FIRE SAFETY

Passive Fire Protection of Civilian Buildings

Passive fire protection (PFP)
• is an integral component of the three
components of structural fire
protection and fire safety in a
building. PFP attempts to contain
fires or slow the spread, through use
of fire resistant walls, floors, and
doors (amongst other examples).
PFP systems must comply with the
associated Listing and approval use
and compliance in order to provide
the effectiveness expected by
building codes.
Structural fire protection
• Fire protection in a building,
offshore facility or a ship, is a
system that includes:
• Active fire protection, which
can include manual or
automatic fire detection and
fire suppression.
 Structural fire protection
• Passive fire protection, which
includes compartmentalisation of the
overall building through the use of
fire-resistance rated walls and floors.
Organization into smaller fire
compartments, consisting of one or
more rooms or floors, prevents or
slows the spread of fire from the room
of fire origin to other building spaces,
limiting building damage and
providing more time to the building
occupants for emergency evacuation
or to reach an area of refuge.
Structural fire protection
• Fire prevention includes minimizing
ignition sources, as well as
educating the occupants and
operators of the facility, ship or
structure concerning operation and
maintenance of fire related systems
for correct function, and emergency
procedures including notification
for fire service response and
emergency evacuation.
Main characteristics
• The aim for passive fire protection systems is
typically demonstrate in fire testing the ability to
maintain the item or the side to be protected at or
below either 140 °C (for walls, floors and
electrical circuits required to have a fire-
resistance rating) or ca. 550 °C, which is
considered the critical temperature for structural
steel, above which, it is in jeopardy of losing its
strength, leading to collapse. This is based, in
most countries, on the basic test standards for
walls and floors. Smaller components, such as
fire dampers, fire doors, etc., follow suit in the
main intentions of the basic standard for walls
and floors. Fire testing involves live fire
exposures upwards of 1100 °C, depending on the
fire-resistance rating and duration one is after.
More items than just fire exposures are typically
required to be tested to ensure the survivability
of the system under realistic conditions.
Main characteristics
• To accomplish these aims, many different types
of materials are employed in the design and
construction of systems. For instance, common
endothermic building materials include concrete
and gypsum wallboard. During fire testing of
concrete floor slabs, water can be seen to boil out
of a slab. Gypsum wall board typically loses all
its strength during a fire. The use of endothermic
materials is established and proven to be sound
engineering practice. The chemically bound
water inside these materials sublimes. During
this process, the unexposed side cannot exceed
the boiling point of water. Once the hydrates are
spent, the temperature on the unexposed side of
an endothermic fire barrier tends to rise rapidly.
Too much water can be a problem, however.
Main characteristics
• Concrete slabs that are too wet, will literally
explode in a fire, which is why test
laboratories insist on measuring water
content of concrete and mortar in fire test
specimens, before running any fire tests.
PFP measures can also include
intumescents and ablative materials. The
point is, however, that whatever the nature
of the materials, they on their own bear no
rating. They must be organised into
systems, which bear a rating when installed
in accordance with certification listings or
established catalogues.
Main characteristics
• Passive Fire Protection measures are
intended to contain a fire in the fire
compartment of origin, thus limiting the
spread of fire and smoke for a limited
period of time, as determined the local
building code and fire code. Passive fire
protection measures, such as firestops, fire
walls, and fire doors, are tested to
determine the fire resistance rating of the
final assembly, usually expressed in terms
of hours of fire resistance (e.g., 1/3, 3/4, 1, 1
1/2, 2, 3, 4 hour). A certification listing
provides the limitations of the rating.
Main characteristics
• Contrary to active fire protection measures,
passive fire protection means do not
typically require electric or electronic
activation or a degree of motion. Exceptions
to that particular rule of thumb are fire
dampers (fire-resistive closures within air
ducts, excluding grease ducts) and fire door
closers, which must move, open and shut in
order to work, as well as all intumescent
products, which swell, thus move, in order
to function.
 Main characteristics
• Passive fire protection (PFP), as the name suggest
remains silent in your coating system till the
eventuality of a fire. There are mainly two types of
PFP. Intumescent fire protection and vermiculite fire
protection. In vermiculite fire protection, the
structural steel members are covered with vermiculite
materials, mostly a very thick layer. this is a cheaper
options as compared to an intumescent one, but is
very crude and aesthetically unpleasant. Moreover if
the environment is corrosive in nature, then
vermiculite option is not an advisable option, as there
are possibility of water seeping into (because of the
porous nature of vermiculite) and there is little scope
to monitor the corrosion aspects. Intumescent fire
proofing is a layer of paint which is applied along
with the coating system on the structural steel
members. The thickness of this intumescent coating is
dependent on the steel section used.
