Japanese Fire Research 1981

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Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur:

Journal of Fire and Flammability, 13, 2, pp. 142-146, 1982-04

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Japanese Fire Research 1981

Tsuchiya, Y.

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ANALYZED

JAPANESE F I R E RESEARCH -

1981

by

Y.

Tsuchiya

Reprinted from Journal of FIRE & FLAMMABILITY, Vol. 15 (April, 1982)

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A I'6t6 1981 I'auteur a visit6 un certain nombre d'institutions japonaises de recherche sur les incendies. Les recherches sont effectue'es par le gouvernement les universit6s et le secteur prive qui travaillent individuellement ou en col- laboration. Les installations de recherche du gouvernement ont nettement ame/lior&s lors du regroupement de plus de 40 institutions dans ta nouvelle cite scientifique de Tsukuba.

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Fire Research Section Division of Building Research

National Research Council of Canada Ottawa, Ontario K I A OR6

Canada

JAPANESE FIRE RESEARCH

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1981

Manuscript received March 26, 1982

Manuscript accepted April 4, 1982

ABSTRACT: In the summer of 1981 the author visited a number of Japanese institutions engaged in fire research. Such research is conducted by the government, universities and industries either individually or in cooperative projects. Government research facilities have been substantially improved by the relocation of over 40 institutions to the new Tsukuba Science City.

T

HE SCENE OF scientific and technical research by the Japanese government

changed substantially when 43 governmental ~esearch institutions

relocated from Tokyo to the innovative Tsukuba Science City. The City,

situated 60 km northeast of Tokyo, was built on a 285 square kilometer site of

what was formerly a pine forest. The government spent six billion dollars

(Canadian) during the first 12 years of the relocation project. All institutions

that were relocated obtained larger lots, modern buildings and excellent facilities. The Building Research Institute, for example, one of the major fire research institutions, expanded its floor area ten times.

Although there has been a report published on this City

[I1

it is not yet well

known outside Japan. Foreign visitors would have difficulty in finding it unless

their Japanese hosts provided a guide. There is no direct transportation from the new international airport at Narita and to go from Tokyo scune knowledge of the Japanese public transportation system is required. Automobile transportation is impractical because of the congested traffic in the Tokyo area.

The planned population of the city is 100,000. Twenty-three thousand have

already moved in; of these 6,500 are research personnel. Although govern-

ment research facilities were expanded the number of staff remains the same as before relocation because of government policy not to expand staff

membership. As a result the staff seems too small for the facilities. In order to

increase productivity without increasing the staff, technical officers in most in-

Journai of FIRE AND FLAMMABILITY, Vol. 13, (April 1982), p. 142

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Japanese Fire Research

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1981

stitutions are being replaced by research officers. Work that used to be done by technical officers is now handled by young research officers, temporary workers, university students and contractors. Many temporary workers are hired routinely for running experiments and for general help. Cooperation with universities is encouraged and students work at government laboratories under the guidance of research officers. Many jobs, such as construction and maintenance of equipment, are contracted out. Even the running of a large- scale experiment is often contracted out. Contractors bring their instruments, set up experiments and take measurements. Automatic data acquisition and processing are widely used.

Research officers, especially the younger ones who succeeded in the stringent competition to obtain positions with the government, are generally capable and have a high morale from working in such an excellent research at- mosphere. The author was impressed by their competence in using the newest, most expensive and sophisticated instruments. For example, a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer-data processing system with no full-time operator, was shared by twenty research officers with little trouble and very little down-time.

In the government service there are two kinds of research projects, routine and special. Routine projects are long-term and basic. Special projects are short-term and of urgent practical application. The budget for routine projects is a constant amount, a few thousand dollars per annum, while that for special projects varies from ten thousand to a half-million dollars. Projects can originate in-house, in the ministry or in other ministries. A special budget for the expenses of relocation was provided to cover a span of a few years. The total amount of the relocation expenses was five to ten times the usual annual budget.

