FIRE SCIENCE

PROJECT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................4

TABLE OF FIGURES.................................................................................................5

CHAPTER ONE...........................................................................................................5

1.0 OVERVIEW..................................................................................................6

1.1 BACKGROUND...........................................................................................6

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVES.........................................7

CHAPTER TWO..........................................................................................................8

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................8

2.0.1 Fire Statistics in Hong Kong (2016-2020)..................................................8

2.0.2 Fire Growth and Effect..............................................................................12

2.0.3 Evacuation of Occupants...........................................................................17

2.0.4 Comparison between school and residential building fire strategies........25

2.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................34

2.2.1 PyroSim.....................................................................................................34

2.2.2 Pathfinder..................................................................................................35

CHAPTER THREE....................................................................................................37

3.0 METHODOLOGY...............................................................................................37

3.1 Fire Load Calculation.......................................................................................37

3.2 PyroSim modeling............................................................................................39

3.2 Pathfinder modelling........................................................................................43

CHAPTER FOUR......................................................................................................46

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 4.0 DESIGN AND RESULTS...............................................................................46

4.1 School block.................................................................................................46

4.1 Residential Block.........................................................................................49

CHAPTER FIVE........................................................................................................51

5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION...............................................51

5.1 CONCLUSION................................................................................................51

5.2 RECOMMENDATION................................................................................51

REFERENCES...........................................................................................................52

APPENDICES............................................................................................................55

APPENDIX A1 SCHOOL PLAN DRAWING......................................................55

APPENDIX A2 RESIDENTIAL PLAN DRAWING............................................56

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Fatalities in Fires in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)............................................9

Table 2: Fire injuries in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020).....................................................9

Table 3: Fire classification in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)..........................................11

Table 4:Classification of Fires by Causes in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)...................12

Table 5: Occupation calculation table (Building Authority, 1996)............................18

Table 6: Showing minimum number of exit doors (Building Authority, 1996)........20

Table 7: Single staircase building limitation on direct distance and travel distance

(Building Authority, 1996).........................................................................................21

Table 8: Two or more staircases building limitation on direct distance and travel

distance (Building Authority, 1996)...........................................................................21

Table 9: Permissible variations for corridor, door and stair widths and travel distance

corresponding to room height (British Standards Institution, 2017)..........................22

Table 10: Occupancy characteristic (British Standards Institution, 2017).................25

Table 11: Fire growth rate (British Standards Institution, 2017)...............................26

Table 12: Risk profile (British Standards Institution, 2017)......................................27

Table 13: Risk profile examples (British Standards Institution, 2017)......................27

Table 14: Fire protection measures (British Standards Institution, 2017).................28

Table 15: Management levels part A (British Standards Institution, 2017)...............29

Table 16: Management levels part B (British Standards Institution, 2017)...............30

Table 17: Ventilation conditions (British Standards Institution, 2017).....................32

Table 18: Fire resistance table (British Standards Institution, 2017).........................33

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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The fire triangle..........................................................................................13

Figure 2: Inner room variations (British Standards Institution, 2017).......................23

Figure 3: Dead-end corridor arrangement (British Standards Institution, 2017).......24

Figure 4: Straight horizontal evacuation example (British Standards Institution,

2017)...........................................................................................................................24

Figure 5: External protection to staircase (British Standards Institution, 2017)........34

Figure 6: PyroSim user interface................................................................................35

Figure 7: Pathfinder user interface.............................................................................36

Figure 8: Plan background in PyroSim......................................................................40

Figure 9: PyroSim model with slab and external walls..............................................41

Figure 10: PyroSim model shell.................................................................................42

Figure 11: PyroSim polyurethane properties..............................................................43

Figure 12: PyroSim model run...................................................................................43

Figure 13: Pathfinder model.......................................................................................44

Figure 14: Pathfinder run...........................................................................................45

Figure 15: PyroSim school lock smoke view at 56 seconds of fire breakout............46

Figure 16: Pathfinder school block occupancy distribution.......................................47

Figure 17: Pathfinder school block model with a single exit.....................................47

Figure 18: School block crowding with one exit.......................................................48

Figure 19: PyroSim school block smoke view at 100 seconds of simulation............48

Figure 20: PyroSim school lock smoke view at 56 seconds of fire breakout............49

Figure 21: Pathfinder residential block model with a single exit...............................50

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CHAPTER ONE

1.0 OVERVIEW

Hong Kong has had a burst of population growth over several decades that has been

supported by the industrial growth over the duration. The industrial and commercial

growth has increased the demand for residential buildings. The population growth in

Hong Kong of the residence and increased immigration has led to the decline of

children. The reduced number of students has led to increased closure and

demolition of schools to make way for residential and commercial development.

