Fire Safety Level Research Articles

АНАЛИЗ ПОЖАРОВ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ КАЗАХСТАН МЕТОДАМИ МАТЕМАТИЧЕСКОЙ СТАТИСТИКИ

Aims. The aim and objective of the study is to adapt the methods of mathematical analysis to the assessment of fire safety of municipal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Methods. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of mathematical statistics. Up to date, the fire safety assessment by means of mathematical statistics has not been carried out in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is impossible to solve the problem of increasing the level of fire safety in the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan without such studies. Therefore, there is a need to adapt the known methods of mathematical statistics of fire safety in the Republic of Kazakhstan, to carry out such an assessment, which makes it possible to characterize security for 16 regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan that determines the relevance of the study. Applying the methodology of mathematical statistics of fire safety is necessary for making managerial decisions to ensure the necessary level of fire safety of regions on the basis of limit interval values. Results. A sequential mathematical analysis of fire safety in the republic was carried out. On the basis of the results of the study, limit interval values of fire safety for 16 regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan are justified. According to the results of the analysis, it is determined that the interval values of fires for the regions of the republic are 945 f (16) < 1056, in Karaganda, East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Kostanay and Almaty regions, the number of fires in the period from 2005 to 2016 were beyond the limits of the right value of the interval. In this connection, the situation with fires was worse in these regions than in the republic. Field of application of scientific results. The obtained results can be used by both local executive and authorized bodies in the field of fire safety when developing appropriate management solutions to reduce the fire risk, as well as when developing a fire fighting service. Conclusion. The conducted mathematical analysis of fire safety in the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan has shown that in the five regions of the republic (Karaganda, East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Kostanay and Almaty regions) between 2005 and 2016, the level of fire safety was worse than the average republican rate. In this connection, work on implementation of management decisions to minimize fire danger to the boundaries of the confidence interval should be strengthened in the local executive bodies and authorized bodies in the field of fire safety of these regions. The proposed approach to assessing fire safety levels is advisable to use in the design of fire departments and allocation of funds for the implementation of activities to reduce fire risks in the relevant territories.

Fire Risk Assessment and Daily Maintenance Management of Cultural Relic Buildings Based on ZigBee Technology

Abstract Based on the cultural relic buildings fire characteristics and fire safety management parameters, put forward five aspects of ZigBee perception factors of the cultural relic buildings, including the fire hazards, evacuation characteristics, fire safety facilities, firefighting and rescue condition and the fire safety management. Setting up cultural relic buildings fire ZigBee system could allow the fire departments and cultural relic units eliminating fire hazards in the first place and assessing the fire risk of cultural relic buildings instantly. It could also simplify the self-checking of fire prevention inspections of fire departments and cultural relic units, greatly improve the work efficiency and fire safety level, simplify the process of fire safety management and reduce the fire risk, which brings high economic benefit and social benefit.

ТРЕБУЕМЫЙ УРОВЕНЬ ПОЖАРНОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ МУЗЕЕВ — ОБЪЕКТОВ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ

Space-planning decision and structural design of egress paths must provide save evacuation for people in case of fire. Some deviations from fire safety normative document requirements can be justified by fire risk assessment. But approved technique use is not always correct for cultural heritage objects: application is restricted by architectural elements which should be conserved as cultural heritage elements. These restrictions are demonstrated in the paper with the results of fire safety surveying in monastery. This object consists of premises with different classes of fire danger functionality; it’s object with large people assembly (piligrims, tourists) and object with round-the-clock presence. Conserved elements of the building don’t allow to fulfill reconstruction works, which could provide normative level of fire safety. Check-list use is analyzed in the work as the method of international normative documentation on fire safety. In general these lists include fire compartmentation, resources for restriction of fire and smoke spread in the building, safe evacuation confirmation, fire safety systems inspection. In NFPA standards scenario of fire safety evaluation for cultural heritage objects are presented. Different characteristics of the object are ranked, and objects form some groups on basis of this expert evaluation. Then recommendations and additional safety measures are developed for each group. Authors suggest cultural heritage objects classification by significance and historic structure preservation. Individual deterministic characteristic is defined for each object from the group by its marks. These values form distribution histogram for the number of objects evaluated, and required fire safety level for museums from one group is defined. Suggested method of fire safety evaluation for cultural heritage objects allows to arrange museums by fire safety level and then to develop the most effective fire safety measures based on evaluation results.

