Building Fire Protection Research Articles

Research on Fire Protection Planning Technology of Shanghai 2010 World Expo Site

Successful World Expo is first a safe Expo and a safe Expo needs reliable fire security. Based on the general requirement of planning and construction of Shanghai 2010 World Expo, through the analysis of the demand on fire protection features, this paper carries out planning research on fire safety layout, fire station, municipal fire protection water supply, fire control equipment, fire protection communication, fire protection of building, emergency shelter, emergency preplan fire-fighting, fire safety measures, technical standards of fire protection, etc. Hence, it would provide the essential foundation of disaster prevention and safety technical support for the successful hosting of Shanghai 2010 World Expo.

Burning behavior of two adjacent pool fires behind a building in a cross-wind

With the global move towards performance based fire design, fire safety assessment in and around buildings becomes increasingly important. However, key knowledge gaps still exist concerning the behavior of fire swirling, which may be generated if one or more accidental fires are in the passage of the vortices behind an adjacent tall building. The present study is focused on the experimental investigations of the burning behavior of two pool fires behind 1/50 scaled tall buildings with heights varying from 0.565 to 1.165 m in a cross-wind. The objective is to gain insight of the effect of the distance between the two fires ( D2), the distance between the fires and the building ( D1), wind speed ( V), and the height of the scaled building ( H) on the burning behavior. Important conclusions have been drawn about the influence of D1 and D2 on the fuel mass loss rate, the influence of D1 on fire swirling, the influence of D2 on the possible merging of the two fires and the effect of wind speed on the mass loss rate. The results suggested the existence of a critical velocity for the cross-wind on the initiation of fire swirling and an approximate value was identified for the conditions in the tests. The investigations also covered the effect of height of the scaled building on the fuel mass loss rate and the occurrence of fire swirling. This relationship was found to be also dependent on the wind speed. Analysis of the results has led to some important recommendations to enhance the fire protection of tall buildings.

Light steel framing for residential buildings

Building systems with light steel members, gypsum plasterboards and mineral wool have a wide spread use in the US, Australia and Japan and are gaining market in some European countries. The systems have often load-bearing walls and the floors may be of lightweight steel profiles or concrete. Such systems are suited for industrial production and can contribute to a more efficient building process. Examples of components and systems are given in the paper. For low and medium rise buildings it is natural to use the walls as stabilising for horizontal loads from wind and imperfections. In Sweden and Finland this has been common practice for single-family timber houses since the 1970s. The paper describes the traditional design model for walls with single-layer gypsum plasterboards and an extension to double layers, which are needed for fire protection in multi-storey buildings.

Fire Protection in Agricultural Facilities: A Review of Research, Resources and Practices

Agricultural facilities present unique challenges for fire prevention and suppression, as they are often located in remote locations and not continually monitored. Effects of fire can be severe, because of the large quantities of animals, crops and equipment present. In this paper, research and industry practices aimed at improving fire protection in agricultural buildings are reviewed. Sources of fire safety information for building designers and engineers, the fire service and building owners are identified, along with challenges to providing fire safety in these buildings. Areas of future research in this area of fire protection engineering are also identified.