The report examines the repurposing of a seven-storey building into a residential

block. The gist of the report is the impact of the school's change of use on fire safety

strategies. The repurposing of the structure is in line with the increased demand for

public housing and the reduction of waste from the demolition of the structure.

The repurposing of the school block will lead to change in the fire protection system

of the structure in line to accommodate residential occupation. The transformation

starts with the change in the plan layout of the structure and the fire design

corresponding to the change.

1.1 BACKGROUND

The current structure is used as a school with seven storeys occupied by the school

covered by a roof floor. The plan of structure is as shown in Appendix A1. The

structure is changed to fit residential space as shown in Appendix A2.

The project is geared towards the process of fire design with the assistance of Fire

Dynamics Simulation (FDS) software. The software of choice is PyroSim and

Pathfinder developed by Thunderhead engineering. The software is used to simulate

the outbreak of fire in a structure and give a measure of important parameters such as

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wall temperature, visibility, air temperature, smoke and velocity of the smoke from

the fire. These parameters assist greatly in the location of the fire fighting equipment

and the development of fire evacuation of the persons occupying the structure during

the fire event.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVES

Fire breakouts are a serious risk to the occupants and property of a building and

therefore paramount to put in place systems for prevention of outbreaks. In the case

where fire event occurs then there should be systems to allow for fighting the fire

such as sprinklers and fire extinguishers. There is a scenario where the fire may

overwhelm the fire fighting systems and human safety is paramount and therefore

safe evacuation of occupants is prioritized. The change of use of the structure from a

school to a residential block has the advantage of the reduction of the occupants of

the building. This reduces the evacuation time as there will be less crowding at the

staircase way and the staircase landing. There is an extra risk associated with a

residential fire outbreak such as increased furniture and fabric materials which are

fuel to the fire and therefore a breakout in a residential building will have fire with a

higher intensity and spread.

The objective of the report is to examine the change in use of the building and the

corresponding effects on the fire protection systems and evacuation of the building.

The fire protection design is directed by the fire codes from Hong Kong with the

support of those from United Kingdom (Eurocode).

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CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

A fire event is accidental and therefore something that cannot be predicted and

therefore it is important that measures be placed to prevent the loss of life and

minimise the loss of property. The report will cover the following;

i. Fire Statistics in Hong Kong in past five years

ii. Fire Growth & Effect

iii. Evacuation of Occupants

iv. Comparison between school and residential building fire strategies

2.0.1 Fire Statistics in Hong Kong (2016-2020)

The fire statistics for Hong Kong have been acquired through the courtesy of the

Hong Kong Fire Services Department. There are three areas to be covered by the fire

statistics namely;

i. Fire fatalities

ii. Fire injuries

iii. Fire alarm classification

2.0.1.1 Fire fatalities in Hong Kong (2016-2020)

Since 2016, the trend has seen a steady decline in the deaths from fire events until

2020 when the number of fire deaths rose again (Hong Kong Fire Services Review

2020).

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 Fire fatalities in Hong Kong
30
26
24

Number of fatalities
25
21
20 17
15 14

10

0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

Table 1: Fatalities in Fires in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)

(Refer to Hong Kong Fire Services Review 2020)

2.0.1.2 Fire Injuries in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)

In 2017, 335 people were injured in fires, the highest in nearly five years. After

2002, the number of people injured in the fire gradually decreased. 2019 was the

year with the fewest injuries, with just 295.

Fire injuries in Hong Kong

340 335
330
Number of injured

320
310 307 307

300 295
290
290
280
270
260
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

Table 2: Fire injuries in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)

(Refer to Hong Kong Fire Services Review 2020)

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2.0.1.3 Fire alarm classification in Hong Kong (as of 2020)

For Hong Kong's fire alarm classification (2020), accidental alarm fires are the most

common fire alarms in terms of numbers (Fire Services Hong Kong Review 2020),

which also includes false alarms. Subtract the total number of unwanted alerts and

that's just 5,766 fires.