Application of an Integrated Risk Assessment Software to Quantify the Life Safety Risk in Building during a Fire

We develop an integrated probabilistic risk assessment software called Aamks for the purpose of quantifying the life safety level of people present in buildings in the context of fire safety design. The software implements easy to use and computationally efficient quantitative risk assessment method - multisimulation. The method consists in deterministic sub-models and probabilistic techniques for sampling and quantifying the fire safety level by means of failure probabilities, individual and societal risk. Following the theoretical description of the method, a case study of a five storey hotel building 20.000 m2is elaborated and discussed as proof of concept.

Fire Risk Assessment of High-rise Buildings Based on Gray-FAHP Mathematical Model

Abstract Fire risk assessment is the basic way to reduce and control the fire of high-rise buildings. In this essay the factors that affect the fire of high-rise buildings are analyzed to set up assessment index system of the fire rise for high-rise buildings whose main factors are fire safety hardware facilities, fire safety evacuation ability, building fire prevention capability and building fire safety management status. The gray risk degree method, AHP and the fuzzy evaluation method are used to establish the mathematical model. This model is applied to analyze and compare the fire risk of 5 high-rise buildings, such as Shaanxi Information Building, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Building and so on. The results show that the fire safety level of the high-rise buildings with function of office represented by the Shaanxi Information Building is “good”, but the fire extinguishing system and the fire elevator equipment still need to be checked and maintained regularly, while the fire safety level of the high-rise buildings with the functions of shopping malls and residential buildings is “medium”, which needs re-reasonable division of fire and smoke partition and improvement of the emergency response capability.

Influencing Factors on the Actuation Time of the Thermal Release Mechanism with Temperature Sensing Element of Fire Rolling Shutters

Abstract This work discusses the effect of the placement of the thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element on the actuation time of the fire rolling shutter. The fire rolling shutter is one of the most important devices that can prevent the spread of the fire and smoke by automatically falling when there is a fire in the building. The reliability of the fire rolling shutters can directly affect the fire safety level of the buildings. The thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element is independent of the linkage control system and is an effective measure to ensure the landing of the fire rolling shutters when other control measures fail. Different fire models are established to simulate the temperature distribution by considering three location factors, including the distance between the release mechanism and the fire, the ceiling and the side wall. Suggestions are proposed based on the numerical simulation results. The thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element should be installed in the locations that near the fire load and the ceiling, but be far away from the corner and the side wall. The proper placement can improve the efficiency and reliability of the release mechanisms.

The accuracy of mapping the airstream of jet fan ventilators by fire dynamics simulator

Jet fan ventilators are often applied for smoke control and support for pollutant dispersal in large enclosures, especially in tunnels and car parks. In the design phase, computational fluid dynamics techniques are most often used to verify the fire safety level afforded by the application of jet fans. However, reliable design based on computational fluid dynamics requires a validation of jet fan airstream modeling. To predict these flows, this investigation evaluated the performance of four turbulence models using large-eddy simulations by comparing the simulation results with the experimental data of both horizontal and sloped jet fan guide vanes. The axial velocity was examined and simulations were prepared with fire dynamics simulator software, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is the most popular program for fire simulations, although it is often criticized for inaccurate mapping of ventilation jet fan airstreams. In addition, this investigation analyzed the computing costs of the simulations, according to the fire dynamics simulator version and grid size, showing that the old version of software (fire dynamics simulator 4) was much faster than new one (fire dynamics simulator 6), and that changing grid size from 30 to 15 cm does not significantly change results.

