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Teaching Fire Protection Engineering Within the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum

David Torvi

Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Saskatchewan

Introduction

As Canada and other countries begin to introduce objective and performance-based building codes, which allow more flexibility in design, interest in fire protection engineering has increased. Fire protection engineers work in industry, research organizations and fire departments to prevent fires from occurring as well as to limit the consequences of fires that do occur. This is a multi- disciplinary area, relying on all branches of engineering, as well as other sciences. For example, a fire protection engineer should have a working knowledge of many areas, including heat transfer, combustion, structural engineering, fluid mechanics, chemistry and human behaviour.

To meet the need for individuals in this field, courses or programs in fire protection engineering have been developed. Many of these are full undergraduate or graduate programs. However, it is also becoming increasingly important to expand fire protection engineering education to programs in mechanical engineering and other traditional disciplines. For example, it is important for mechanical engineers who work in the design of building systems to have a working knowledge of fire protection engineering, so that they can develop effective systems for smoke control in buildings.

In order to integrate fire protection engineering within the mechanical engineering curriculum, several challenges need to be overcome. This paper will focus on how these challenges were addressed in a fire protection engineering technical elective currently offered in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. The paper will first briefly describe the extent of fire protection engineering courses in Canada, along with the development of this course. The content of this course and the challenges to offering it at this university are then described, along with how I have addressed these challenges. This discussion will include a description of instructional technology used in this course and how partnerships with the local fire department and the university fire safety office have been developed in order to allow students to access the facilities and expertise of these groups. As I am developing my own fire science research laboratory on campus, future plans to integrate these facilities into my course will also be

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Torvi, D. (2002, June), Teaching Fire Protection Engineering Within The Mechanical Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--11180