Onyenobi, T; Hudson, J and Ormerod, M (2006) Impact of building geometry on fire spread rate. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006, Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
In order to encourage sustainable construction practices, the renewability and low embodied energy of timber could be harnessed through its increased use in the building industry. This can be done through timber substitution and hybrid approaches of which the Building Research Establishment in Japan is currently carrying out a Research and Development Project. Timber being a combustible material increases concerns on fire behaviour among other issues. From the above context, this research explores the impact of the building geometry on fire spread rate. This paper contains first, a validation of the Fire Dynamic Simulator code (adopted for this experiment) with UK's Building Research Establishment real fire test program (TF2000) and secondly, an experiment carried out using the three primary forms to explore the possibility of an impact of building geometry on fire spread rate. Three fire domain samples were generated with uniform parameters differing only in their morphology: triangular, circular and square plans. These were each subjected to fires of equal heat release rate and fuel loads. It was observed that none of the three samples had equal fire spread rates. When applied to the building sector this could help designers reduce adoption of fire prone geometries when designing open plan buildings with fire prone material specification like timber.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building geometry; fire; fire dynamic simulator; timber; validation |
| Index terms: | open plan, building research, sustainable construction practice, geometry, specification, fire spread, designer, experiment, Japan, building industry, program, research and development, validation, embodied energy |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, occupational health and safety management, research management, Geography, contractual condition, sustainable construction, professional development, software systems, design concepts, energy systems, profession, data collection methods, mathematical modelling |
| Topics: | Contract Administration, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Information Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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