Optimized fire protection of cultural heritage structures based on the analytic hierarchy process

Fire safety constitutes a significant part of engineering design practice that frequently lead designers to face critical decision-making type of questions. Especially in the case of fire protection of cultural heritage structures, the challenges that engineers confront are sometimes very difficult to deal with. Conventional prescriptive-based fire protection codes cannot be implemented for the protection of such structural systems; on the other hand, performance-based design (PBD) procedures can provide reliable solutions for this type of structures. Fire safety upgrading of historic structures can be expressed as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problems. In this context, we propose a model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) that is able to assess the overall fire safety level of a structure in terms of the fire protection measures implemented. Moreover, a generic selection and resource allocation (S&RA) model is applied that in conjunction with the proposed AHP model leads to optimized solutions. In this study, the implementation of the proposed optimized fire protection upgrade framework along with its advantages is presented for the case of the Mount Athos monastery of Simonos Petra and results are discussed.

Can fire safety in hotels be improved? Results from the survey of a panel of experts in Spain.

The hotel industry is an important driver of the European labour market with over 250,000 hotels employing some 2 million people. In Spain, 240 workers were injured by fires in hotels from 2004 to 2008. Fire is considered to be the most important risk in the hotel industry, but the lack of an EU-wide data recording system for hotels makes it difficult to give exact figures for fire events. We analysed the state of fire prevention systems in hotels in Spain with the aim of proposing strategies to improve fire safety. A 10-item questionnaire was administered from 2007 to 2009 to 15 Spanish experts in fire safety. The questions were measured using a Likert scale and classified into 4 sections: current state of installations, influence of establishment characteristics, application of regulations and priority ranking of actions. Descriptive statistics summarized the data and t-tests evaluated the agreement foreach statement in the questionnaire. The statistical analysis showed homogeneity in the responses by the experts in all four categories: current state of fire safety installations, influence of establishment characteristics, application of regulations, and priority of actions. There was consensus among the experts over the necessity to improve the enforcement of regulations and also regarding the existence of an association between the hotel category (in Spain they are ranked using a 1 to 5 "star" rating system) and the level of fire safety; hotels with a higher category had higher levels of safety. There is a need to identify ways to apply fire safety standards to older hotels so that they comply with new regulations, to standardize regulations for different regions and countries, to improve the maintenance of installations and equipment, to increase the effectiveness of inspections conducted by government bodies, and to raise the general awareness of stakeholders involved in hotel fire prevention.

Assessment of Fire Engineering Design Correlations Used to Describe the Geometry and Thermal Characteristics of Externally Venting Flames

Externally venting flames (EVF) may emerge through openings in fully developed under-ventilated compartment fires, significantly increasing the risk of fire spreading to higher floors or adjacent buildings. Several fire engineering correlations have been developed, aiming to describe the main characteristics of EVF that affect the fire safety design aspects of a building, such as EVF geometry, EVF centreline temperature and EVF-induced heat flux to the facade elements. This work is motivated by recent literature reports suggesting that existing correlations, proposed in fire safety design guidelines (e.g. Eurocodes), cannot describe with sufficient accuracy the characteristics of EVF under realistic fire conditions. In this context, a wide range of EVF correlations are comparatively assessed and evaluated. Quantification of their predictive capabilities is achieved by means of comparison with measurements obtained in 30 different large-scale compartment-facade fire experiments, covering a broad range of heat release rates (2.8 MW to 10.3 MW), ventilation factor values (2.6 m5/2 to 11.53 m5/2) and ventilation conditions (no forced draught, forced draught). A detailed analysis of the obtained results and the respective errors corroborates the fact that many correlations significantly under-predict critical physical parameters, thus resulting in reduced (non-conservative) fire safety levels. The effect of commonly used assumptions (e.g. EVF envelope shape or model parameters for convective and radiative heat transfer calculations) on the accuracy of the predicted values is determined, aiming to highlight the potential to improve the fire engineering design correlations currently available.

Fires, statistics, ignition sources, and passive fire protection measures

Although the number of fires continuously decreases, there are still too many fatalities. A comprehensive review of fire statistics shows upholstered furniture to cause most fire deaths, followed by electrical distribution fires. In transportation, car and bus fires are a major problem. European and US fire regulations provide a reasonable level of fire safety, but too low for cars and buses. The elimination of the open-flame upholstered furniture test in California is problematic. The fire safety performance levels that flame-retarded products achieve in mandatory fire tests and full-scale studies show the efficacy of flame retardants and of barriers. Flame retardants are not generally unsafe for humans and the environment. European Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, US Environmental Protection Agency studies, and GreenScreen show ways to identify safer flame retardant systems. A balanced approach involving facts from fire statistics, adapting fire regulations, and improving products fire safety will help to reduce fire losses.