University of Waterloo Live Fire Research Facility

Every year in North America, fire accounts for a significant number of deaths, injuries, and capital losses, as well as the related economic burdens of fire insurance, fire suppression and building fire protection systems. Indirect costs of fire due to emissions to the environment and groundwater contamination are immeasurable. These costs can be reduced through the development of fire-safe products, advancements in detection, suppression and fire fighting methodologies, and the development of innovative equipment for the fire protection and response industries. With this aim, University of Waterloo researchers from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Health Sciences, together with the fire service in their region and other municipalities across Canada, have conducted collaborative fire training and research exercises for over a decade. A unique synergy has developed, leading to direct transfer of technology to the broader fire service community; however, it is very difficult to access facilities in which controlled, realistic, large-scale, live-fire research can be conducted. To address this need, a $5.6M, state-of-the-art Live Fire Research Facility is being constructed by the University of Waterloo with shared funding from the Region of Waterloo, the City of Kitchener, the Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments and industry. The research facility is an integral part of a larger Region of Waterloo Emergency Services Training and Research Complex, situated on a 16 ha. site, minutes from the UW campus. The major fire research infrastructure at the Facility includes • a large-scale fire research area with capability for generation and control of ambient winds and ventilation conditions, • leading edge diagnostics and instrumentation for scenario monitoring, control and data acquisition, • a large cone calorimeter and ISO room fire test area, • a small cone calorimeter, smoke density chamber, flame spread and flammability apparatus for testing the fire performance of materials, and • laboratory facilities for small and medium-scale fire research/analysis and the study of physiological impacts of fire fighting. The large-scale fire test area is 3,975 ft and 4+ storeys high. It is designed to accommodate a two storey house or other large-scale burn experiment. It consists of an outer enclosure with a moveable, inner steel burn ‘house’ in which fires can be set. Rooms in the house can be reconfigured, lined with representative materials and furnished as appropriate for a particular test fire scenario. Ambient crosswinds from 0 to Copyright © International Association for Fire Safety Science 114 20 mph can be generated by a bank of six, 72 inch diameter fans with a plenum/flow straightening system leading to a 20 ft × 24 ft opening into the main test area. The crosswinds flow around the ‘house’ (or other fire experiment) and exhaust through a large overhead sectional door at the far end of the enclosure. Also in the main test area are a 2 MW calorimeter and an ISO room fire test area situated adjacent to a 10 ft × 10 ft exhaust hood. A 3,385 ft conventional building is attached to the large-scale test area. It houses the main control room, general support services, a small-scale fire test laboratory and a physiological research lab for researchers from Applied Health Sciences. Fullscale studies of fire behavior in the burn ‘house’ can be complemented by laboratory studies of the fire performance of materials (heat release rate, smoke generation and ignition, and flame spread characteristics) and the effects of the fire environment on fire fighting personnel. Experiments in any part of the Facility can be instrumented for velocity, temperature, pressure and species concentration measurements with a variety of fixed and portable systems. Video and infrared visualization, laser/phase Doppler particle anemometry, particle image velocimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry systems are also available. Research efforts will focus on the application of basic principles of fire science to areas such as the movement of smoke and heat in full-scale structural fires, fire initiation, heat release rate and spread, flammability and fire performance of materials and components, fire safety, equipment and methodologies for fire detection and suppression and health issues in the fire service. Combined with the existing fire and diagnostics laboratories on the main University of Waterloo campus, this new Facility will allow advancements in fundamental fire research, as well as full-scale investigations with direct application to fire service and fire safety issues, performance-based building codes and occupational health in the fire service.

Ignitability test for building materials: influence of fuel gases and the design of the Burner's flame stabilizer on test results

In the harmonization of the European test codes in the context of preventive fire-protection techniques for buildings, the single flame source test is to be adopted as a European test method. This method is used to evaluate the fire behaviour of a building material subjected to an impingement by a small flame, e.g. the flame of a match. The technique is used to provide evidence in the determination of whether a building material may be assigned the Euroclass E. Building materials that do not meet the requirements of this building material class are designated as Euroclass F. The Federal Institute of Material Research and Testing (BAM) has looked into the question of whether the design of the flame stabilizer of the burner and the use of three different fuel gases (propane, butane and methane) affect the assignation of building materials to a Euroclass, particularly the area between Euroclass E and F. The evaluation showed that the minimum thickness timber boards required to meet Euroclass E requirements would be reduced by approximately 10% when butane and an output stabilizer equipped with a punch disc was used. This means that under modified test conditions, certain timber materials previously assigned to Euroclass F would now be designated Euroclass E. Consequently the safety standard regarding fire protection in buildings may be compromised. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tensile Membrane Action And The Fire Resistance Of Steel Framed Buildings