 Main characteristics
• For calculation of DFT (dry film thickness) a factor
called Hp/A (heated perimeter divided by cross
sectional area) is used. Intumescent coatings are
applied as an intermediate coat in a coating system
(primer, intermediate and top/finish coat). Because
of the relatively low thickness of this intumescent
coating (350-700 micrometers), nice finish, and anti-
corrosive nature, intumescent coatings are
preferred aesthetically and performance-wise. it
should be noted that in the eventuality of a fire, the
steel structure will eventually collapse once the
steel attains the critical core temperature (around
450 degrees Celsius or 850 degrees Fahrenheit). The
PFP system will only delay this by creating a layer
of char in between the steel and fire. Depending
upon the requirement, PFP systems can provide fire
ratings of up to 120 minutes and even more. PFP
systems are highly recommended in infrastructure
projects as they can save precious human lives and
assets.
Main characteristics
• PFP in a building can be described
as a group of systems within
systems. An installed firestop, for
instance, is a system that is based
upon a product certification listing.
It forms part of a fire-resistance
rated wall or floor and this wall or
floor forms part of a fire
compartment, which forms an
integral part of the overall fire safety
plan of the building, which, as a
whole, can also be seen as a system.
Examples
This I beam has a fireproofing material sprayed onto it as
a form of passive fire protection.
Examples
• fire-resistance rated walls
• Firewalls not only have a rating, they are
also designed to sub-divide buildings such
that if collapse occurs on one side, this will
not affect the other side. They can also be
used to eliminate the need for sprinklers,
as a trade-off.
• Fire-resistance glass - glass using multi-
layer intumescent interlayer technology to
meet the test standards. The glass is
optically clear, and can be used in 60 minute
and 120 minute fire resistance rated
assemblies. The International Building
Codes (IBC) allows this glass to be installed
as a fire-rated wall.
 Examples
• SCHOTT PYRANOVA® - Special
glass for integrity and insulation fire
resistant glazing.
PYRANOVA® fire-resistant glass is a
clear, laminated composite glass,
consisting of at least two float glass
panes. A transparent fire resistant
layer, which foams in the case of fire,
is incorporated between the panes.
PYRANOVA®, applied in fire
resistant glazing, avoids the passage
of fire, smoke and heat radiation.
PYRANOVA® meets the safety and
insulated fire resistant requirements
of many applications, in double
glazed or butt jointed systems.
The PYRANOVA® Planline system
provides fire protection with an
appealing look in which the glazing
fits flush to the frame construction.
Examples
• fire-resistance rated floors
• occupancy separations (barriers designated as
occupancy separations are intended to segregate
parts of buildings, where different uses are on
each side; For instance, apartments on one side
and stores on the other side of the occupancy
separation.
• closures (fire dampers) Sometimes firestops are
treated in building codes identically to closures.
Canada de-rates closures, where, for instance a 2
hour closure is acceptable for use in a 3 hour fire
separation, so long as the fire separation is not
an occupancy separation or firewall. The
lowered rating is then referred to as a fire
protection rating, both for firestops, unless they
contain plastic pipes and regular closures.
Examples
• firestops
• grease ducts (These refer to ducts that lead
from commercial cooking equipment such
as ranges, deep fryers and double-decker
and conveyor-equipped pizza ovens to
grease duct fans. In North America, grease
ducts are made of minimum 16 gauge (1.6
mm) sheet metal, all welded, and certified
openings for cleaning, whereby the ducting
is either inherently manufactured to have a
specific fire-resistance rating, OR it is
ordinary 16 gauge ductwork with an
exterior layer of purpose-made and
certified fireproofing.
 Examples
• cable coating (application of fire-retardants, which are either
endothermic or intumescent, to reduce flamespread and smoke
development of combustible cable-jacketing)
• spray fireproofing (application of intumescent or endothermic
paints, or fibrous or cementitious plasters to keep substrates
such as structural steel, electrical or mechanical services,
valves, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, vessel skirts,
bulkheads or decks below either 140 °C for electrical items or
ca. 500 °C for structural steel elements to maintain operability
of the item to be protected)
Examples
• fireproofing cladding (boards used for the
same purpose and in the same applications
as spray fireproofing) Materials for such
cladding include perlite, vermiculite,
calcium silicate, gypsum, intumescent
epoxy, DuraSteel (cellulose-fibre reinforced
concrete and punched sheet-metal bonded
composite panels), MicroTherm
• enclosures (boxes or wraps made of
fireproofing materials, including fire-
resistive wraps and tapes to protect
speciality valves and other items deemed to
require protection against fire and heat—an
analogy for this would be a safe) or the
provision of circuit integrity measures to
keep electrical cables operational during an
accidental fire.
 Examples
• Durasteel is a unique, non-combustible, high
performance fire protection composite panel that
provides 4 hour fire protection, in addition to being
blast, seismic, vibration and moisture resistant. It
requires no foundations when installed and is
maintenance free with a 40 year design life.