Automatic System of Monitoring and Diagnostics of Sparking in Contact

Most common occurrence of a short circuit is a consequence of a combined impact of various ignition sources – electrical sparking or monotonic alteration of resistance in contact joints – on the low–voltage network. An automatic system of monitoring and diagnostics of electrical wiring in case of an electrical sparking or monotonic alteration of the electrical contact resistance was developed. We suggest two ways of applying the elaborated system: the stationary and the mobile one. The system has two ways of applying: the stationary and the mobile one. It estimates permanently the level of fire safety of the power supply system and promptly form a signal for the abnormal electrical wiring power cut and a signal of its level of fire risk. In addition, the introduced system can serve as a subsystem for providing a controlled level of fire safety in the “Smart house” or “Smart Grid” systems.

Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer in Fire-Protective Coatings Deformable upon Heating

Numerical studies of heat transfer in fire-protective coatings deformable (intumescent) upon heating have been conducted. The optimum combination of the computation-scheme parameters providing stability, convergence and satisfactory accuracy of solutions has been determined. An effect of basic characteristics of materials in real range of their change that made it possible to estimate the degree of influence of properties on the fire-protective efficiency of coatings and the level of warm-up (flame resistance) of structures to be protected with them has been studied. The possibility of using developed models and techniques to estimate and provide the required level of fire safety of polymer-based materials (in particular, elastomers and structures and products on their basis) is considered. The results of estimating the mass rate of evolving gaseous thermal-decomposition products that determine, in a considerable extent, the material combustibility have been presented. The numerical analysis results have demonstrated the potentiality of reducing the combustibility of such materials and increasing limits of their fire resistance at the expense of organizing the intumescence of a material upon heating by means of modification of their initial formulations as well as with the aid of an additional layer made of the intumescent coating compatible with an elastomer.

Комплексный показатель пожарной опасности сельской местности Республики Казахстан

Purpose. The purpose and objective of the research is to adapt the method of fire risk assessment to the municipalities of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the use of integrated (territorial) fire risks. Methods. The methodological basis of the research is the theory of integral fire risks. Up to the present time in the Republic of Kazakhstan the complex index of fire danger countryside has not assessed. Without such research it is impossible to solve the problem of increasing fire safety level of municipalities. There is therefore a need to adapt the known method of fire risk assessment to the municipalities of the Republic of Kazakhstan and this assessment allows to characterize urban and rural fire risk, which determines the relevance of the study. Apply the technique of fire danger level assessment necessary for management decision-making to ensure the fire safety of municipalities based on an integrated indicator. Results. The serial analysis of fire risks carried out at the national and municipal levels. Based on the results of the research there are proved the values of the complex parameter to assess the level of fire danger municipalities. It was found that the average number of fires in the republic more urban than in rural areas, but the complex index of fire danger countryside more than 2 times worse than urban. The worst situation is in the countryside in Mangistau, Pavlodar, Akmola, North Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan and West Kazakhstan regions. Research application fields. The results can be used by local executive authorities and authorized bodies in the field of fire safety in the development of appropriate management decisions to reduce fire risk in rural areas of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as in the design of fire service. Conclusions. The analysis of fire danger countryside of the Republic of Kazakhstan showed that the complex index of fire danger in the countryside in 2 times worse than in the city. This circumstance is due to the fact that rural areas account for most fatalities and injuries. The main reasons for exceeding the number of injured and killed in the village is the remoteness of rural settlements from the fire and rescue units. The proposed approach to the assessment of fire danger levels countryside should be used in the development of measures to reduce fire risks in their respective territories.

