Figure 12: Bonnie

Roberts in front

of the Uppsala

University Botan-

ical Garden.

2.2 SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden

2.2.1 Who

From the SP Fire Technology Brochure [3]:

SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden is a leading international research in-

stitute employing around 1200 staff. The Group consists of the parent company

and a number of subsidiaries. Together, they create a powerful group of research

and development institutes aimed at innovation and sustainable development of

industry and society.

Figure 13: SP Techni-

cal Research Institute of

Sweden Headquarters.

13

We have chosen to focus in particular on six business areas in order to add value

to the sustainable development of industry and society. These are: Energy, Risk,

Safety and Security, Information and Communications Technology ICT, The Built

Environment, Life Science and Transportation. The overall strength of our six

business areas means that we can effectively contribute to industrial competitiveness

and help to tackle the major challenges faced by society.

2.2.2 What

This was a personal meeting I set up through Michael Stromgren, a project man-

ager and fire safety engineer at SP. Michael had come to Austin last year to attend

the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) Annual Meeting. I met him at

that time, as he gave a presentation about SP in Dr. Ezekoye’s Fire Science class.

Michael connected me to his colleague, Margaret Simonson McNamee, whom he

believed would be a good person to talk to about my research.

2.2.3 When

May 28, 2014.

2.2.4 Where

SP headquarters and main facilities in Boras.

Figure 14: Bodhi sculp-

ture in Boras, Sweden.

14

2.2.5 Why

I was very impressed with Michael’s presentation on SP back in Austin. Once I

knew I would be attending the Cleantech Forum in Stockholm, I decided it would

be a prime opportunity to travel to Boras to meet the researchers at SP. Unfor-

tunately, Michael was not able to make the meeting, but Margaret planned an

exciting full day for me at SP.

Upon meeting Margaret, she first provided a brief overview of SP Fire Research.

This included the areas of fire modeling, research, engineering, testing, investiga-

tion, and standards certification.

Next, I gave a presentation to a room of about 6 employees who were interested

in my research. My presentation introduced them to my upcoming paper in the

ASME IMECE 2014 conference, A Multi-objective Fire Safety and Sustainability

Screening Tool for Specifying Insulation Materials. They had a lot of helpful feed-

back, which led me to make a couple changes to the paper before the final version

was submitted. The presentation of my work also led to the discovery that SP

is actually thinking about starting a similar project, in that they are wanting to

develop an optimization tool for fire safety and sustainability in building construc-

tion projects.

Afterwards, I met with Francine Amon, the resident life-cycle assessment (LCA)

expert. Francine had just recently come to SP, after having a long career at the

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She Discussed their pre-

vious and current LCA projects as well as the limitations of LCA in general. She

emphasized to me the uncertainty in LCA and cautioned that there is a lack of

publications noting these sometimes significant uncertainties. She was also helpful

with suggestions on several resources and publications that could aid my LCA

research.

Johan Sjostrom and David Lange then spoke with me about LCA activities relat-

ing to construction. They were the researchers attempting a similar idea to mine.

We discussed the challenges and limitations, one major issue being the justification

15

of their chosen weighting schema. Needless to say, we had a lengthy, productive

discussion.

Figure 15: SP Techni-

cal Research Institute of

Sweden Fire Test Facil-

ity. Photo Credit: SP.

Johan and David also gave a tour of SP’s impressive fire test facilities. They showed

me the large (18x22x19 m / 59x72x62 ft) main burn hall, with two calorimeters

capable of measuring heat release rates up to 2 MW and 15 MW. I also saw the

smaller burn halls and fire laboratories, where they perform various standards

certification tests (e.g. ISO 9705 Room/Corner test). They also have a vertical

furnace for testing doors and facades. In addition to their burn facilities, SP has

an impressive research laboratory. One piece of equipment was a simultaneous

thermal analyzer, the NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter, which measures changes in

mass and thermal effects between -150oC and 2400oC of small samples. This was

an awesome apparatus, capable of analyzing minute thermodynamic, and heat and

mass transfer phenomenon.

Goal Status: Exceeded my expectations. There is a lot more overlap in our

research than expected, and the conversations we had were very productive. We

exchanged ideas and useful publications we thought would help one another. I will

be keeping in touch with SP and there is potential for further collaboration in the

future.

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2.3 Sightseeing Highlights

Figure 16: View of

Stockholm from the

Djurgarden Bridge.

Figure 17: Gamla

stan’s Stortorget

(The Big Square)

in Stockholm.

Stockholm is a beautiful city that sits atop an archipelago, so anywhere you look

there is a magnificent view of dark blue water with an architecturally stunning city

skyline. Exploring Gamla stan (The Old Town) was amazing. Gamla stan is the

very origin of Stockholm, with medieval buildings dating from the 13th century.

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My favorite piece of history, though, was the Vasa Museum. In 1628, the Vasa

warship set sail on her maiden voyage from Stockholm’s harbor, only to sink nearly

instantaneously when a stiff wind keeled her over. She was very poorly designed,

being too narrow, too tall, and insufficiently ballasted. Her cannon portals were

too low, and when she keeled, they instantly allowed water to devour her. She lay

at the bottom of the harbor for over 300 years, until she was salvaged and spent

decades under restoration. Now, she is the only nearly completely intact 17th

century ship on display. She is huge, elegant, and so well preserved, it is amazing

to behold.

Figure 18: The Vasa

warship inside the

Vasa Museum, Stock-

holm. Photo Credit:

Karolina Kristens-

son, The National

Maritime Museums.

Figure 19: Even

Swedes love Stubb’s!

The famous Austin

BBQ sauce found

in a Stockholm gro-

cery store. Priced at

49.90 Swedish Kro-

nor ($7.25 USD).

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