A total of 226 cases of deliberative categories of institutional buildings (i.e. schools)

in Hong Kong accounted for 3.9% of the total number of actual fire alarms. Among

the 5,766 fire cases, 1,965 were from residential quarters and residential buildings,

accounting for 34.4% of the 6,786 fire cases. The secondary classifications of fires

are vegetation fires and other fires, each with more than 1000 cases. In addition, fires

in commercial establishments, electricity, factories, public areas, shanty towns,

vehicles and boats were among the fires with the lowest incidence. Each category

has fewer than 500 cases, some of which have fewer than 100 cases. Although the

number of actual fire cases is small compared to the total number of fire records, fire

prevention measures cannot be underestimated, and fire safety is an important factor

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of our concern.

Table 3: Fire classification in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)

(Refer to Hong Kong Fire Services Review 2020)

2.0.1.4 Causes of fire in Hong Kong (as of 2020)

Among fire causes, food (stove overcooked), miscellaneous, general electrical

failure, and careless handling or discarding of cigarette butts, matches and candles

are the most common fire causes, often occurring in housing estates and residential

buildings Hong Kong Fire Services Department Review 2020).

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Table 4:Classification of Fires by Causes in Hong Kong (2016 – 2020)
(Refer to Hong Kong Fire Services Review 2020)

The number of fire accidents has been on the rise in recent years. Therefore, it

becomes more important to consider possible risks and proper evacuation methods.

These are the ways to protect users when their lives are in danger.

2.0.2 Fire Growth and Effect

The concept of fire and its development have a very important impact on the

discussion of fire safety. Therefore, it is necessary to further understand the concept

of fire and its development.

2.0.2.1 The principle of fire

Fire is a rapid oxidative process accompanied by the production of heat, light, flame

(glowing gas) and sound (Drysdale D. 1998).

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Chemical Equation: Fuel + Oxygen - Products – Heat

Figure 1: The fire triangle

The building blocks of fire require fuel, oxygen, and heat to form. And these three

elements will form a Fire Triangle. Fire would not exist if any of these elements

were absent. While the fire is present, removing either of them will extinguish the

fire. So, the fire triangle is indispensable.

The amount of fuel in a space is specified by the fire load density, expressed as the

heat content of the combustible material (or the equivalent weight of wood) per unit

floor area. Oxygen in the air is controlled by space volume, window area and

ventilation arrangement. The heat must have originally come from a source such as a

gas range, electrical fault, etc. Lighted cigarettes etc. But once the fire starts burning,

the heat released by the combustion is fed back to the fuel (Per Ake Olsson). Fire is

self-sustaining.

2.0.2.2 Stages of fire

When a fire breaks out in a room (compartment fire), its development depends on the

combustibles on site (for example paper, carpet, and wooden chair), the nature of the

surrounding building (walls, ceiling, and floor) and the adequate air supply. They are

often discussed in term of growth stages which are incipient, growth, flashpoint,

fully developed and decay.

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Incipient stage: This is the first step to fire formation that involves ignition but with

no spreading of the fire. At this stage the fire is at an intensity where it can easily be

extinguished through use of portable firefighting equipment. The incipient fire is

identified by the ability to see the fire and put it out. This stage ends when visibility

is hindered by smoke and the need to use structured firefighting equipment such as

fire hydrants and fire engines. The fire in this stage has several distinguishing

characteristics;

 Localized flames i.e. not spread over a wide area.

 Clear visibility of the area with fire. The occupants of a building are not

choked by smoke and therefore breathe easily.

 Fire escape is easy without visibility and breathing problems.

 Low emission of heat where compared to the next stages.

 The smoke alarm at this stage will go off.

Growth stage: At this stage the fire is self-sustaining. The early stages of growth

involve the spread of fire through the material from an ignition source. The basic

mechanism relies on the fact that the fire itself generates more heat than is needed to

facilitate the initial combustion reaction. The available heat of the burning substance

and its rate of release become important factors in determining the spread of the fire.

Therefore, the growth of the fire will be an accelerated process as excess heat is

generated and fed back to the unburned fuel. In the early stages of a containment

fire, the fire was small and had negligible interactions with the compartment. Fires

are like open space fires. But an important factor in determining the initial rate of

spread is the proportion of heat generated that is lost to the local environment. It

depends on geometric and physical parameters such as the shape of the fuel, the

orientation, the presence of edges, corners, the source, and the heat reflectivity of the

gas flow. The heat referred to as "heat lost in the material" will still be retained
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within the system. Heat lost by conduction to other parts of the material raises its

ignition temperature. Convective and radiative heat loss warms the compartment and

adjacent materials. Gases from the fire form a plume and rise to a level below the

ceiling, warming the walls and thus re-radiating heat. At this stage, the fire can be

referred to as a compartment fire, and the development of the fire will be influenced

by the geometry and physical properties of the compartment. Ventilation will play an

important role in controlling growth rate.