Fire safety engineering applied to high-rise building facades

Fire safety of high-rise building facades is a complex problem, therefore the use of prescriptive fire codes could not be sufficient to ensure a proper building fire safety level. In new high rise buildings the fire safety of facades can be taken into account by means of performance based fire design that can help in the selection of the best technological solutions and material choices. This article deals with a case study done on the Piedmont Region Headquarters (TORRE REGIONE PIEMONTE) which is one of the highest office buildings in Italy. The Torre Regione Piemonte is located in Turin and has 45 storey and a total height of 183,61 m. The building is characterized by the closed enclosure called Grand Space which is continuous for almost the entire height of the building and contains volumes such as offices/meeting rooms named as Satellites. In order to fulfil Italian fire safety requirements, the Torre Regione Piemonte building has been assessed using the performance base design and fire safety engineering approach. This paper deals with the design process selection of the most representative fire scenarios focusing on the fire resistance performance requirements of structural and glazed elements of the facades. Furthermore, all the simulation, calculations and performance fire resistant requirements of the high rise building have been supported by specific laboratory tests and experimental results, that are reported and discussed within paper. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2016 Language: en

Research on Cost-benefit Evaluation Model for Performance-based fire Safety Design of Buildings

One of the most important functions of performance-based fire safety design method is to evaluate the economic efficiency of different schemes so that to make the fire safety investment more reasonable. It should begin with the calculation of cost budgets and benefits when evaluate the investment efficiency. Costs for improving building fire resistance and installing fire engineering projects are included in the investment budgets. However, the investment benefits are mainly about the reduced losses after the enhancement of the building fire safety level. Based on the performance-based fire safety design method, applying principles of economics and construction budget, the model described above will be built in this paper to provide scientific guides for fire safety investment.

Experimental Study of Cold-Formed Steel Floors Made of Hollow Flange Channel Section Joists under Fire Conditions

AbstractFire safety plays a vital role in building design because appropriate level of fire safety is important to safeguard lives and property. Cold-formed steel channel sections along with fire-resistive plasterboards are used to construct light-gauge steel frame (LSF) floor systems to provide adequate fire resistance ratings (FRR). It is common practice to use lipped channel sections (LCS) as joists in LSF floor systems, and past research has only considered such systems. This research focuses on adopting improved joist sections such as hollow flange channel (HFC) sections to improve the structural performance and FRR of cold-formed LSF floor systems under standard fire conditions. The structural and thermal performances of LSF floor systems made of a welded HFC, LiteSteel Beams (LSB), with different plasterboard and insulation configurations, were investigated using four full-scale fire tests under standard fires. These fire tests showed that the new LSF floor system with LSB joists improved the FRR i...

TRAINING OF FIRE PROTECTION PERSONNEL USING SITUATIONAL PRACTICES

The article describes the concept of development and construction of integrated training systems designed to train professionals in the sphere of fire safety.The practical value of the study is that the proposed procedures, concepts and approaches to development of technical training permitted to formulate and implement achievable to date requirements towards instruction systems and training complexes for training the fire departments staff and especially dangerous facilities personnel, that ensure the maximum reduction in the impact of errors made by the staff trained on the overall level of fire safety in the conditions of insufficient resources for trainings.

Fire safety design of Nile-floating hotels

The importance of Nile-floating hotels as a national income source in Egypt is highlighted in this work. Statistical analysis of collected data of previous accidents that occurred during the past 12 years is presented. The results showed that fire is ranked third among the four common types of recorded accidents. Records also showed that fire is one of the causes of killing or injuring passengers and crew members aboard Nile-floating hotels. An integrated fire and evacuation simulation programme, “FDS+EVAC” is used to analyse the consequences of a worst-case cabin fire scenario that could occur in an accommodation deck aboard a Nile-floating hotel. A series of simulations of the fire scenario under consideration involving an existing design of an accommodation deck as well as seven suggested alternative designs/arrangements of the same deck which are assumed to have equivalent or better level of fire safety have been carried out. The results are then analysed and discussed.

Oil Tank Monitoring System to Prevent Oil Pollution

With the national safety supervision departments and environmental protection departments having increasingly stringent safety monitoring requirements on large-scale flammable and explosive petroleum and chemical storage tanks, the security automatic monitoring and information management automation systems of the oil depot are increasingly being valued by the people, and it is more urgent to build the digital oil depot security monitoring management system. The new monitoring system can achieve the unified supervision of the oil depot digital business, and can also raise the comprehensive unified management level of fire protection, safety and oil plants, and can also provide remote monitoring services to the higher management level.