Fire research in the government is performed in several institutions. Twoof the national government and one of the Tokyo municipal government are major. The Building Research Institute is responsible for research on subjects related to the laws of building standards (building code), while the Fire Research Institute is responsible for subjects elated to the laws of fire prevention (fire code). The Fire Science Laboratory of the Tokyo municipal government also conducts research on practical fire fighting techniques. There are several other governmental research institutions in which small groups are

working in fire-related fields, e.g., fire safety in chemical industry and mining, I

fire safety for laborers, and prevention of fire in forest products or textiles. I Fire-related research is performed in more than ten universities, primarily in

their departments of architeotural engineering, safety engineering or applied chemistry. Among these the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Science Universi-

ty are most notable. A fire research center was established recently in the lat- I

ter. It is the first of its kind in any Japanese university and seven professors

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Yoshio Tsuchiya

Cooperative or committee projects are common in Japanese technical research. It often happens that the government proposes topical and urgent problems to committees, which are usually made up of university professors, government staff and researchers from industry. The government or industry bears expenses; a university professor usually takes the chairmanship and each member contributes to the work in his field of expertise. Recent subjects of cooperative work include: full-scale fire tests of residential houses for the purpose of comparing the fire performance of the Canadian platform frame construction with conventional construction practice; developing a test method for the flammability of polyurethane foams in connection with a case of deflagrative fire; and experimental fires of large-scale oil tanks (30, 50 and

80 m in dial. Normally a cooperative project is planned and completed within a fiscal year. It is unfortunate that many reports resulting from cooperative projects are printed only in Japanese and distributed to committee members only. The following briefly describes the individual institutions that the author visited.

FIRE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS, TOKYO

The institute, which is situated in suburban Tokyo, is one of only a few governmental research institutionsthat was not relocated in Tsukuba. It has 58 members on its staff of whom 33 are researchers and four are research assistants. Some of the fields of interest are detection and extinguishment of fire, fire behavior of building contents, smoke, petroleum tank fires and con- flagration.

BUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE, MINISTRY OF CONSTRUCTION, TSUKUBA

This institute has 180 members; of whom 90 are researchers and 31 are research assistants. Ten researchers are working on various aspects of building fires. Fire research faciities include various flammability test ap- paratuses, fire endurance furnaces, a full-scale fire laboratory and an outdoor test field for large-scale fires.

FlRE SCIENCE LABORATORY, TOKYO MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT, TOKYO

The Fire Science Laboratory has 52 staff members who research and develop fire fighting equipment and techniques. Some of their achievements, such as a high-tension electric smoke remover and a portable air-inflated bag used as a fire-fighting bridgehead in buildings, are quite unique.

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Japanese Fire Research

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1981

RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SAFETY, MINISTRY OF LABOR, TOKYO

There are two laboratory sites, one in downtown Tokyo and the other in a

suburb. Among the 56 staff members are nine researchers who are working on

the combustion and explosion of gases and dusts, and the self-ignition and thermal decomposition of solids.

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR POLYMERS AND TEXTILES, MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY, TSUKUBA

This institute has 130 staff mmbers five of whom are working on the flam-

mability of polymers and textiles.

RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR POLLUTION AND RESOURCES. MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY, TSUKUBA

Of the 374 staff members in this institute 33 are working on fire and explo-

sion in relation to mine safety.

NATIONAL CHEMICAL LABORATORY FOR INDUSTRY, MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY, TSUKUBA There are 300 researchers in this well equipped laboratory. Two researchers are working on a project for establishing a Japanese standard method of generating combustion products.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY, TSUKUBA

There are 140 staff members in this institute. One researcher is working on

the mechanism of thermal decomposition of plastics.

FORESTRY AND FOREST PRODUCTS RESEARCH INSTITUTE. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES, TSUKUBA

These well-equipped laboratories have 500 research officials on staff. Three

are working on the flammability and combustion products of forest products. JAPAN TESTING CENTER FOR CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS,

SAITAMA-PREFECTURE

Under the supervision of both the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Home Affairs this non-governmental non-profit organization tests construction materials. Fire testing is a major part of its activities involving nine out of

30 members. The organization has many fire testing facilities including five

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Yoshio Tsuchiya

RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERING

This is a non-governmental testing and research institute for materials and equipment used on ships. There are 27 staff members of whom six are working on fire testing. This suburban Tokyo laboratory is well equipped and has a collection of standard equipment from various countries for flammability tests.

NOHMI BOSAl KOGYO CO. LTD. (NOHMI FIRE PROTECTION CO. LTD.1

This company is one of the leading manufacturers of fire detectors, ex- tinguishing equipment and disaster-prevention systems. The firm has two research laboratories, one in Tokyo and the other, with facilities for large-scale fire tests, about 100 km north of Tokyo. The research staff consists of 37 peo-

ple.

TECHNICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, TAKENAKA KOMUTEN CO., LTD., TOKYO

Some of the largest construction companies have their own technical research laboratories; this company is one of them. About 250 members of the staff are engaged in various kinds of technical research on buildings. Five members work on fire-related projects.

REFERENCE

1. J. L. Bloom and Shinsuke Asano. Tsukuba Science City: Japan Tries Planned Innovation.

Science 212, 1239, June 12, 1981.

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