The growth stage is characterized by the following factors;

 Steady supply of oxygen to sustain the growth of the fire.

 There is billows of smoke and formation of a smoke layer. The formation of

a layer of smoke at the ceiling level with an estimated depth of two feet from

the top.

 Increase in the room temperature.

 The condensation of vapour that had formed on the windows disappears due

to increase in heat.

 The appearance of dark stains on the window glaze.

 Cracking of the window glass.

Flashover: Is characterized by the rapid rise in the fire intensity. This stage is

between the growth and full development of the fire. Flashover refers to the almost

instantaneous eruption of the flammable material in an enclosed space with fire.

Fully developed: Fire at this stage is burning at its hottest temperature with the

burning up of available fuel. The heat referred to as "heat lost in the material" will

actually still be retained within the system. Heat lost by conduction to other parts of

the material raises its ignition temperature. Convective and radiative heat loss warms
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the compartment and adjacent materials. Gases from the fire form a plume and rise

to a level below the ceiling, warming the walls and thus re-radiating heat. At this

stage, the fire can be referred to as a compartment fire, and the development of the

fire will be influenced by the geometry and physical properties of the compartment.

Ventilation will play an important role in controlling growth rate. When the flame

reaches the ceiling, it is deflected horizontally. Because oxygen is entrained more

slowly in the hot smoke layer, the unburned gases in the fire diffuse until they mix

with enough oxygen to burn. So early on. Convective heat is responsible for the

general increase in temperature. Then there is radiation, especially the downward

radiation of flame layers and hot gases on the ceiling. will contribute to the

increasing rate of fire growth (Quintiere J.G. 2006). The rate of development of

many fires approximate to a parabolic growth after an initial incubation period, this

Q=ax (+-4. j Where a is fire growth coefficient (kW/s?) and to is the initial

incubation time(s).

The fully developed stage is characterized by the following;

 Black dense smoke.

 Flames obscured by smoke.

 Darkened window glazing.

 Very high temperatures.

 Flame visibility from outside.

Decay: This is the longest stage that is characterized by reduction in the intensity of

fire due to the reduction of the available fuel. The entire contents are burning, and

the rate of temperature rise is significantly slower. At this stage, the fire becomes

airy and controllable. Severity depends on available air supply. This is because

combustible materials decompose very quickly. It is impossible to get enough air

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into the compartment to achieve complete combustion. So, the very hot gas

overflows the compartment and burns when mixed with enough oxygen. That's why

we can see long flames coming out of the window.

This can be severe when hot air enters other parts of the building through doors,

ducts, etc. Typically, the size of the opening (such as window area) will control the

ventilation rate. The rate of incoming air will determine the burning rate of a "draft

controlled" fire. The following is a rough estimate of the burn rate for a "ventilated

control" fire. (Fire Behaviour Indicators and Fire Development - Part 2. 2008).

Fire can be forced into the decay stage through cutting the supply of oxygen and fuel

to the fire. Fire is manageably when localized to one area to prevent spreading to

other areas. There is a very high risk of reignition of fire when fuel and oxygen are

available.

The stages of fire are important for the following reasons;

 Finding the most efficient fire extinguishing method.

 Prediction of the progression of fire.

 Reduced risk to firefighting personnel.

2.0.3 Evacuation of Occupants

2.0.3.1 Storey occupation

The process of evacuation first begins with the identification of the occupation of the

building as explained by (Building Authority, 1996). The calculation of the

occupation of the structure is influenced by the use of the building as shown in Table

1 below.

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Table 5: Occupation calculation table (Building Authority, 1996)
The school occupation is defined by clause (o) as having a population density of one

person per 2 m2 while for the residential block is defined by clause (k) having one

person per 4.5 m2.

