Facilities

WPI Fire Protection Engineering, in concert with industry leaders, has developed state-of-the-art laboratories where teams of faculty members and students search for the best way to build and protect against fire.

CONTACT
Phone: 508-831-5593
Fax: 508-831-5862

Combustion Laboratory

The Combustion Lab, which occupies 1,500 feet of space in Salisbury Laboratories, was built in 2010. It houses one fume hood and two large hoods (4000 cfm) in addition to student offices and a small conference room. Equipment in the lab includes an intelligent Laser Applications GmbH (ILA) 75 mW fixed optical path length fp50-shift LDA system for measuring velocity, an environmental chamber (-30ºC to 40ºC), a Servomex ServoTough Oxy paramagnetic oxygen analyzer capable of measuring oxygen concentration in corrosive environments, and a Servomex Oxy paramagnetic gas analyzer for measuring CO, CO2 and O2 vapor.

UL Fire Protection Engineering Performance Lab at Gateway Park

The UL Fire Protection Engineering Performance Lab consists of a 190-square-meter floor space with a 9.2-meter-high ceiling, enabling researchers to construct and experiment on test specimens up to two stories tall. The centerpiece of the laboratory is a 6-megawatt calorimeter, called LODS G2, which features a 6-meter by 6-meter exhaust hood located 6 meters above the lab floor. This space is ideal for testing open burning fires (e.g., liquid fuel pan fires), medium-scale compartment fires, exterior façade fires, and more. It can also be used to replicate certain external exposure fire conditions (e.g., wildland). LODS G2 is capable of collecting smoke from intermediate scale burns and providing a heat release rate history and can support data acquisition through devices such as heat flux gauges and thermocouples.

Honeywell Fire Protection Engineering Fundamentals Lab at Gateway Park

The Honeywell Fire Protection Engineering Fundamentals Lab contains a cone calorimeter, two FM Global Fire Propagation Apparatus, and an Intelligent Laser Applications GmbH 75-megawatt fixed optical path length fp50-shift LDA system supported by an automatic traversing system, which can be used to make accurate velocity measurements. The lab also contains a thermogravimetric analysis apparatus, a differential scanning calorimeter, ovens, and hooded bench space. These pieces of apparatus enable researchers to conduct a wide range of small-scale experiments and tests.