Tensile membrane action is a load carrying mechanism in reinforced concrete f-loors at very large deflection. Under ths action, the load carried by the reinforced concrete floor can be many times higher than the design load carrying capacity determined at small deflections. Recent full scale fire tests and fire accidents in steel-framed buildings with reinforced concrete floors have identified tensile membrane action as the main load carrying mechanism. This mechanism is able to transfer the applied loads on the floor to the supporting columns when the supporting steel beams to the floor are damaged and have lost their load carrying capacities The understanding of tensi!e membrane action in reinforced concrete floors has a significant implic~tion for the fire protection of steel-framed buildings \with reinforced concrete floors. This is because the supporting steel beams may be allowed to fzil without endangering the safety of the \vho!e bui!ding. Consequently, fire protection to these stee! beams can be reduced or eliminated. This paper describes in some detail an analytical procedure developed by the author for predicting tensile membrane action in reinforced concrete floors. An example is given which shows how to use this method to determine the fire resistance of a steel-framed building.

The Performance Of Fire Protection Of Buildings Against The Fires Following The Great Hanshin-awaji Earthquake

High levels of amplitude acceleration ( 300 to 800 cmis2 ) and velocity ( 80 cmis ) were observed over a wide area at the time of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The locations where the fires started are almost uniformly distributed in areas where buildings suffered severe structural damage, mainly areas where the seismic intensity reached seven on the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency ) scale. Thanks to the weak winds at the time of the earthquake, the speed of the fire spread was far below that of past urban fires. Seven large fires that destroyed an area of more than 33,000 m2 each, broke out in areas with large concentrations of wooden houses. Most of the fireprotected wooden buildings that caught fire did so mainly because fire spread through the building's openings, not through their walls. Most of the cease-burning lines in urban areas were wide streets, railways, parks and similar large spaces, rows of buildings of fireproof construction, and fire proof buildings constructed on large building lots. This confirms that it is extremely important to provide more space between buildings and improve buildings' fireproof performance in order to prevent the spread of urban fires following earthquakes.

‘Water mist’ for fire protection of historic buildings and museums

Overview Recent experimental work on fine water sprays indicates that they may have a considerably wider application in the fields of fire extinction and combustion suppression than previously anticipated and therefore may represent a new fire suppression agent. The present work outlines the characteristics of fine water sprays as fire suppressants, the extinguishing properties of fine water sprays in general, and the properties of particular interest to historic buildings and museums. To illustrate a practical application, some details of the on-going fire protection programme of the Norwegian Stave Churches are provided, while the perspectives of using ‘water mist’ for suppressing fires in other historic buildings and museums are discussed. Though there are still uncertainties as to the transferability of the technology from one application to another, and there is a need for more experimental and theoretical work, fine water sprays seem to represent an interesting approach for fire protection of historic buildings and as a potential replacement for Halon in museums.

Water mist' for fire protection of historic buildings and museums

Water mist' for fire protection of historic buildings and museums

Fire Safety and Protection in Historic Buildings in England and Ireland – Part II

Outlines a broad strategy for fire safety management, including the development of a proper safety manual, the appointment of a fire safety manager, written emergency procedures, site plans, ongoing maintenance and evaluation of safety systems, and post‐fire procedures. Briefly discusses upgrading structures with sensitivity, which is of particular concern regarding historic buildings, and details specific materials and techniques which may be relevant. Discusses building‐control issues in Ireland and current fire‐control regulations both there and pertaining to the EC.

Fire Safety and Protection in Historic Buildings in England and Ireland – Part I

Explains why the safety measures in England and Ireland have been unsuitable for application to historic buildings and points out that the protection of property has rarely been considered. Details how inflexible the fire safety legislation and regulations have been. The conflict between officers dealing with planning conservation and building control officers led to a review of regulations. Outlines these reviews, and the flexibility and changes which were brought about with the introduction of the new 1991 Building Regulations. Discusses the new approach to fire safety in historic buildings and the results it has achieved, for example, recognition of smoke damage and detection systems.