2.0.3.2 Fire exit response

The exit of occupants of the building during a fire event is mostly triggered by the

automatic smoke detection device that sounds the fire alarm. There is the use of

manual fire alarm triggers that may be used in the case of failure of the automatic

smoke detection system. The response to the alarm is many influenced by the type of

occupancy. The familiarity of the environment by the occupants plays a key role to

the response time as explained by (Green & Joinson, 2010). Office block occupants

will have one of the least responses and evacuation times due to the familiarity and

several fire drills carried out over the occupation of the building. In residential

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blocks familiarity with the surroundings and the systems is high due to training and

longer occupation duration.

2.0.3.3 Building exit requirements

The exits of the building are recommended to join into the main street without any

barriers. The exits are recommended not have doors but when there are doors then

they should easily open without the need of a key. The exit is recommended to be

well lit and have water sprinklers to fight fire that may occur of move into the exit

route (Building Authority, 1996).

2.0.3.4 Number of staircase and exits

The number of staircases for building access should not be less than two for those

with more than 6 storeys or 17 metres of height for the top most occupied floor. The

school block has only one staircase which was less than the requirements of

(Building Authority, 1996). The repurposing of the school to a residential block is in

line with the Hong Kong code.

The number of exits per storey is another very important aspect in the process of

evacuation. The requirement of the number of exits is pegged to the occupancy of

the storey as explained by (Building Authority, 1996). The occupancy also affects

the minimum width of the exit doors and exit routes which can be a single exit or a

summation of several exits from a storey as shown in the table below.

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Table 6: Showing minimum number of exit doors (Building Authority, 1996)
The travel distance and direct distance are important parameters in the location of the

exits from the building. Direct distance is the from a room to the route used to access

the fire exits while travel distance is the distance from the room to the exit through

the exit route. The (Building Authority, 1996) provides the travel distance and direct

distances for a structure that has one single staircase and another with two or more

exit staircases below.

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Table 7: Single staircase building limitation on direct distance and travel distance
(Building Authority, 1996)

Table 8: Two or more staircases building limitation on direct distance and travel
distance (Building Authority, 1996)
2.0.3.5 Ceiling height

The ceiling height is something that is very important through increasing the

capacity to hold smoke before getting to critical levels that hinder breathing and

visibility. There is a possibility of increasing the travel distance, reduction of exit

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and widths through provision of high ceilings as explained by (Green & Joinson,

2010).

Table 9: Permissible variations for corridor, door and stair widths and travel
distance corresponding to room height (British Standards Institution, 2017)
2.0.3.6 Inner rooms

The provision of an inner room from the individual rooms is something that is

discouraged but is allowed when some conditions are met as explained by (Building

Authority, 1996). An inner room is one where it’s exit goes through another room

referred to as the access room before getting to the main exit corridor as shown in the

diagram below.

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Figure 2: Inner room variations (British Standards Institution, 2017)
The conditions of an inner room are;

 Not having a capacity over and above 30 persons.

 The room does not go through another room.

 The travel distance from the inner room to the exit does not exceed the one

stipulated in the recommended tables.

 The route from the inner room to the exit does not go through more than one

access rooms.

 The provision of fire protection measures such as automatic smoke detectors

and fire alarms to notify those in the inner room in the case of fire breakouts

in the access room.

2.0.3.7 Dead-end corridors

There is also the presence of dead-end corridors that are required to fire protected

when they exceed a length of 2 metres. When the length of the dead-end corridors

exceeds 4.5 meters then it is required that a separation with fire doors to another

corridor is implemented (Green & Joinson, 2010).

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Figure 3: Dead-end corridor arrangement (British Standards Institution, 2017)
2.0.3.8 Straight horizontal evacuation

The evacuation of a storey is best done when the compartmentalization walls are

present. The compartmentalized arrangement is shown below. This approach is best

suited for persons who are not able to move freely such as ones on wheel chairs. The

straight horizontal exit routes to the staircase are easy to follow through even for

those people not familiar with the building.

Figure 4: Straight horizontal evacuation example (British Standards Institution,

2017)
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2.0.4 Comparison between school and residential building fire strategies

2.0.4.1 Risk profile

The process of fire design for a building begins with the evaluation of the risk profile

of the structure. The two main parameters that drive the fire design of a structure is

the occupancy and fire growth as explained by (Green & Joinson, 2010). The

evaluation of occupancy is premised upon most of those within the building knowing

their way around. In addition to familiarity of the environment there is an added

design criterion to accommodate persons with disability. The selection of occupancy

is determined by use as shown in the table below but in the cases where the

description is not clear then the selection of a higher requirement is advised.

