FIRE PROTECTION OF STEEL STRUCTURES ... - CISC-ICCA

Many organizations such as the SFPE have
enhanced the dissemination of information
related to fire protection engineering.
Recently, collaboration among Building Code
organizations in Australia (Building Codes
Board), New Zealand (Department of Building
and Housing), the United States (International
Code Council) and Canada (National
Research Council of Canada) has resulted in a
500-page document entitled International Fire
Engineering Guidelines that was published in
2005 by the Australian Building Codes Board.
These guidelines set the stage for more fire
safety design of buildings by aiding both the
authorities who approve building designs and
the practitioners who are plying the relatively
new approaches to fire protection engineering.
In summary, designers, especially fire protection
engineers, use PBD to demonstrate that buildings
meet the fire safety levels required by the Code
without adopting all of the prescriptive Code
provisions. Most building designs still follow
the prescriptive-based design requirements in
NBCC’s Division B, Part 3, Fire Protection, Occupant Safety and
Accessibility, however, there is a strong demand from design
groups and developers to design some areas of buildings, such
as main entrances and atriums, using fire protection engineered
analysis as an alternative solution.
There are many examples where a PBD approach has led to
steel components in the building structure being designed to be
unprotected or with a significant reduction in fire protection materials.
The confluence of the release of the first objective based
National Building Code of Canada (2005), the development
of sophisticated modelling software and the expansion of the
Fire Protection Engineering corps, provides expanded design
possibilities for architects and their design team. Historic
restrictions may now be reviewed in detail to ensure that safety
is the first consideration for the team while opening opportunities
for design flexibility. These alternative solutions add to the
knowledge base and tools that are available to the architect and
their design team.
George S. Frater is Codes and Standards Engineer at the
Canadian Steel Construction Council in Markham, ON.
Carol Kleinfeldt is Principal at Kleinfledt Mychajlowycz Architects
Inc. in Toronto, ON.
S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 A D V A N T A G E S T E E L
FiRE PROtEctiON
Unprotected steel floor assembly using fire protection engineering
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