COMPARISON OF MALAYSIA'S BUILDING REGULATIONS REGARDING MEANS OF ESCAPE ROUTES IN STUDENT HOSTELS

Building standards and regulations have been around for a long time, and most historic structures were built in accordance with whatever codes existed at the time. However, as codes have changed (often in response to natural or human-caused disasters) these buildings have become progressively less compliant, making their continued occupation and use difficult without extensive and often damaging alterations to their significant spaces and fabric. In Australia, there have been considerable changes to standards over the past two hundred years to deal with apparent deficiencies in the codes exposed as a result of bushfires, earthquakes, cyclones and rising sea levels. Building regulations have also changed so as to deal in ever more detail with health and safety matters, as well as issues such as equitable access and energy efficiency. These changes have had an impact on historic buildings and structures, in the most extreme cases leading to loss of the building where owners anxious to redevelop can convince the authorities that preservation and upgrading to meet current standards will impose unreasonable economic hardship. In other cases, the insensitive and sometimes over-cautious application of codes (often to reduce the risk of future litigation or loss of insurance) leads to almost as much damage to the historic building as the upgrading work is intended to avoid if a disaster occurs. Conserving historic buildings while keeping them safely in active use requires a flexible and innovative approach to the regulations, as exemplified in the work of the Heritage Council of New South Wales Fire Access and Services Advisory Panel, of which the author was a foundation member.

PT. Gresik Gases Indonesia and PT. Gresik Power Indonesia is a company engaged in the production of gas and power plants with natural gas and diesel power. This production site has a potential fire hazard so it must be implemented active and passive fire protection system. This research held to determine the suitability of active fire protection systems, passive in the workplace based on with several standards such as the SNI 03-3985-2000, NFPA 13, Permenaker no. 04/1980, Permen PU no. 26/PRT/M/2008, SNI 03-1745-2000. Observational data collection used regulated checklists, with cross-sectional research design. This production site was the potential for serious hazards to cause large area fire and in a short time. Classification of fire in this production of type A, B, C were derive from fuel oil storage tanks, T 80 C, T 80 D, MCC 20 KV, SHEQ and admin office, ware house, gas compressor area, gas engines, combustion turbine, control room, centrifuge pump, and regent heater. Active fire protection was several assessments such as alarm, detector, sprinkler, exhaust, and hydrant. On passive fire protection, the assessment was based on buildings. Field observations obtained the following results active protection system such as alarm with enough categories, detector with enough categories, sprinkler with enough categories, a fire extinguisher with a good category, hydrants with good categories and on passive fire protection systems with sufficient category.Keywords: fire protection, gas production, power plant

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper OTC 26579, “Passive-Fire-Protection Optimization in Offshore Topside Structures,” by Ali Sari, Genesis Oil and Gas; Ekkirala Ramana, Technip Malaysia; and Sepehr Dara and Umid Azimov, Genesis Oil and Gas, prepared for the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 22–25 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2016 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. Applying sufficient passive fire protection (PFP) on topside structural-steel members is critical. Simplified and conservative approaches are available to estimate the extent and amount of PFP necessary. The main concern with simplified approaches is that they can lead to overapplication of the PFP, resulting in substantial increase in topside weight. These methods also may result in underestimation of the required amount of PFP, which can compromise structural integrity. This paper presents a risk-based approach for PFP-scheme development. Introduction The structural-integrity assessment and fire-response analysis of offshore plat-forms in fire focus on providing safe escape routes for personnel for a specified period of time and minimizing the probability of damage and fracture in primary structural steel, hydrocarbon-equipment supports, secondary steel along the primary escape routes, and pressurized hydrocarbon pipes and vessels. In order to achieve this, PFP is used extensively in offshore topside structures. A PFP material is a good thermal insulator, and application of PFP on steel components of the topside structure results in a delay of the heat transfer to the protected members. Therefore, material degradation and thermal expansion are postponed in protected members. Consequently, structural integrity of the escape routes and safety of hydrocarbon pipes and vessels can be retained for a specified period of time, depending on the rating of the PFP material (properties and thickness). On the other hand, if PFP is used excessively, a considerable amount of cost will be imposed related to PFP material, installation, inspection, and maintenance and a considerable amount of dead load will be added to the structure. Therefore, investigations on the optimal application (e.g., choosing the right places—members, joints, vessels, and pipes—along with the right material in the appropriate thickness) in offshore platforms can result in cost-effective use of PFP while still achieving the purpose of the PFP application. Existing PFP-Optimization Approaches Global Fire (Individual-Member Failure). The global fire analysis method for identifying PFP application on a top-side structure requires analysis of the whole structure when entirely exposed to the most severe fire loading. The PFP scheme is then developed on the basis of the structure’s response. This method is very conservative and results in an excessive amount of required PFP to resist the fire loading.