Table 10: Occupancy characteristic (British Standards Institution, 2017)

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The fire growth rate is influenced by the building use and management (Green &

Joinson, 2010). Fire growth rate is an important aspect in the determination the

means of escape and the severity of the fire on the structure. The selection of the fire

growth rate is flexible and requires the consideration of the use of the building and

the type of materials that will be present.

Table 11: Fire growth rate (British Standards Institution, 2017)

The use of the slow fire growth rate is highly discouraged because of the flexibility

of the structure for use that may fall under the medium and fast growth rates. The

most preferred growth rate is the fast one because it will comfortably accommodate

three classes of fire growth rate. The selection of ultra-fast fire growth is used for the

industrial purpose due to the high cost of insulation of the structural elements to

prevent their deterioration by fire.

Risk profile combines occupancy and fire growth rate tables to give a flexible

selection for many buildings with various uses as shown in the table below.

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Table 12: Risk profile (British Standards Institution, 2017)
For the school building the risk profile selected is B3 which falls under

“Archive/Reading” area with a fast fire growth rate as shown in the table below

The residential building will fall under the Cii2 category as “Bedroom/ bed-sitting

room” with a medium fire growth rate as shown in the table below.

Table 13: Risk profile examples (British Standards Institution, 2017)

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2.0.4.2 Minimum management level and fire protection measures

The identification of the risk profile is followed by the management level and

corresponding fire measures to be able allow for safe evacuation of the occupants of

a building.

Table 14: Fire protection measures (British Standards Institution, 2017)

Fire alarm system are categorized into three broad categories namely types P, L and

M with subdivision of the categories as elaborately explained by (British Standards

Institute, 1988).

The type P category are those with automated detection for the sole purpose of

property protection and is subdivide into;

 Type P1 with installation all over the structure.

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  Type P2 with selective installation in the structure.

The type L category are those with automated detection for the sole purpose of life

protection and is subdivided into;

 Type L1 with installation throughout the building.

 Type L2 with selective installation in the building inclusive of those areas

identified in type L3.

 Type L3 involves system installation for escape route protection.

The management level of a building is something that is flexible and dynamic when

occupation is considered. A good example is as the building ages then more care is

required and therefore an increase in management level. The level of management is

shown in the table below.

Table 15: Management levels part A (British Standards Institution, 2017)

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Table 16: Management levels part B (British Standards Institution, 2017)
The final system is type M which is a manual system without any subdivisions.

For the school building the fire detection and alarm response is L2 while the

management level is 1 as shown in the table above.

The residential building has a fire detection and alarm response of L2 while the

management level is 1 as shown in the table above.

2.0.4.3 Allowable variations in fire escape features

The identification of the management levels and fire protection features assists in

going on to identify the possibility of varying the fire escape features. The first

variation is the ceiling height that allows for the increase in the travel distance as

shown in the ceiling height table.

The ceiling height for both the school building and the residential block are 2.8

metres of height and therefore under the 3 metres threshold and therefore no

variation of the travel distance will be allowed in both cases.

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The Hong Kong code will be used to determine the number of persons occupied per

storey from Table 1. The occupation density of the school is given by clause (o) with

2m2 occupied per person while that of the residential block is given by clause (k)

with 4.5m2 occupied per person. The estimated area of occupation is 487m2.

487
For the school building, =244 persons per storey
2

487
For the residential block, =109 persons per storey
4.5

The school building has a more than double the residential block and therefore

require a higher threshold for escape features. For both arrangements there is a

requirement of a minimum number of 2 exits as from Table 2 for which they pass

that requirement.

For the residential block the cumulative width of the exit doors is 1800 millimetres

which passes the minimum of 1750 millimetres. The cumulative width of the exit

doors of the school building is 1800 millimetres which is less than the requirement

of 2500 millimetres as shown in Table 2.

For the residential block the width of the exit doors is 900 millimetres which passes

the minimum of 850 millimetres. The school building exit doors are 900 millimetres

in width which is less than the requirement of 1050 millimetres as shown in Table 2.

2.0.4.4 Minimum fire resistance period

The fire resistance of the building is the ability to withstand a standard fire for a

certain minimum duration. The evaluation of fire resistance is to prevent the collapse

of a structure through the limit of spreading of fire. The fire resistance will be time

below which the insulation, stability and integrity of a structure is not compromised.

