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Draft prEN1991-1-2:2002

E.4 Rate of heat release Q

(1) The growing phase may be defined by the expression :

2
⎛ t ⎞
Q = 10 6 ⎜⎜ ⎟
⎟ (E.5)
⎝ tα ⎠
where

Q is the rate of heat release in [W]

t is the time in [s]

tα is the time needed to reach a rate of heat release of 1 MW.

(2) The parameter tα and the maximum rate of heat release RHRf , for different occupancies, are given in
Table E.5

Table E.5 — Fire growth rate and RHRf for different occupancies.

Max Rate of heat release RHRf

2
Occupancy Fire growth rate tα [s] RHRf [kW/m ]

Dwelling Medium 300 250

Hospital (room) Medium 300 250
Hotel (room) Medium 300 250
Library Fast 150 500
Office Medium 300 250
Classroom of a school Medium 300 250
Shopping centre Fast 150 250
Theatre (cinema) Fast 150 500
Transport (public space) Slow 600 250

(3) The values of the fire growth rate and RHRf according to Table E.5 are valid in case of a factor δ q 2
equal to 1,0 (see Table E.1).

(4) For an ultra-fast fire spread, tα corresponds to 75 seconds.

(5) The growing phase is limited by an horizontal plateau corresponding to the stationnary state and to a
value of Q given by (RHRf ⋅ Afi )

where
2
Afi is the maximum area of the fire [m ] which is the fire compartment in case of uniformly distributed
fire load but which may be smaller in case of a localised fire.
2
RHRf is the maximum rate of heat release produced by 1 m of fire in case of fuel controlled conditions
2
[kW/m ] (see Table E.5).

(6) The horizontal plateau is limited by the decay phase which starts when 70% of the total fire load has
been consumed.