Seminar on Visibility in Fire Safety Science and Engineering: Experimental Work, Modelling and Practical Applications
Overview
Visibility in fire induced smoke is a critical determinant of safe egress. When smoke reduces the visibility, especially of signage like emergency exit signs, occupants are at risk of becoming disoriented, increasing their exposure to toxic fire products and thermal hazards. Despite its importance in performance-based fire safety design, the physical mechanisms of smoke-light-interaction and how this translates into human perception are still subject to considerable uncertainty and therefore remain an active area of research.
This three-day workshop is intended to bring together fire safety researchers and engineers working on different aspects of visibility in fire. It covers the full chain from experimental investigation of soot formation and aerosol characterizations, light extinction measurements and CFD-based smoke transport prediction, to human observer studies and physically-grounded models for application in day-to-day engineering practice.
The seminar features a programme of contributed talks. We welcome further talk abstract submissions from anyone working on related topics, as well as participants without a contribution.
Scope and Topics
The workshop addresses topics from experimental research, modelling and practical application:
- Investigation of soot formation, particle size distributions, and aerosol characterization
- Innovative approaches of light extinction measurement
- Numerical modelling of smoke transport via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
- CFD post-processing in the context of performance-based design
- Modelling of pedestrian dynamics in smoke impaired environments
- Human observer studies on perceived visibility of signage in fire smoke
- Physically based rendering of smoke-impaired scenes
- Discussions about current practice, limitations, and paths toward more physically grounded visibility models
General Information
Date
Wednesday 23.09. (starting 09:00) – Friday 25.09.2026 (ending 12:00)
Venue
University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
Language
English
Registration
CLOSED
Contact & Questions
boerger[at]uni-wuppertal.de and / or arnold[at]uni-wuppertal.de
Participation fee
€350, please note that payment is only possible via bank transfer
Agenda
The agenda as PDF (updated on 14.09.2026).
Wednesday, 23 September 2026
| 9:00 – 9:30 | Registration |
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Welcome & Introduction |
Session 1 – Fundamentals & Modelling
| 10:00 – 10:30 | One Equation, Fifty Years, Fifteen People: Following a Photon from the Sign to the Eye — and What Happens After Lukas Arnold · Forschungszentrum Jülich / Bergische Universität Wuppertal |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | The Importance of Multiple Scattering When Modelling Visibility Jonathan Wahlqvist · Lund University |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Extinction Coefficients from Aerosol Measurements Christoph Gnendiger |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Physically Based Modelling of Evacuation Signage Visibility through Fire Smoke Kristian Börger · Bergische Universität Wuppertal |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch Break |
Session 2 – Visibility & Human Perception
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Reappraisal of the Jin’s Model for Common Building Situations Wojciech Węgrzyński · Instytut Techniki Budowlanej (ITB) |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Smoke Observation Studies: Lessons Learned Jennifer Ellingham · University of Waterloo |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Coffee Break |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Application of Visual Environment Planning Methods in Architectural Environmental Engineering to Evacuation Behavior in Fires Yuki Akizuki · University of Toyama |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Open Discussion / Wrap-up |
| 16:30 | End of Day 1 |
| 18:30 | Joint Dinner |
Thursday, 24 September 2026
Session 3 – Experiments & Measurement
| 9:00 – 9:30 | Smoke Layers, Visibility and the Radiance Method Jennifer Ellingham · University of Waterloo |
| 9:30 – 10:00 | From Lab to Field: Applying LEDSmokeAnalysis to Smoke Experiments in Fire Safety Engineering Anna Troff · Brandschutz Consult Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH Leipzig |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Measuring and Modelling Smoke Light Extinction: Multi-Method Experiments and FDS Validation Manuel Osburg · Brandschutz Consult Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH Leipzig |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Measurement of Soot Production from Medium Scale Fires Bjarne Husted · DTU – Technical University of Denmark |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Soot Measurements and Modeling in a Closed Single-Room Compartment with a Propylene Fire Jason Floyd · Fire Safety Research Institute |
| 12:00 – 13:30 | Lunch Break |
Session 4 – Performance-Based Design & Application
| 13:30 – 14:00 | Practical Role of Visibility in Smoke Modeling in Everyday Fire Engineering Gabriele Vigne · JVVA Engineering Consultancy S.L. |
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Panel Discussion |
| 14:30 | End of Day 2 |
| 16:00 | Social Programme · Museum Visit |
| 19:00 | Joint Dinner |
Friday, 25 September 2026
Session 4 – Performance-Based Design & Application (continued)
| 9:00 – 9:30 | Soot Yield’s Great Impact on Fire Safety Design in Buildings Demands Focus on Implementing Enough Robustness and Assessing the Tenability Criteria of Visibility Flemming Ruddi Mørk · COWI A/S |
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Calculating Occupant Visibility through Smoke in Pathfinder Bryan Klein · Thunderhead Engineering Consultants, Inc. |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | A Modular Workflow for Visibility-Aware Evacuation Modelling Mohcine Chraibi · Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Visibility Maps from Three-Dimensional CFD Smoke Data for Egress Assessment Kristian Börger · Bergische Universität Wuppertal |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Closing Discussion & Farewell |
| 12:00 | End of Seminar and Joint Lunch |
Agenda updated on 14.09.2026
