Fire Safety Engineering and Fire Services Engineering - Assignment Example

Fire Safety Systems Name: Date: University Affiliation Fire Safety Systems WEEK ONE PORTFOLIO 1. What is fire safety engineering? It is the process used for designing a given fire system or evaluating it. The safety levels of any fire system and is done in five main stages which are: the preparations of fire engineering brief stage, analysis stage the data collection and evaluation stage, conclusions stage and finally the report writing stage. (Brennan 1997). 2. Difference between fire safety engineering and fire services engineering Fire safety engineering is the process of using fire engineering information to be able to design or do evaluation of a fire safety strategy where as fire services engineering refers to the designing of fire detection and suppression systems. (Brennan 1997). 3. Design team members and other stakeholders in a project. They work on developing the various fire strategy components that are required such as the smoke detectors and sprinklers. They also estimate the costs and act as the sponsors of the project (Brennan 1997). 4. Regulatory framework for fire safety engineering in VIC All people that are working under any building projects should have been first of all registered with the building practitioner’s board. The registered individuals should also have good insurance cover which will provide better and reliable protection to the customer. One should have at least a degree in the engineering field or other course deemed equivalent by the board. He/she should be familiar with the countries laws and policies concerning building industry, with at least a field experience of three years. (Brennan 1997). 5. Regulatory framework for fire safety engineering in NSW All the engineers within to work in the building industry should be accredited by the building professionals act (2005) NSW. Only registered individuals are considered to have the desired qualities to offer the best service to the customer. Some of this attributes include: the specialty skills, required specialty knowledge, the specialty underpinning knowledge, necessary specialty qualifications and much needed experience. The accreditation process is a strict process under the direction of building construction focused act specifically for building industry. ( Jones et al 1986) 6. What are an Alternative Solution / Performance Solution? This is a method where one has to comply with necessary performance necessities apart from those ones required for only satisfaction purposes. (Brennan 1997). 7. Describe the role of the RBS. What qualifications are they required having under the Vic Building Reg 2006 to assess Alternative Solutions for fire performance – under which specific clause? Section 24(1) (a) of the stated act clearly shows that no permit should be given to a building not unless it has fulfilled the desired standards of the given act and its regulations as stipulated. Some of the qualifications they are expected to have included the following: i. The plan of the building should be well defined with all the calculations shown ii. Incase drawings or plans have been used there should be supportive notes and specifications which will be used to crosscheck the building with the acts regulations iii. All the detailed of any proposed alternative solution should be included in the documentation clearly ( Jones et al 1986) 8.Create a flow chart to show the permit process for the various stages of construction of buildings in VIC – reference the Building Act 1993 & Vic. Building Reg 2006. 9. Who is the Chief Officer? Describe the Regulation 309 requirements and associated process. The chief officer is the person given to mandate to be reported to when it comes to act and regulations in the construction industry. The regulations clearly define under which circumstances should report writing or reporting to the chief officer should be done ( Jones et al 1986) 10. What is the ‘Form 5’? Who uses it, for what and applies to which person? At what stage in the project is this done? This is a method used to show the method which was used to determine the wall transmittance to sound in the building constructed. Its applicable during the projects monitoring and evaluation stage ( Jones et al 1986) 11. Building Appeals Board (BAB) – who are they and what’s their role? These a special board set aside that listens to dispute and complains in the construction giving waive freedom to some of the requirements in a gen regulation basing on the conditions of the given case. It’s the boards’ responsibility to determine whether a given building meets the required standards’ as per the building act and regulations set. (Brennan 1997). 