Insulation of a structure is determined through testing of the opposite phase of an

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element such as a wall for the incremental rise of temperature. An increase of more

than 180oC will indicate failure of insulation. Integrity of a structure is compromised

when a crack appears on an element and heat and gases pass through therefore

spreading fire.

The fire resistance of the structure is dependent on the ventilation requirements of

the structure as shown below.

Table 17: Ventilation conditions (British Standards Institution, 2017)

The ventilation conditions above are assumed to be fulfilled in order to be able to

utilize the fire resistance table below.

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Table 18: Fire resistance table (British Standards Institution, 2017)
The height of the structure is 21 metres (7 Storeys with floor to floor height of 3

metres). The school building has a risk profile of B3 which will require the structure

to have a fire resistance of 105 minutes as shown in the table above. The residential

has a risk profile of Cii which will require the structure have a fire resistance of 75

minutes as show in the table above. It is observed that the fire resistance requirement

for the residential building is less than that of the school and therefore the

repurposing of the structure will not fail this requirement

2.0.4.5 Compartmentation and fire protection

Compartmentation refers to the separation of areas of a building with fire protection

barriers to prevent the movement of fire to the neighbouring area. Compartments

help in firefighting through isolation and when it is extremely serious then it limits

spreading of the fire to adjacent compartment (British Standards Institution, 2017).

Compartmentation is used in the following circumstances;

 To support of the straight horizontal evacuation.

 To allow for systematic evacuation.

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  Separation of individual floors for buildings rising more than 30 metres.

 Separation of basement storeys from the ground storey for those than go

deeper than 10 metres below the natural ground.

 Separation of areas of the building with different risk profiles and therefore

different fire resistance and escape requirements.

For this project the building does not require compartmentation but will make use of

the fire resistance protection of the fire exit staircase. The fire protection of the fire

exit staircase is through;

 Separation from the main building with materials which are of higher fire

resistance than the structure such as reinforced concrete walls (Building

Authority, 1996).

 Protection of the all the entry doors to the fire escape staircase with the use of

fire doors.

 Isolation of the fire escape staircase from use for storage of materials that do

not assist in firefighting such as extinguishers.

Figure 5: External protection to staircase (British Standards Institution, 2017)

2.1 INTRODUCTION

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2.2.1 PyroSim

This is the software with a graphical user interface to carry out Fire Dynamics

Simulation (FDS) (Thunderhead Engineering, 2019). The software models fire

breakouts in a building and other important infrastructure such tunnels. The software

gives an output of fire parameters such as temperature, smoke, carbon monoxide,

carbon dioxide and other fire related releases. The use of this software assists in;

 Fire protection system design of buildings and infrastructure.

 Testing of existing fire protection systems.

 Firefighting training.

 Fire accident investigation through post fire analysis.

PyroSim creates different fire scenarios using the Computational Fluid Dynamics

(CFD) to incorporate extent and magnitude of the fire (Thunderhead Engineering,

2019). The extent of fire models ranges from simple cigarette lit fires to those

breakouts in fuel storage areas.

Figure 6: PyroSim user interface

2.2.2 Pathfinder

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This is the software with a graphical user interface used to model human movement

(Thunderhead Engineering, 2019). The software is used to simulate movement in 2D

and 3D interface and generate parameters such as evacuation time in the case of the

fire alarm going off during a fire event.

Figure 7: Pathfinder user interface

Pathfinder makes use of 3D visualization human movement with good graphical

output. The movement gives a time history that traces the possible movement

patterns in the case of a fire emergency. Pathfinder assists in;

 Design of number and location of fire exits

 Identification of movement clash zones through crowding

 Identification of movement obstructions

 Identification of maximum number of occupants allowable for safe

evacuation.

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CHAPTER THREE

3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Fire Load Calculation

The process of fire modelling using Fire Dynamics Simulation (FDS) starts with the

assumption of the items that are located in the room.

The method to estimate the underlying risk of the fire load by the heat content by

Drysdale (Dougal Drysdale, 2011), and have a local survey report in Hong Kong (W.

