Probabilistic Methods to Assess the Fire Risk of an Industrial Building

Abstract

Fire safety is one of the major issues that affects the whole life cycle of a building from the early design stages until the dismantling. A risk management plan gives a better overview of the whole activity process, revealing the relations between all the factors involved during the building service life. The use of engineering principles in designing the fire safety strategy can improve the design flexibility and it can often reduce the costs related to the fire protection materials and equipment. Due to the complexity of the building system, a probabilistic approach is considered in order to assess the risk and consequences associated with a fire event in an industrial building. The event trees method has been used to assess the frequency of a fire event in an industrial building and the associated consequences. The probability risk assessment criteria are set considering the property protection and business continuity objectives in addition to life safety requirements. The article covers a study case of fire risk assessment regarded as an optimization technique for sustainable manufacturing and a better management of the fire protection systems in the industrial buildings. A probabilistic approach for an engineering problem provides a numerical value of risk, which can also be useful to quantify the probability of unlikely events associated with severe consequences. Moreover, the probabilistic risk analysis provides data for cost-benefit analysis, which is the starting point for any cost optimisation strategy.