Fire Research Lecture 1993: Performance based fire safety design—Recent developments in australia

Fire safety and protection facilities to satisfy current regulatory requirements are a significant component in the cost of many buildings. With the development of systematic approaches to building fire safety and protection, designs based on a fire safety engineering methodology can offer substantial cost savings while achieving satisfactory levels of life safety. An outline is given of recent initiatives in Australia towards the development of a systematic approach for the design of cost-effective fire safety systems in buildings. This systematic approach is based upon a risk assessment framework. While substantial progress has been achieved, considerable research, development and technology transfer must be undertaken before this systematic approach can be used as a routine procedure for design. However, some important applications, based on such an approach, have recently been undertaken.

Passive fire protection

Considers some of the major spheres of influence which can affect the design of the passive fire protection of a building and outlines passive fire protection materials and applications, fire tests, Building Regulations and the possible influence of European legislation. Discusses the five major requirements relating to fire which must be met when designing a building. Details the use of sprays, boards, intumescents, performed sections, fire barrier ′quilts′ or ′blankets′ and penetration seals and firestops. Explains the British Standard fire tests and provides reactions to them. Summarizes building control regulations, with reference to The Building Regulations 1991, recent developments and European aspects.

Evaluation of duct opening protection in two-hour fire walls and partitions

There is a continuing debate among fire protection specialists on the value and role of fire dampers in preventing fire spread via HVAC duct systems. It has been recognized that fire dampers are not required under all circumstances. For example, NFPA 90A,Standard for the Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilation Systems, does not require the installation of fire dampers in ducts penetrating one-hour fire-rated walls and partitions. Additionally, there are circumstances where the closure of dampers may affect critical environmental air systems. In these situations, the value of fire dampers must be determined in terms of an overall risk assessment. It has been suggested that the role of fire dampers be considered in terms of the total building fire protection system, but a quantitative approach for such an assessment has been previously unavailable. In particular, there has been no data related to the performance of a duct system when subjected to a standard two-hour fire exposure. Gewain et al. have described an equivalency approach and full-scale fire test data for the protection of duct openings in two-hour fire-resistant walls and partitions. The objective of this paper is to review and summarize the equivalency rationale and test data and describe engineering methods available to apply an equivalency approach more generally. The approach was developed for situations where horizontal steel ventilation ducts penetrate fire-rated walls and partitions. The approach does not address smoke dampers or ducts containing combustible materials.

Basic thoughts on structural fire protection of protected historic buildings.

Basic thoughts on structural fire protection of protected historic buildings.

Fire Protection of Atrium Buildings—A Commentary

Fire Protection of Atrium Buildings—A Commentary

The role of sprinklers in the fire protection of office buildings

Sprinklers are one of the earliest forms of fixed fire protection. As early as 1812, a manually‐operated system was installed in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was later in the 19th century, however, that automatic sprinkler systems were developed. A common application for early systems was protection of textile mills.

A Measure of the Difficulty of Evacuating Elderly and Impaired Residents from Board and Care Homes

As a result of a rapid increase in fire fatalities among residents in board and care homes, the National Bureau of Standards developed an Evacuation Difficulty Index for use in determining how much building fire protection should be required in individual board and care homes. The Index is a ratio, where the numerator is a sum of the assistance needs of residents, and the denominator is the availability of staff. The assistance needs of residents are rated on behaviorally-anchored scales that represent “risk factors.” The risk factors were identified by an expert panel's informal analysis of everyday assistance needs that must also be provided during fire emergencies, an approach adapted from research on synthetic job validation. The panel also helped determine scale values for risk factors. Three studies of inter-rater reliability led to further revisions, and the system was field tested in 151 facilities.

Principles for risk evaluation and expected cost to benefit of different fire protective measures in industrial buildings

Increased fire losses within industry in recent years accentuate the need of methods for economic optimisation of fire protection in industrial buildings. Knowledge of the significant factors of fire loss in industrial buildings will form the basis for such optimisation, and in this paper some factors of significance are recognized. The expected benefit to cost relationship on a national level, as well as for individual cases, of some fire protective measures are discussed. Finally, some principles for the evaluation of the overall fire risk in industrial buildings are discussed, and the practical application of a functionally based method for such an evaluation is illustrated by examples.