Structural integrity assessment and fire response analysis of offshore topsides structures focus on protecting topsides primary structural steel, hydrocarbon equipment supports, secondary steel along the primary escape routes, pressurized hydrocarbon pipes and vessels from damage and fracture due to pool and jet fires, and providing safe escape routes for emergency evacuation of the personnel during a specific period of time. In order to achieve these purposes, it is very critical to apply sufficient amount of Passive Fire Protection (PFP) on the topsides structural steel members, pressurized vessels and piping to supplement active fire protection systems like deluge, foam systems, etc. On the other hand, excessive use of PFP on the structure results in considerable additional cost and extra added dead load to the structure. Simplified and conservative approaches are available to estimate the extent and amount of the PFP on the offshore structures. However, the main concern with simplified approaches is that they can lead to over-application of the PFP resulting in substantial increase in the topsides weight. These methods may also result in under-estimation of the required amount of PFP, which can compromise the topsides structural integrity. With the use of advanced engineering analysis and knowledge of critical load path, an optimized PFP scheme can be developed that would maintain the structural integrity of the structure and also provide sufficient escape time for personnel during fire. The risk-based approach for PFP scheme development and optimization is introduced in this paper. In this method, ductility level fire response analysis is discussed, which is coupled with the probability of failure and probability of escalation to estimate risk to individual, asset, environment, etc. The ductility level analysis accounts for material and geometric nonlinear behavior of steel and load redistribution when heated members are over-utilized. The risk-based method is compared against the conventional method of PFP optimization using ductility level analysis recommended by API RP 2FB. It was concluded that using the risk-based approach can result in a significant reduction in the amount of required PFP.

Material Solutions for Passive Fire Protection of Buildings and Structures and Their Performances Testing

Building codes and regulatory standards are becoming increasingly complex with the acquisition of new knowledge in the design and construction domain. The necessity for computable representation of the building codes and regulations for automating the code checking process is becoming ever more critical. Within the framework of Building Information Modeling (BIM) work process, model checking against building regulations is generally needed to be an automatic or semi-automatic process. These checking mechanisms generally do not modify a building design, but rather evaluates a design on the basis of the configuration of objects, their relations and attributes. This paper presents a summary of the core existing methods for computerizing building codes and standards. It reviews main concepts for these methods including knowledge representation, reasoning procedures, and knowledge acquisition. Moreover, this study evaluates the capabilities of the reviewed methods in reference to their practical applications and applied limitations for modeling computable building codes and standards. Additionally, the paper proposes methods with practical flexibility of encoding building codes knowledge domain and at the same time possess transparent and verifiable syntax and sematic features. The suggested approaches rely on evidently identifying objective and subjective data of the regulatory text before formalizing building codes. The methodology realizes the limitations of the formalization systems by clearly identifying which components of the building codes and standards can be transformed into computable model and which parts can't be encoded and requires manual compliance checking.

This paper considers how people's ability to move over an escape route is affected by different procedures for changing from normal room lighting to emergency lighting. The experiment took place in a large open plan office at two emergency lighting illuminances, 0.16 lx and 0.012 lx. The changeover to emergency lighting was either instantaneous or involved a 5 second period of darkness before the emergency lighting came on, as is allowed by BS 5266. The subjects were instructed either to move as soon as the emergency lighting came on or to wait until they felt able to move unhesitatingly over the escape route. The time taken to leave the office, the manner of movement and subjects' opinions of the conditions were all recorded. They showed that movement was faster, smoother and easier at 0.16 lx than at 0.012 lx, for all conditions. When the subjects moved immediately the emergency lighting came on, having a 5 second period of darkness allowed more rapid, steadier movement with fewer collisions once movement started. However, the total time taken to leave the room was slightly longer than if the subjects moved immediately following an instantaneous changeover. Allowing the subjects to wait until they felt able to move unhesitatingly, ensured smooth steady movement but the total time taken at 0.012 lx was much longer than if the subjects started to move immediately after the changeover. Estimates of the state of adaptation of the visual system following a step change in luminance provide a plausible explanation of all these results.