12. Different sections in the BCA. Which ones are relevant to fire safety? Which Performance Requirements relate to fire safety? It is the building conduct of Australia it gives the benchmark for any building construction taking place under the required act and regulations. ( Jones et al 1986) Clause A0.5 indicates that when deciding on a fire safety alternative solution it should be clearly showed how the various performances requirements will be fully met. This can be archived by two ways one is where satisfactory demands are met or by coming up with an alternative solution which is in line with the performance requirement. ( Jones et al 1986) Performance requirements Performance of the wall and also its cladding material during fire Presence of a residential care system for instance the presence of sprinklers There should be an automatic smoke detector and warning system in the building 13. Registered Building Practioners (RBP) – who are they? Who are they registered with? What are the different classifications of RBP? What is the criterion to be eligible for a fire safety engineer to gain a RBP status? Building practitioner refers to licensed individuals allowed to fore see buildings being constructed according to the country’s act and regulations. ( Jones et al 1986) Building practitioners’ board is a special board set aside for the purpose of supervision and monitoring of the practitioners in the building industry. ( Jones et al 1986) Requirements Studied in the field of science and fire engineering Be a member of a fire fighting agency Doing an exam after which you are given your license 14. What is the IFEG and what information/guidance does it provide to fire safety engineers? What is a trial design? IEFG it means international fire engineering guidelines. It provides required directives for all building work that needs to be done independent of the fact that there may or may not be a given prescribed chief officer to oversee such activities as they are being done. ( Jones et al 1986) Trial design a fire system designed meant for experimental purposes from which an improved version of the design is made for real application systems ( Jones et al 1986) WEEK TWO PORTFOLIO 1. Fire engineering brief (FEB) This is a briefing process whereby issues related to fire safety systems are identified, designed while still at the early stages. The process is done between the designers and the stake holders of the company or organization involved. (Brennan 1997). 2. Fire engineering report (FER) This report that keeps a record of all the identified and designed issues dealing with fire safety. (Brennan 1997). 3. Difference between FEB and FER Fire engineering briefing will only give a summary of what has been done on the design part to tackle fire scenarios where as the fire engineering report will give all the required details of the design and implementation of the various technologies and projects in the field. (Brennan 1997). 4. description of the various subsystems in IFEG Fire suppression systems: this refers to the various systems that have been designed and put in place in order to successfully extinguish any occurring fire outbreaks ( Jones et al 1986) Smoke detection systems: use of specialized detectors that quickly send a signal to the main control unit raising an alarm as soon as small fire smoke is detected within area of installation of the smoke detector ( Jones et al 1986) Failure of building elements: this refers to the ability of the building materials to either resist fire at all, partially or rather act as fuel to the fire when in contact with fire. ( Jones et al 1986) 5. Various risks and safety measures for each risk within each sub-system Fire suppression subsystem Risk: Either the manual type or the automatic type do interfere with the fires heat release rate. Mitigation This has been addressed by the following ways: having a controlled fire extinguishing system, having suppression being done by a fired suppression unit and also control by use of the fire brigade. (Horasan et al 1994) Smoke detector subsystem Risk: extra air being provided by the smoke detectors affects the heat release rate in the fires this is because it directly increases air flow rate enhancing combustion process. Mitigation This is usually tackled by having storage sprinklers always ready to help extinguish high flames break out within the facility (Horasan et al 1994) Failure of building elements Risk They directly increase the heat release rate of flames. This can be illustrated by a broken glass window or door which would increase ventilation rate thereby increasing the rate at which the fire is burning. Mitigation Use of modeling and simulation to predetermine the duration of window before breaking down and various specification adjustments that need to be put in place to compensate for such scenarios (Horasan et al 1994) 6. Different types of fire engineering assessment methodologies Frame: with aid of Microsoft excel spreadsheet one can be able to determine the risks of the people buildings and content within the buildings. It’s easier method to use than the one using standards codes to obtain same results. The designer first considers protection property has before concluding on life fire safety. (Horasan et al 1994) Event and fault tree analysis event tree will provide a diagrammatic representation of all the events that take place in the system. With this in mind the tree helps come up with a picture of some of the most prone scenarios’ incase of a fire accident basing on knowledge we have on what causes spread of fires. An event tree helps determine probability of failure of fire department while fault tree predicts the probability of success of the department. (Horasan et al 1994) Quantitative methods where you compare the proposed design with the acceptable solutions in fire risks they are: Relative risk methods: the building exposure risk is compared to a similar building made of the standard fire safety codes. (Horasan et al 1994) Direct risk method the level of measured risk is only compared to what is expected of such a building and not another existing building. (Horasan et al 1994) 7. Sensitivity, redundancy and uncertainty studies Redundancy: these refers to the analysis which deals with repetitive measures of a given trial design which basically has the same function (Horasan et al 1994) Sensitivity: it is concerned with quantification of the results of a fire analysis. This is made possible by varying the input variable to see what is obtained as the output variable (Horasan et al 1994) Uncertainty: this refers to measure of probability that a given event will occur and if so what will be the impact left behind (Horasan et al 1994) 8. AS2419 – Fire brigade fire suppression activities – fire brigade appliance, hoses, hydrants, boosting, booster assembly, etc. WEEK THREE PORTOFOLIO 1. Explain the fire triangle. Explain by using examples how this can be used in mitigating fire risks. It’s used in modeling to show the various components of fire which are usually three. The three are availability of heat, resistance and oxygen. To remove heat from the fire a cooling agents such as water is usually used or chemical heat retarding agent to diffuse heat away from the fire thereby extinguishing it. The second way is to remove the fuel agent from the fire since after it has gone short of fuel the fire will go out. The third way is by reducing supply of oxygen gas into the fire reducing the amount of chemical reaction known as combustion thereby putting out the flame. (Horasan et al 1994) Figure 1: the fir triangle 2. How does solid timber behave in fire? What is charring and how does it impact on the combustion process? Does laminated timber behave differently? Solid timber does not fully support combustion process since after the outer layer has burned out its foams chars which provides an inner cushioning to the inner minimizing any further combustion process. Char is usually the end product of burned wood which may have lost its strength but with high insulation properties which develop a steep heat gradient between inner and outer layers of wood minimizing combustion process. For laminated timber after combustion of the outer layers char is formed which provides an insulating fire protective wall to the inner t layers timber. (Brennan 1997). 3. What are the different systems that are available for automatic fire suppression? What are the applications for each system and what spaces are they typically usually used in? Nominate the Australian Standard for each system (where available). Dry chemical powder system: this do extinguish fire by use of an n inert chemical powder which forms a protective shield blocking further supply of oxygen for combustion process. Used in fires where chemical agents or liquefied gases are being used as the fuel source (Horasan et al 1994) Gaseous fire suppression systems use chemical agents in gas form to put out fires by inhibiting furtherchemical combustion. It’s applied to high value goods flames which are irreplaceable incase affected by water during fire fighting process Fire sprinkler system (Horasan et al 1994) Water mist system water is supplied in the form of mist which helps in heat removal and at the same time displacing oxygen for combustion process. It’s used in fixed systems such as buildings where it will be very tedious to carry around fire extinguisher tanks in case of a fire outbreak. (Horasan et al 1994) WEEK FOUR PORTIFOLIO 1. What is referred to as the standard fire test? How is the test conducted? What Australian Standard documents the standard fire test (include year/ revision that are referred to in the latest BCA)? How is the FRL determined for structural adequacy, integrity and insulation? Standard fire test is a process whereby the building materials are subjected to severe fire tests that are used as a benchmark of the desired quality of building materials in fire safety systems. Conducting the test: in this process the material is usually subjected to three main types of tests which are: Load bearing capacity: to what maximum limit will the material sustain the load applied to it before it collapses? Integrity: will the material be able to allow or hinder hot flames and gases from passing through it this is by exposing it to the gases and checking for presence of the gases on the other side of the material Insulation how well can the material block undesired temperature rise from its insulated side (Proulx 1995). 2. ASET vs. RSET analysis what is ASET and RSET? RSET this is the required safe egress time after alerting of a fire incident (Proulx 1995). ASET this is the available safe egress time after an alert of a fire incident (Proulx 1995). How do they differ? ASET refers to the time that is actually for safe evacuation action after the fire warning system has been put on the alert due to a fire incident RSET this is the time that was needed for safe evacuation and fire fighting to suppress the fire (Proulx 1995). How are they calculated? ASET calculation Where H, is the height in meters, S area in square meters, Alpha is thegrowthrate (kW s-2), Density of air (assumed constant at 293 K) g- Gravity Cp specific heat capacity (1.0 kJ kg-1 K-1) RSET determination This can be done by using a computer coded programmable software which does all the necessary simulations and produces the required safe egress time as the output of the process as shown in the figure below (Proulx 1995). Figure 2: a computer simulation showing the most probable RSET and ASET scenarios for fire in a building What are the different ways you can calculate ASET? There are several ways of calculating ASET which include 1. Using the following formulae Where H, is the height in meters, S area in square meters, Alpha is the growth rate (kW s-2), Density of air (assumed constant at 293 K) g- Gravity Cp specific heat capacity (1.0 kJ kg-1 K-1) 2. By using a computer coded program to carry out the simulation and give output as the available safe regress time (Proulx 1995). At what point is ASET determined (acceptance criteria)? This is the point where the time available to safely evacuate people from the building is at optimum level compared to the maximum population the building can have at any given time. Such a point is the acceptance level for the designers. (Proulx 1995). WEEK FIVE PORTOFOLIO 1. How do you undertake a fire safety hazard review for a building? What are the features of the building that you need to pay particular attention to and why are they important/how do they impact on building fire safety? The following procedure is used when undertaking a fire safety hazard review for a building: a. Identification of all the possible hazards b. Identification o the people who are at risk in case of a fire accident c. Evaluation removal and minimizing the impact of risk by protecting the people exposed to such a risk d. Planning and organization of training sessions to staff or people involved so that they can be able to know how to handle themselves in case a fire broke out e. Reviewing and frequent updating of the system Some of the features that are taken into consideration include the following: Buildings evacuation strategy; this may involve any of the following Straight evacuation strategy; where everybody will be able to easily get out of the building safely in case of a fire Delayed evacuation strategy: people are retained in their rooms and at the same time the fire is being put out this will give more time needed for evacuation process. Escape time and distance the building designs should allow people to easily get out of the fire area with the shortest possible route out saving on time. A long escape route may lead to higher number of causalities. Number of escape routes and exits the higher the number the easier the evacuation process and the less causalities are obtained in case of a fire incidents (Fahy et al 1997) 2. What are the possible hazards (relating to fire safety) in the following buildings: 20-storey office building The main risk here is to be able to hold people in their rooms as the fire is being attended to give more time for safer evacuation procedure (Fahy et al 1997) 20-storey residential building Complete evacuation of the people in case of a fire incident will be very tough this is so because a lot of exit routes are needed which should be short. But for such a tall building there are only long escape routes from the third flow exposing the people to a high number of causalities(Fahy et al 1997) 3-storey aged care building The aged building material is usually weak and because of this it’s very difficult to control fires which arise as the building material will readily burn supporting the combustion process. (Fahy et al 1997) 2-storey shopping centre The main challenge would be to have enough exit routes which can accommodate a larger number of people at a go since with a shopping centre a lot of people are around and would need to be quickly evacuated through the exit doors with minimum stampede causalities. (Fahy et al 1997) REFERENCE 1. Brennan, P. (1997). ‘Timing human response in real fires’, Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium, Yuji Hasemi (ed.), World Congress Centre, Melbourne, Australia. 2. Bryan, J. (1995). ‘Behavioral response to fire and smoke’, SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 2nd edn. 3. Bryan, J. L. (1983). ‘An Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior’, the MGM Grand Hotel Fire, NFPA, Quincy, MA., USA. 4. Fahy, R. & Proulx, G. (1997). ‘Human behavior in the World Trade Centre evacuation’, Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium, Yuji Hasemi (ed.), World Congress Centre, Melbourne, Australia 713–24. 5. Horasan, M. & Bruck, D. (1994). ‘Investigation of a Behavioral Response Model for Fire Emergency Situations in Secondary Schools’, 4th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science Proceedings, ISFPA, Gaithersburg, MD, USA 715–26. 6. Jones B. K. & Hewitt A. J. (1986). ‘Leadership and Group Formation in High Rise Building Evacuations’, Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the First International Symposium, Hemisphere Publishing Corp. Washington,DC, USA 513–22. 7. Pauls, J. (1996). ‘Movement of people’, SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 2nd edn, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA.,USA. 8. Proulx, G. (1995). ‘Evacuation time and movement in apartment buildings’, Fire Safety Journal, 24 (3), 229–46. Read More