Extreme Fires!

Transcription

1 Extreme Fires!

2 Is History Repeating Itself? Airlie House Conference International Conference On Fire Safety In High-rise Buildings Evacuation impractical protect in place Limit fuel load prohibit combustible building materials (since content could not be regulated) Limit fire size provide automatic fire suppression Notify occupants provide situational awareness Control smoke movement compartmentation/hvac Provide firefighting facilities command center and standpipes (and now FF elevators and lobbies) Basis of High Rise Building Code Regulations Today

3 6and Today CTBUH Conference International Workshop on Fire Performance of Façades Challenges of Very Tall are More Extreme Sustainability Has Driven Use of Combustible Materials Fire Test Confusion Inadequate Understanding of the Fire Issues What to Do About Existing Buildings?

4 Non-Combustible6or is it Combustible? Energy Efficiency Constructability Design Flexibility

5 Combustible Materials Energy Codes Have Driven Use of Plastics Fire Retardants only delay ignition, make materials more difficult to ignite

6 Confusing Marketing Literature Non-combustible? IBC Listed?

7 Confusing Marketing Literature Lots of Fire Test Data6But Does It Identify Applicable Performance?

8 Inadequate Understanding Many Major Country Codes have been Updated But Many Have Not Appropriate Fire Test Performance Should be the Rule What are the Risks?? Material Type Arrangement of Materials Installation Details Vertical flue spaces

9 Fire Test Confusion Hundreds of Different Fire Tests Fire Performance Properties Material Specific Characteristics Combustibility Ignitability Flammability (flame spread) Smoke Developed Assembly Characteristics Resistance (temperature transmission) Fire Propagation

10 ASTM E-84 Horizontal Test Specimen Arrangement Many Plastics Achieve Class A Results

11 ASTM E-119 Test of ACP Panel

12 ASTM E-119 Test of ACP Panel

13 LARGE SCALE FIRE PROPAGATION FIRE TESTS NFPA 285 BS 8414 CAN/ULC S134 ISO DIN 4102 SP FIRE 105 FM 25-AND 50 ftcorner TESTS 13

14 Assembly Fire Propagation NFPA 285 NFPA 285

15 Assembly Fire Propagation BS BS

16 Existing Building Mitigation? Removal? Impractical in Most Cases Risk Assessment NFPA Research Foundation Project Create high level tool to assist AHJs identify and prioritize risks in existing building stock

17 New Building Mitigation Variable use of combustible materials will continue, and it is the assembly of those materials that is equally important6 Good design uses assemblies meeting large scale fire propagation test Each façade design is different, and even the same materials are often used in different configurations, therefore6 Each proposed design should be large scale fire tested!

18 6So, Is History Repeating Itself? only if we let it Fire protection design seems to have been marching through history backward, correcting for tomorrow s buildings the errors that occurred in yesterday s. Unknown Airlie Conference Participant NFPA Fire Journal, Vol 65, No. 4 (July 1971)

19 We Have the Ability to Prevent This!! THANK YOU!! JENSEN HUGHES, INC. Jeffrey E. Harper, P.E., FSFPE /