Fire | Special Issue : Fire Safety and Sustainability

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ming-guang Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China
Interests: industrial fires and explosions; fire safety; emergency evacuation; risk assessment and prevention

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industrial fires and explosions pose significant risks in various technological processes that involve flammable chemicals. These incidents can result in severe consequences, including property damage, injuries, and even loss of life. Preventing and mitigating the threat of industrial fires and explosions is of the utmost importance to ensure the safety of facilities, personnel, and the environment.

This Special Issue aims to explore the latest advancements in industrial safety and risk management, focusing on key areas such as the theory and technology of inherently safer chemical processes, quantitative risk assessment of industrial facilities, public safety management, emergency management software and hardware technologies for industrial hazards, accident investigation and analysis techniques, and the development of safety production information management and decision support systems.

This Special Issue aims to cover the aforementioned subjects and welcomes contributions in the form of original research articles or reviews, adhering to the journal's guidelines. While contributions related to the following subjects are particularly encouraged, submissions need not be strictly limited to these areas:

Studies on the causes of industrial fires and explosions;
Case reports and analyses of industrial fire/explosion accidents;
Methods for preventing fires and explosions, especially in relation to emerging technologies;
Approaches to detecting the leakage/spillage of flammable substances for preventive monitoring purposes;
Fire/explosion risk assessment studies for emerging technologies, including energy storage systems (batteries, hydrogen storage);
Studies on the impact of industrial fires/explosions on infrastructure, personnel, and the environment;
Approaches to mitigating the consequences of fires/explosions.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ming-guang Zhang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

industrial fires and explosions
risk assessment
fire safety
fire and explosion prevention
fire detection
accident scenario deduction
emergency evacuation.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

19 pages, 1472 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Sequential Decision-Making of Major Accidents with Incomplete Information

by Dengyou Xia, Changlin Chen, Ce Zheng, Jing Xin and Yi Zhu

Fire 2024, 7(2), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7020049 - 06 Feb 2024

Viewed by 1202

Abstract

In order to solve the problem of emergency decision-making with incomplete information and deal with the accident information in different time series at the scenes of major accidents, this paper proposes a method of sequential decision-making by utilizing the relevant knowledge of D-S evidence theory and game theory. Firstly, we took an oil tank fire accident as an example and sorted out historical cases and expert experiences to establish a logical relationship between key accident scenes and accident scene symptoms in the accident. Meanwhile, we applied the logistic regression analysis method to obtain the basic probability distribution of each key accident scene in the oil tank fire, and on this basis, we constructed an evidence set of the fire. Secondly, based on the D-S evidence theory, we effectively quantified the knowledge uncertainty and evidence uncertainty, with the incomplete and insufficient information taken as an evidence system of the development of key accident scenes to construct a situation prediction model of these accident scenes. Thirdly, based on the game theory, we viewed emergency decision-makers and major accidents as two sides of the game to compare and analyze accident states at different time points and solve the contradiction between loss costs of decision-making and information collection costs. Therefore, this paper has provided a solution for the optimization of accident schemes at different time stages, thus realizing the sequential decision-making at the scenes of major accidents. Furthermore, we combined the situation prediction model with sequential decision-making, with the basic steps described below: (1) We drew up an initial action plan in the case of an extreme lack of information; then, we (2) started to address the accident and constructed a framework of accident identification, (3) collected and dealt with the continuously added evidence information with the evolution of the accident, (4) calculated the confidence levels of key accident scenarios after evaluating different evidence and then predicted the accident state in the next stage, and (5) calculated the profit–loss ratio between the current decision-making scheme and the decision-making scheme of the next stage. Finally, we (6) repeated steps (3) to (5) until the accident completely vanished. We verified the feasibility of the proposed method with the explosion accident of the Zhangzhou P.X. project in Fujian on 6 April used as an example. Based on the D-S evidence theory, this method employs approximate reasoning on the incomplete and insufficient information obtained at the scenes of major accidents, thus realizing the situation prediction of key scenes of these accidents. Additionally, this method uses the game theory to solve the contradiction between decision-making loss costs and information collection costs, thus optimizing the decision-making schemes at different time stages of major accidents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire Safety and Sustainability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 5558 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Knowledge Mapping for Fire Risk Assessment: A Scientometric Analysis Based on VOSviewer and CiteSpace

by Zhixin Tang, Tianwei Zhang, Lizhi Wu, Shaoyun Ren and Shaoguang Cai

Fire 2024, 7(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7010023 - 11 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1405

Abstract

Fire risk assessment is a crucial step in effective fire control, playing an important role in reducing fire losses. It has remained a significant topic in the field of fire safety. To explore the research hotspots and frontier trends in fire risk assessment and to understand its macroscopic development trajectory, a sample of 1596 papers from 1976 to 2023, extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database, was utilized to create a knowledge map. The study employed bibliometric methods, visual analysis, and content analysis to uncover the research pulse and hotspots in the field, offering insights into its future development. The findings indicate that research in fire risk assessment has demonstrated continuous growth over the past 50 years. China and the United States are the dominant research forces in the field, while India and Australia show potential as new drivers for development. Expert groups have formed in this field, with intra-institutional cooperation being the primary focus, while inter-institutional collaboration remains limited. The research outcomes exhibit multidisciplinary crossovers, exerting a significant impact on various disciplinary domains. The research hotspots primarily revolve around investigating fire and explosion accidents, assessing the vulnerability of fire subjects, and identifying potential fire hazards. The application of artificial intelligence technology is identified as a pivotal tool for future development. However, to achieve substantial progress, it is important to enhance the importance accorded to fire risk assessment, foster multinational and cross-institutional cooperation, and prioritize research innovation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire Safety and Sustainability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Fire Safety and Sustainability

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (2 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI