USN PhD student awarded prize in China

Per Morten mottar diplomet.
Per Morten Hansen (center), a PhD student at University College of Southeast Norway , was recently awarded a prize for the «Best student paper» at the 8th International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards in Hefei, China. Also included in the photo are Dr. Peter Sunderland, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, and Dr. Jenny Chao, Senior Research Specialist at FM Global.

Per Morten Hansen, PhD student at University College of Southeast Norway, recently received the prize for best student paper at an international conference on fire and explosion hazards in China.

Tekst: Ingvild Gjone Sildnes 
Translation: Mary Anderson-Glenna

The paper was related to his on-going doctoral research in process safety, fire and explosions.

– I had worked alot on the paper and presentation that I held at the research conference, so it was a pleasant surprise. The award is equally an honour to my supervisor and colleagues in the research group, said Per Morten Hansen, whom also received a prize of 500 dollars in addition to a diploma.

The paper will appear in a book to be published by the Press of the University of Science and Technology in China.

79 contributions and seven winners

A total of 79 papers were presented at the International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards (ISFEH) held in Hefei, China from the 25th until the 29th of April. Seven papers received prizes in the categories  “Best paper” and “Best student paper”.

The title of the USN students’ paper was «CO2 explosions – An Experimental Study of Rapid Phase Transition». It presents fundamental research providing an understanding of how rapidly liquid CO2 boils and how this affects shock waves from CO2 explosions. The paper was co-authored together with Knut Vågsæther, André Vagner Gaathaug and Dag Bjerketvedt, all from USN.

The paper was based on research carried out at the groups research labs in HSN, Porsgrunn.

Received attention

Per Morten presented the research detailed in the paper for the 120 attendees. The presentation received great attention, as during his talk the premise that CO2 is of low explosion risk was thoroughly debunked.

The research group, Process Safety, Combustion and Explosion Laboratory (TPSCEL), at USN participated with five participants at the 8th «International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards» (ISFEH). The focus of the conference is fire and explosion safety and provides an arena to present new research within the field.  

ISFEH is held every 3 years and this year students and researchers at USN contributed three papers.