Full software pipeline for calibrating 14+ sensors and computing Heat Release Rate in real time via oxygen-consumption calorimetry — enabling live combustion diagnostics.
This project delivers a complete software system for cone calorimeter experiments in Fire Protection Engineering. The system handles multi-channel sensor calibration, real-time data acquisition, and automated computation of Heat Release Rate (HRR) — the key metric for understanding fire hazard and material combustion behavior.
Sensor Calibration Pipeline: A modular calibration framework handles 14+ sensor channels including thermocouples, heat flux gauges, and gas analyzers. Pre-burn baseline data is processed to establish sensor offsets and drift corrections.
HRR Computation: HRR is computed using oxygen-consumption calorimetry, implementing the φ-ratio method. Duct-flow corrections account for velocity profiles and temperature gradients in the exhaust duct, improving accuracy over naive integration.
Live Monitoring: The pipeline produces real-time HRR curves with configurable alert thresholds, enabling experimenters to monitor combustion behavior as it evolves rather than post-processing raw data offline.
The automated calibration pipeline reduced per-experiment calibration time by over 30% compared to manual procedures. Live HRR monitoring allowed researchers to catch instrumentation anomalies mid-experiment, improving data quality.