PURPOSE. The paper examines the issue of switching to hydrogen as motor fuel in terms of fire and explosion safety. Taking into account the peculiarities of various hydrogen storage methods, the specifics of emergency situations development and insufficiency of the existing methods of passive and active fire and explosion protection for vehicles running on the given gas are discussed. METHODS. Analysis of available scientific data on hydrogen as motor fuel storage methods used in transport has been carried out. An assessment of the possibility to use a nitrogen fire engine for the described options for ensuring explosion safety has been made. FINDINGS. The insufficiency of existing methods for passive and active fire and explosion protection of vehicles running on hydrogen has been shown. To solve the identified issues, it is proposed to use a nitrogen fire engine to create local gaseous extinguishing environment around a hydrogen-powered damaged vehicle, as well as portable toximeters to control atmosphere explosion risk. RESEARCH APPLICATION FIELD. The results are applicable to ensure fire and explosion safety of vehicles and transport infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS. It is shown that the existing methods of passive and active fire and explosion protection for hydrogen-powered vehicles do not fully ensure their fire and explosion safety. In fire departments tactics in relation to such objects, actions under the threat of explosive hydrogen-air environment have not been worked out, there are no methods of mobile assessment for hydrogen level in the atmosphere. One of the options for ensuring explosion safety of hydrogen-air environment can be using a nitrogen fire engine to create local gaseous extinguishing environment around a hydrogen-powered damaged vehicle. Portable toximeters can be used to quickly determine hydrogen level in the atmosphere, which allow getting quick results and controlling potential environment hazard by combustible substance concentration.

This paper describes an investigation carried out in a large open plan office with the aim of identifying the illuminance necessary for rapid, safe movement under emergency lighting conditions. In the experiment, the times taken for each subject to cover an escape route were measured. The manner in which the subjects moved was observed and their opinions of the conditions were noted. This data was collected from sixty subjects in all, twelve at each illuminance condition. The subjects were not familiar with the office and were of working age. From the data collected it is concluded that at a mean illuminance of 0.2 lx, people experience some difficulty in moving quickly and unhesitatingly over the escape route. At a mean illuminance of 1 Ix there is no difficulty in moving smoothly and steadily over the escape route at a speed similar to that achieved under the normal room lighting. These results suggest that the present emergency lighting criterion of a minimum illuminance of 0.2 Ix is only reasonable if it is indeed treated as an absolute minimum. They also indicate that it would be useful to adopt a mean illuminance of 1 Ix on the escape route as an additional emergency lighting criterion. Three subsidiary experiments were carried out to explore the effects of age, familiarity with the office and group movement rather than individual movement. These subsidiary experiments showed that these factors made little difference to the subject's ability to move under the emergency lighting. Therefore the conclusions reached for the main experiment also apply to older people of working age, to those who are familiar with the space and to people moving in small groups.

Introduction: A fire ever took place in the early 2019 in one of the cooking oil processing companies in Sidoarjo. This is because the company had a storage warehouse of cartons, jerry cans, and plastic packaging,categorized into flammable materials. The flame was suspected from rags that were exposed to spills of cooking oil, oxygen, and heat from direct sunlight and cigarette butts. The research objectives of this study are to study the implementation of fire mitigation unit and also active and passive fire protection facilities in one of the cooking oil processing companies in Sidoarjo. Methods: The study was observational with a cross sectional design and was analyzed descriptively. It evaluated the suitability of the observational data with the Minister of Manpower Decree Number 186 Year 1999, Minister of Public Work Regulation Number 26 Year 2008, and Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Regulation Number 4 Year 1980. The variables consisted of 1 fire mitigation unit, 1 waterway, 34 fire extinguishers, 7 emergency exits, 41 evacuation routes, and 2 assembly points. Data were collected through the observation and document study. Then, the data were presented in a narrative form. Results: 79.2% of fire mitigation units, 77.6% of active fire protection facilities, and 57.1% of passive fire protection facilities in one of the cooking oil processing companies in Sidoarjo are appropriate with the applicable regulations. Conclusion: The fulfillment level of fire mitigation units and active fire protection facilities are high, while the fulfillment level of passive fire protection facilities are moderate.Keywords: active and passive fire protection, evaluation, fire mitigation

Due to creeping process at the burning material, material’s elastic modulus and yield strength will decrease.Three fire protection system are exist in handling the fire problem: active fire protection, passive fire protection, and safety management. In correlation with material problem due to fire, passive fire protection is a strategy to counter it. This paper presents the results of fire protection by using Suralaya fly ash geopolymer concrete. Three molaritas of geopolymer concrete mixture design are 2M, 4M, and 6 M. Sodium Silicate (Na2SiO3) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) are used as alkaline activator. The results of the experiment were analysed by compressive strength for the optimum values. This study found that the value of compressive strength of steam curing is higher than that of water curing, the value of geopolymer concrete compressive strength of 2M is higher than that of 4M, and the value of geopolymer concrete compressive strength of 6M is higher than that of 4M.

