Devil in the detail

Cian Davis

Engineers Ireland Fire & Safety Division Annual CPD Seminar 2022

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 1

 Devil in the detail

INTRODUCTION

• Period of significant change in the industry

• Effects of Priory Hall
• Effects of Grenfell
• Much more scrutiny of fire safety and more responsibility on the fire engineer
• RIBA 5 (construction phase) previously never appointed, now standard
• BCAR
• New construction methods add to complexity
• Vital part of improvement is discussion between industry professionals
• Share some findings and start some debate
• Not claiming to be right!

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 2

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PROFILE

• B.Eng and Ph.D in UL

• Moved to UK in 2009 with no fire safety experience
• 9 years with Trenton Fire
• Moved to multi-disp in 2018 to start FE team
• Involved in various industry groups
• Member of review group for PD 7974-2:2019
• Co-founded UK Fire & Smoke Modelling Forum
• Member of IFE Modelling SIG, EI Fire & Safety Division Committee
• Moved back to Ireland in 2020 as Director of Fire Safety for AFEC
• Long established Irish Fire Safety Consultancy
• Full fire safety service – fire safety design, architecture, M&E
• Much greater involvement for me in the practicalities

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 3

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PROTECTION OF STEEL

• I am not a structural (fire) engineer!

• Specification of protection period not enough
• Need also to specify limiting temperature
• Standard 550°C/620°C are from BS 5950-8 (now withdrawn)
• Eurocode requires calculation based on calculated load at fire limit state (FLS)
• Common debate about “secondary” structure not needing protection
• Structure that contributes at the FLS needs protection
• Does the detail get lost in the cracks between the structural engineer and the fire engineer?
• Architectural detailing around intumescent paint – structure is there to fix things to!

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 4

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ROOF STRUCTURE

• TGDB: The following are excluded from the definition of elements of structure for the purposes of these provisions:
• (a) a structure that only supports a roof
• But the roof structure often provides lateral stability, so can’t automatically apply this
• Additional consideration needed to confirm before structural fire protection removed
• Another instance of required discussions between structural and fire engineer
• What about fire resistant walls on the top floor? Is the 1.5m recommendation either side enough?
• Is there any point to the 1.5m recommendation? (“it’s a detailing nightmare”)

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 5

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STUD PARTITIONS

• Easiest to build partitions straight

• Test by assessment
• Required because it isn’t feasible to test every iteration
• But who can perform assessment? Does it depend on the extent of deviation?

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 6

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APARTMENT GUIDANCE

• Irish design guidance refers to British – specifically BS 5588-1 (published 22 years ago, withdrawn 11 years ago)
• Single stair allowed to any height (in theory)
• Recent examples in UK where public criticism resulted in tall single stair designs being revoked
• Does having 2 stairs adjacent to each other address the risk?
• Irish guidance has welcome recommendation of L3X system
• Not clear on what activates full evac
• Is removing “defend-in-place” approach reasonable?
• Additional Irish recommendations apply for firefighting shafts
• Which bit is ventilated?
• Compatible with BD2410 (BR213179)?
• Where do you measure the travel distance (7.5m for single)?
• Can you use the sprinkler extensions from BS 9991?

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 7

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CAVITY BARRIER

• When used as part of an FR buildup, is that a cavity barrier or fire-stop?

• Definitions
• Cavity barrier - A construction provided to close a concealed space against penetration of smoke or flame, or provided
to restrict the movement of smoke or flame within such a space.
• Fire stop - A seal provided to close an imperfection of fit or design tolerance between elements or components, to
restrict or prevent the passage of fire and smoke.
• Not much difference! So what FR does a cavity barrier need?
• Generally tested between masonry elements – so what do we do in standard rainscreen buildup?
• TGD B suggests that cavity barriers needed in enclosed cavities of stud partitions

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 8

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B4

• Guidance notes anything not achieving FR should be regarded as unprotected

• However, FSC applications generally only count glazed area as unprotected
• Stud partitions generally only certified when doubled-sided (except Shaftwall)
• Additional detailing needed (e.g. around windows, sockets, other penetrations)
• Masonry can achieve – but there are height limits and what if it’s tied back to non FR structure?
• Note the methods in BR187 make certain assumptions
• Based on elevation being mirrored on other side of boundary
• Result of tables is flux on mirrored boundary is no more than 12.6 kW/m²
• Assumes protected area is evenly distributed across assessed elevation
• More detailed assessment methods available
• Use equations in BR 187 to create a spreadsheet
• Thermal Radiation Model (TRA) – fire-engineering-software.com

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 9

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MODELLING

• Couldn’t leave it out! (But my experience is in UK )

• Relies heavily on the practitioner to demonstrate appropriate experience, skill and judgement
• Applies to empirical correlations too (e.g. PD 7974-2, BR368 equations)!
• Linked back to underpinning research
• Use caution when steady-state is modified to transient
• If it seems too good to be true, it is!
• Review at every stage – otherwise you will get caught out
• Warning! CFD heavy points approaching!
• D*/δx is not a replacement for a grid independence study
• You can’t model a profile with a single datapoint!
• Boundary effects!

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 10

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BCAR

• Part B was a big driver to adoption

• Differing interpretation of role of Assigned Certifier
• Extremes:
• Collate documentation from Ancillary Certifiers
• Final reviewer and checker of everything
• So does Assigned Certifier need experience in all parts of Building Regs?
• EI Advice: If claims are brought in respect of errors in certification it is therefore possible that claims could be brought
against the individual certifier in addition to his employer. Employers need to be alive to this and have commercially
sensible strategies in place to provide comfort to their employees
• First test case will be keenly watched

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 11

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THANK YOU!

• AFEC colleagues
• Denis Lenihan
• Claudine Keogh
• Ashling Kelleher
• External structural experts
• Dr. Victoria Janssens (ARUP)
• ChunMan Tang (ARUP)
• Dr. Danny Hopkin (ORS, UK)

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022 Nº 12

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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Fire & Safety CPD Seminar 2022