WPI Fire Protection Engineering Graduate Students Conduct Fire Research in Iceland

WPI Fire Protection Engineering Graduate Students Conduct Fire Research in Iceland

A group of seven graduate students from the Fire Protection Engineering Department showed off their leadership, teamwork, and technical skills by conducting field experiments in Iceland in July.

The experiments focused on the ignition and combustion properties of Viking-style doors and traditional Viking-style longhouses and were conducted in partnership with Hurstwic, an organization that studies Viking life and culture.

The experiments were performed during Hurstwic’s Fire Festival in an effort to analyze the Viking-age combat tactic of burning longhouses, commonly made of wood and turf. The structures were built specifically for the festival and the students equipped them with measurement devices to learn how these types of fires would have spread and what the conditions may have been like for anyone trapped inside.

The students, all members of the Society of Fire Protection Engineer WPI chapter, organized, executed, and conducted measurements on the burning of the doors.  Each door burned for 10-15 minutes with the full turf house burning for over an hour.

“These experiments provided valuable data on the behavior of these historical structures under fire conditions,” said PhD student Fernando Ebensperger. “My fellow students and I were able to plan, organize, and execute the entire process from start to finish. That’s what WPI training is all about.”

The students did all the fieldwork and professors provided oversight of the research. These experiments allowed students to demonstrate not only their technical knowledge but also their leadership and teamwork skills. Working with Hurstwic added an extra dimension, requiring the students to partner with experts from other disciplines; adding depth and impact to the research.

“This was more than just an academic exercise,” Ebensperger said, “It tested our ability to work under pressure and stay calm. The student team appreciated the collaborative spirit of the project, which was key to getting the work done efficiently and with minimal stress.”

The fire experiments were featured on Iceland’s station 2 television news channel which speaks to the importance of their work. The coverage, in Icelandic, can be seen here.

Videos, in English, were produced by Hurstwic about the experiments in Iceland and about preliminary experiments that were conducted in a fire protection engineering laboratory at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The WPI graduate student participants in the project were: (Pictured Left to Right) Abhinandan Singh, Fernando Ebensperger, Navya Muniraj, Christian Vogt, Rayna Harter, and Jonathan Zimak.

Any WPI students interested in working with the FPE department or joining the SFPE student chapter should contacts FPE administrative specialist Diane Poirier, dpoirier@wpi.edu or sfpeexec@wpi.edu