SCHEMA-SI: A Hybrid fire safety engineering tool-Part I: Tool theoretical basis

Abstract

SCHEMA-SI is an engineering tool able to evaluate the performance of building fire safety system. It uses a dynamic hybrid model, which means that discrete events and continuous phenomenon are interconnected at each instant. The model has been developed as a tool to assist fire protection engineers in performing fire safety engineering calculations. This tool may be also used to conduct risk assessments and to evaluate whether selected design strategies are sufficiently safe in case of fire in a specific building. Part I of this paper describes the basis of the SCHEMA-SI tool. Sub-models used to perform calculations are discussed. Part II of this paper focuses on a real case study.