Neural network approach for RHR calculation and prediction in fire science

A feedforward multilayer neural network based method for calculation and prediction for the rate of heat release (RHR) of different materials in fire safety science is proposed. A global convergent mixed conjugate gradient (MCG) algorithm is also proposed and used to train our multilayer feedforward neural network, which overcomes the slow training speed and poor generalization property of the traditional BP algorithm. A number of computer simulations show that our proposed NN-based method for calculating RHR is efficient and the MCG is also superior to the BP algorithm in convergent and generalized properties