Fire Engineering Introduction

Prof. Y C Wang Room C2, Pariser Building Tel: 0161 3068968 Email: yong.wang@manchester.ac.uk

Importance of Fire Safety

Fire loss is about 1% GDP. The indirect loss can be more than the direct loss. Fire kills about 600 people per year in the UK Fire safety is one of the two safety requirements for buildings, along with structural safety. Building design, construction and maintenance have to satisfy the requirements of Building Regulations (BR) Part B. In order for a building to obtain insurance, they also have to satisfy the requirements of the Insurance industry. The BR and insurance industry requirements cover similar issues, with the insurance industry requirements more stringent. Fire Engineering is an Engineering Council registered profession with specialist Chartered Fire Engineers. Good Fire Engineers are in high demand.

Importance of an Engineering approach

A number of high profile fire accidents have raised the fire engineering more prominent. They reveal some inadequacies of the existing (prescriptive, ticking box) methods of dealing with fire safety. Recent research findings demonstrate flexibility and benefits of a performance-based approach.

What are the issues of fire safety and how to tackle them?

To control, contain and put out fire so that the affected people can evacuate to safety. To minimise loss of property and business.

Anatomy of fire safety requirements small fire

Fires usually start being small. During this stage, evacuation is reasonably unimpeded. Building design and construction should allow fast detection of fire, quick evacuation of people (B1, means of escape and warning). It is important that the speed of fire spread is controlled. Sprinklers are effective in controlling fires. Fire spread can also be controlled through using surface materials (lining) that are non-combustible or have limited combustibility (B2: internal fire spread, lining). During this stage, it is also relatively easy to fight the fire (B5).

Anatomy of fire safety requirements large fire but contained within the initial fire compartment
When the fire has grown and has reached the flashover stage, the entire compartment of fire origin is involved in fire. Evacuation from the compartment is difficult due to high temperatures and concentrations of smoke and toxic gases. It is important that the fire does not spread beyond the compartment (containment), through the provision of fire resistant compartments (B3, internal fire spread, structures). Fire fighting (B5) continues to control fire spread and to put out the fire.

Anatomy of fire safety requirements external

If the fire spreads externally, it is important that the neighbouring buildings are not affected (B4: external fire spread). This is done through controlling fire spread externally on the surface & sufficient separation distance between the buildings so that the radiation from the building in fire does not ignite the surface materials on the neighbouring building.

How to do Fire Safety Design

Probabilistic assessment: fire is a random event so a risk based approach is the most appropriate. This approach is extremely complex and difficult to apply. There is also a lack of sufficiently robust statistical data. This method is usually used in simple building layouts (e.g. railway stations) and qualitative analysis. Deterministic assessment: although it does not adequately address the interaction of different sub-systems, this method is simple to perform and used in most cases. The traditional approach is prescriptive, telling what to do without stating the objectives. It is simple to do, but may not be flexible and may be costly. For example, the prescriptive approach specifies the travel distance in buildings, but the travel distance makes up only part of the evacuation design. Exposure through coursework. The performance-based, fire engineering approach has been developed to address the issues of lack of flexibility and high cost of the prescriptive approach. This requires thorough understanding of the fire safety requirements and competent applications of engineering methods. For example, the evacuation analysis is time based and it is important that the appropriate untenability condition is chosen and that there is high confidence in the calculation methodology of various terms of time. Main focus of course.

Probabilistic Risk Assessment

Example of Prescriptive Method

FE Approach: time based

The aim of applying a performance-based, fire engineering approach is to enable elegant, flexible and cost-effective buildings without compromising on safety.

Learning outcomes of this course

Learning outcomes: - To appreciate the application of fire engineering methods in fire safety design of buildings; - to be able to carry out quantitative assessment of fire resistance of structures, including fire behaviour, heat transfer and structural behaviour at elevated temperatures.
Topics to be covered: - Small fire: some understanding of fire (plume) behaviour, fire detection, smoke control, evacuation. - Large fire within fire compartment: main emphasis of this course, structural fire safety. - Fire spread out of compartment: control of progressive collapse.

Syllabus & Schedule

Week 1: introduction to course & to heat transfer Weeks 1-3: heat transfer Week 4: Post-flashover fire behaviour Weeks 5-10: structural behaviour and fire resistance design Weeks 8&9 (Fridays): visit GMFRS Week 11: introduction to pre-flashover fire dynamics & applications to means of escape Week 12: Invited industrial fire engineering presentation, revision
- Weekly arrangement: 2 hours formal lecture + 1 hour guided problem solving.

Assessment & Feedback

Assessment: Exam (closed book, 3 hrs, 70%) Coursework: (2 pieces, 30%) (1) Assessment of existing building to ADB: 10%, work in groups of four. Submission: Friday, 1 March 2013 (2) Fire resistance design: 20%, to be issued in week 5, work in groups of two. Submission: Week 10 Feedback Information on Blackboard Email to class via Blackboard Email best way to get prompt feedback Feedback: tutorial exercises/specific comments on individual coursework reports + collective feedback/face to face meetings/emails

Reading Lists
1. An
2. 3. introduction to fire dynamics, 2nd edition, D. Drysdale, Wiley,ISBN0471972908, 1999 Enclosure fire dynamics, B. Karlsson and J G Quintiere, CRC Press, ISBN 0849313997, 2000 Steel and composite structures, behaviour and design for fire safety, Y.C.Wang, Spon Press, ISBN 0415244366, 2002 Structural design for fire safety, A H Buchanan, Wiley, ISBN 0471889933 Heat transfer, J P Holman, McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-240655-0, 2002 Various British and European standards (BS EN 1991-1-2, 1992-1-2, 1993-1-2, 1994-1-2, BS 5950 Part 8, BS 7974 & PDs, BS 9999) Online database available through Library Web Various documents from University Library electronic database Construction Information Services YCW notes

4. 5. 6. 7.
8.

Change of lecture time: rd 1-2 pm Monday 3 February changed to 3-4 pm Tuesday 4th February, Renold E7