Master of Engineering in Fire Protection Engineering
Graduate Certificate in Engineering - Fire Protection Engineering
Fire
Protection Engineering Online Program
For more information contact:
Dr. James A. Milke
Fire Protection Engineering
3104F J.M. Patterson Building
301-405-3995
Email: milke@umd.edu
Fire Protection Engineering - Master of Engineering Courses
Two specialized areas of study comprise the subject matter for the option. The first area, called the fire protection core, focuses on engineering principles concerned with basic processes of fire behavior, prediction of fire development, the combustion of materials and furnishings, the effects of fire on structures and the environment, and on the law. A second area of study is the risk analysis core. This involves application of simulation and risk analysis to the predictive and analytical procedures for assessment of the hazards and the probabilities of potential fire incidents.
The degree requirement is to complete ten approved courses, which should include five fire protection core courses, three risk analysis core courses, and two elective courses as listed. Other substitutes are possible by permission of the department, e.g., certain courses in environmental engineering, probability-statistics, thermal science, etc.
Fire Protection Engineering Core
ENFP 415 Fire Dynamics (3) Prerequisite: ENCH 300 or ENME 320, ENFP 300, and ENFP 312 or permission of department. Introduction to premixed and diffusion flames; ignition, flame spread and rate of burning; fire plumes; flame radiation.
ENFP 425 Fire Modeling (3) Prerequisite: Permission of the department. Introduction to current fire modeling techniques for building fire safety assessment. Application of various computer-based fire models to representative problems.
ENFP 431 Building Safety and the Law (3) Key topics include, biotechnology, safety regulation, federal preemption, product liability, professional negligence, antitrust, privacy and information technology, risk modeling, environmental protection, patent, copyright, trade secrets, reverse engineering, scientific and technological evidence, international trade, engineering ethics. Examples include plane crashes, computer chip protection, human machine interfaces, nuclear power plants, internet censorship, flood control, earthquakes and biomedical technology.
ENFP 435 Product Liability and Regulation (3) Product safety law and the engineering design process. Strict Liability, negligence, warranty, Regulation, rule making, adjudication and enforcement. Key topics include motor vehicles, aircraft, computer systems, environmental contaminants, nuclear power, expert testimony, professional malpractice and proposed reforms.
ENFP 611 Fire Induced Flows (3) Recommended prerequisite or co-requisite: ENFP 415. Theoretical basis is presented for fire induced buoyancy driven flows, plumes, ceiling jets, vent flows, and compartment flows. Dimensional analysis for correlations and scale model applications. Smoke movement and combustion products.
ENFP 612 Toxicity Evaluation and Analysis (3) Physical, analytical procedures for the measurement of the toxic components in thermally produced smoke and gases. Human tenability characteristics, physiological effects of exposure components, and dosages. Predictive models of material production rates, degradation variables. Effects of the different measuring instrument variables. Combustion gas analysis techniques.
ENFP 621 Analytical Procedures of Structural Fire Protection (3) Prerequisite: ENFP 405 . Analysis procedures for structural components of wood, steel, concrete, composites. Structural capabilities, modifications under fire induced exposures. Calculations, computer models for predicting fire resistance ratings of structural components.
ENFP 622 Advanced Fire Protection Risk Assessment (3) Prerequisite: Permission of the department. Definition, evaluation of the fire risk to a process, facility or area. Prevention, intervention, control, suppression strategies. Resource allocation, queuing theory, decision priority, cost analysis.
ENFP 625 Advanced Fire Modeling (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. Validity, utility, reliability of current computer models. Applications of models in risk assessment, underwriting, loss prediction, hazard analysis. Development and validation of specific application models.
ENFP 627 Smoke Detection and Management (3) Analysis of hazard smoke. Response analysis of smoke detectors based on characteristics of detectors and properties of smoke.
ENRE 467 System Safety Engineering (3) Prerequisite: MATH 246 and PHYS 263 or permission of department. Role of system safety, the language of system safety, and programs for achieving safety such as the problem solving process, safety criteria, safety descriptors, checklist-timeliness elements, safety training, hazard analysis, and uncertainty in safety measurements. Time-phased indicators, hazard nomenclature, hazard mode and effect analysis, hazard classification, hazard probability, survival rate, distributions applied to human performance.