The fire safety concept in tunnels situated in the Dutch highway network consists of non-spalling classified concrete with passive fire protection in designated areas, concrete with added polypropylene-fibres or a combination of spalling classified concrete with passive fire protection. Active fire protection is not used in the tunnels of Rijkswaterstaat. After several years of fire safety research, Rijkswaterstaat concluded that the existing fire safety concept is no longer valid, because the concrete that was classified as non-spalling does show spalling. This affects the fire safety concept in such a way, that fire testing is obligatory for all new tunnels. Also, the existing tunnels will be tested for fire safety. In this paper, the development of the previous fire safety concept in Dutch tunnels owned by Rijkswaterstaat is explained, the fire testing sequences that have been performed in recent years are described and the current standings are clarified.

Building regulations set standards that aim to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions, and thereby to support the development of a more sustainable building stock. The Norwegian government uses building regulations to influence the construction industry, and they directly affect how craftspeople from the industry apply their skills. Regulations are converging with understandings about sustainability, energy use, building materials, and comfort requirements that are circulating in society. In this paper, we investigate the negotiations between the meaning and value associated with the requirements for the material structure and the craftsperson’s role. Two houses in Central Norway are the starting point, where qualitative methods, primarily semi-structured interviews and observation, are used to gain insight into the craftsperson’s view of the Norwegian building regulations. The two houses represent two different building standards. A Passive House in Åfjord Municipality, completed in 2014, and ZEB Living Lab in Trondheim, a zero emission building (ZEB), completed in 2015. In Norway, the building regulations are reviewed every five years. In 2011, craftspeople were constructing buildings to the low-energy standard. This led to an increased focus on “super insulating” building techniques during period 2013-16 when the case studies took place. Starting with a craftsperson’s (in this case most often a carpenter’s) view of current and future building standards, this paper asks what implications the increasing demands for energy efficient and environmentally friendly buildings have on the role of the craftsperson and their application of skill. The paper shows that the construction industry bases much of its activity on Norwegian construction traditions and skill; and that this guides the development of new generations of buildings. The use of established skills and knowledge is both a strength and a challenge when dealing with a new set of building regulations. Skill is a resource to build upon, but it is also influenced by a conservativism that has difficulties getting beyond the extra time and costs associated with new regulations. It can therefore function as a barrier to the use of construction crafts to establish more sustainable building forms within the Norwegian market.

The fire incident in karaoke buildings in Indonesia which claimed many lives has occurred several times. According to the National Academy of Science US, the smoke toxins that come out of the fire disaster cause 50-80% of deaths. Refers to the data, it is necessary to check further about the building material response to fire during a fire incident. Masterpiece Signature Karaoke is a karaoke building that classified as large and magnificent in the city of Medan which has various material so that it is necessary to study the interior material as passive fire protection. The purpose is to find out how to assess the reliability of fire passive protection regard to the interior materials and recommendations or descriptions of right interior material planning using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method is efficacious to solve the problem of reliability in using interior materials as passive fire protection in Masterpiece Signature Family KTV Medan building with the results of an Adequate Level of reliability. Then, design recommendations were given for the use of interior materials in karaoke building to improve the reliability results to be better.The results are useful as information for other researchers and karaoke buildings regarding passive fire protection systems at the Masterpiece Signature Family KTV Medan.

Building regulations in the construction industry are legal documents written in human language. These are interpreted and implemented by people and generally controlled by local governments. Traditional building regulation control and supervision methods emerge as a time-consuming and error-prone process for architects, engineers, and public authorities. Therefore, BIM\'s effective building regulation control is considered a promising field of study in the construction industry. Automated Code Compliance Checking (ACCC) method is a rule-based method that provides simultaneous control of the computer’s building regulations. ACCC takes into account the characteristics of the building elements and related building regulations. BIM is recognized as the most effective platform for information exchange of building projects in the construction industry. It supports the development of various software. It facilitates automated or semi-automated ACCC of the building projects for compliance with building regulations and standards for the participants involved in the building production process. The data of the building project are represented in two ways in the ACCC. These are BIM Model, and IFC or IFCXML Data Standard. In this study, the BIM, IFC, and IFCXML representations of the building project data were explained over the sample housing project in the ACCC process.