exposed timber ceilings are very common in CLT buildings. Where there is exposed timber, there is always the possibility for increased fire spread. This generates a significant risk that the resulting fire dynamics could violate many underpinning assumptions of existing measures to provide adequate fire safety in buildings, and thus requires investigation.This research will study the ignition and burning of exposed timber ceilings. The research team will study this by burning timber at small scale (~10 cm wide samples) to study how the timber ignites and how the flame then heats its environment. The team will then scale up to study how one piece of burning timber, can ignite another (adjacent) piece of timber. Finally, the team will ignite fires in ~1m wide timber rooms and study how the fire spreads. The novelty of this research will be the focus on exposed timber ceilings, which as particular importance for commercial timber buildings. Much of the existing knowledge about burning timber has been generated when the timber is in the "floor" or "wall" condition. The technical challenge is in linking together the small scale experiments with the "room scale" fires.The work will be undertaken using existing facilities at the University of Edinburgh's Rushbrook Fire Laboratory. The research will take advantage of the existing depth of knowledge that the University of Edinburgh already have in this area and will help to enable the safe use of this form of construction in the UK's construction industry.