ENRE 600 Basic Reliability Engineering (3) Corequisite: ENRE 602. Organization, management and communication concepts in reliability engineering. Mechanisms and physics of failure, methods for failure-rate determination, methods of design for reliability, maintainability concepts, life cycle costing, equipment sparing policies, and measuring reliability for improvement.
ENRE 602 Reliability Analysis (3) Prerequisite: ENRE 620. Principal methods of reliability analysis, including fault tree and reliability block diagrams, method of failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA); event tree construction and evaluation; reliability data collection and analysis; methods of modeling systems for reliability analysis. Focus on systems of concern to all engineers, such as, problems related to process industries, fossil-fueled power plant availability, and other subjects. Methods of quality control and assurance.
Technical Electives
The following is a sample of elective areas:
- Advanced Reliability Engineering
- Fire Protection & the Environment
- Fire Induced Flow Analysis
- Risk Assessment for Engineers
Performance Based Fire Protection Analysis and Design
ENFP 629C and three of the following courses:
ENFP 614, ENFP 621, ENFP 627, ENFP 629XEnclosure Fire Dynamics
ENFP 415, ENFP 625 , and two of the following courses:
ENFP 620, ENFP 630, ENFP 631
ENFP 415 Fire Dynamics (3) Analysis of premixed and diffusion flames. Review of the material variables involved in the ignition process with examination of the configuration, mass/surface area ratios, fuel pyrolysis variables and oxygen ratios. The evaluation of flame spread on both horizontal and vertical fuel beds is studied. The effect of flame plumes in both restricted and unrestricted environments is discussed with both the flame and soot radiation effects relative to the distance modifiers.
ENFP 614 Egress Characteristics and Design (3) Refuge and evacuation design principles for structures. Analysis of means of egress relative to area, height, structural, occupancy characteristics. Behaviorial interaction with thermal, fluid, flame propagation mechanisms. Egress prediction flow models.
ENFP 620 Fire Dynamics Laboratory (3) One hour of lecture and two hours of laboratory per week. Recommended: ENFP 415. Laboratory experiments are designed to illustrate fire phenomena and test theoretical models. Diffusion flames, ignition and flame spread on solids, liquid pool fires, wood crib fires, fire plumes, compartment fires.
ENFP 621 Analytical Procedures of Structural Fire Protection (3) Prerequisite: ENFP 421. Analysis procedures for structural components of wood, steel, concrete, composites. Structural capabilities, modifications under fire induced exposures. Calculations, computer models for predicting fire resistance ratings of structural components.
ENFP 625 Advanced Fire Modeling (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. Validity, utility, reliability of current computer models. Applications of models in risk assessment, underwriting, loss prediction, hazard analysis. Development and validation of specific application models.
ENFP 627 Special Problems (1-3) Prerequisite: permission of both department and instructor. For ENFP majors only. Repeatable to 6 credits if content differs. Advanced topics selected by the faculty from the current literature to suit the special needs and background of students, or for individual students who have definite plans of individual study.
ENFP 629 Selected Topics (3-6) Prerequisite: permission of department. For ENFP majors only. Repeatable to 6 credits. Current research, studies in fire protection engineering. Future trends and significant changes in research, professional areas. The professional standards process.
ENFP 629R Advanced Fire Risk Modeling (3) This course addresses the fundamentals of fire risk modeling from theoretical and applied perspectives. A detailed case study on fire risk is presented in the first module as an introduction to the different technical topics covered in the course. Subsequent modules will cover modeling techniques for specific elements of fire risk assessment. Throughout the course, students apply the theoretical concepts through the use of current computer-based risk techniques to gain a better understanding of the uses and limitations of these techniques.
ENFP 629X Advanced Fire Suppression (3) Definition of Flame Suppression, Mechanisms of Flame Extinction, Suppression Agent Screening Tests, Fundamentals of Sprinkler, Water Mist, Clean Agent and Foam Systems
ENFP 630 Diffusion Flames and Burning Rate Theory (3) Basic principles of diffusion flames for gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels. Droplet burning, B number, jet combustion, boundary layer combustion, generalized methods.
ENFP 631 Fire and Combustion (3) Prerequisites: ENFP 300 and ENFP 415.
Basic fluid mechanics, heat transfer and combustion principles are used to obtain simple analytical solutions, different fire initiation and spread cases. Specific fire problems such as smoldering, boil-over or flame spread are addressed as case studies.