K. Chow & H. T. Kot,), the fire load in room of residential building can be estimate

by:

Fire Scenario 1 of the room of residential building:

a) The Wallpaper (0.28 kg m2)

Area = 43.4m2

Cal. value = 7000 Btu lb (x 2321 = J kg)

Heat = 43.4 (0.28) (7000) (2321)

= 197.43MJ

b)4 nos. of Chairs:

Assume 14 kg wood, 4 kg upholstery (70% wool 30% rayon)

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Cal. value in Btu/lb:

Wood = 8000

Wool = 8900

Rayon (cellulose) = 7500

Heat = [14(8000) + 4[0.7(8900) + 0.3(7500)] (2321)] (4)

= 418.89 MJ

c)Tea table

Assume 8 kg wood

Heat = 8 x 8000 x 2321

= 148.54MJ

c) Desk + Cabinet with drawers

Assume 15 kg wood average

Heat = (15) (8000) (2321)

= 278.52MJ

d) Wardrobe (15 kg wood)

Heat = 15(8000) (2321)

= 278.52 MJ

e) 2 nos. of Bed Assume 35 kg PU mattress and 50 kg wood + 1 kg pillow (wool) +

0.5 kg bed clothes (cotton)

Heat = [35 (16,000) (2321) + 5 (8000) (2321) + 1(8900) (2321) + 0.5(7200) x

2321]x2

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= 2844 MJ

f) Drapery (cotton, 0.45 kg/m2)

Area = 20 m2

Heat = 0.45 x 20 x 8900 x 2321

=186 MJ

g) Sofa peak heat release rates as follows:

Heat = 3120 KW

Total fire load in the room:

197.43+418.89+148.54+278.52+278.52+2844+186=4351.9 MJ

The Unit heat release rate of the room:

Qu=q/1200

(section 6.5.3.2) (The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers London,

2019))

Qu=(4351900kJ)/1200+3120

Qu= 3626.6+3120

Qu= 6746kW

3.2 PyroSim modeling

The fire design of the project culminates in the modelling of two facilities which are

the school block and the residential building. There are a few assumptions that will

allow for carrying out the project;

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 i. The fire exit staircase is assumed to be a fire protected and therefore the

movement from the storey floor to the stairway ensures protection from fire.

ii. The storey levels do not play a crucial role in this scenario. The evacuation

focused on is from the fire area to the stairway which is considered a refuge

area.

iii. The lifts are not to be used for evacuation. The lifts are assumed to have

waiting time which may be difficult to quantify considering the position of

the lift during the evacuation process.

iv. The doors to the exits are fire doors that will not fail at any point during the

fire. This assumption will ensure that when the fire breaks out at the bottom

storey then safe evacuation of occupants on the top most floor through the

fire exit stairway is guaranteed.

v. All doors ad windows are assumed to be open. Growth of a fire is usually

greater when there are openings to allow for oxygen to go in.

The modelling begins with the importation of the plan view to PyroSim to act as a

template to be able to get an accurate location of the external and internal walls as

shown below.

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Figure 8: Plan background in PyroSim
The slab was modelled first to give the platform to place the walls. The slab

modelled was of a depth of 0.2 metres. The slab modelling is followed by the

placement of a mesh which is higher than the top slab and lower than the bottom

slab. The mesh provides the space over which the modelling, calculations and

simulation occur. The mesh reduces the computing power to focus on what is within

the mesh.

The external walls were modelled first and with a thickness of 0.15 metres and a

height of 3.0 metres as shown below.

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Figure 9: PyroSim model with slab and external walls
The internal walls with a thickness 0.15 metres thickness and a height of 3.0 metres

followed. The modelling of doors and windows which are referred to as openings to

the obstructions followed. The openings positions are as shown on the plan drawing

with the height of the doors provided as 2.35 metres ad that of the windows as 1.5

metres as shown below.

Figure 10: PyroSim model shell

The selection of the fire scenario for the school block is in study room 1 which is

closer to the bottom exit as shown in Appendix A1. The fire scenario for the

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residential block is in room 12 which is closest to the bottom exit as shown in

Appendix A2.

The modelling of the fire starts with the selection of fire from the library as

polyurethane. The intensity of the fire is modelled as a 3150-kW fire from the load

calculations which is for the sofa.

Figure 11: PyroSim polyurethane properties

The surfaces of the walls and slab are assumed to be concrete through the creation of

the concrete surfaces and the assignment of the surfaces to the objects. The

parameters that are picked for observation are the visibility and smoke from the fire.

The model is run as shown below.

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Figure 12: PyroSim model run
3.2 Pathfinder modelling

The fire design of the project moves the simulation of the evacuation of the storey by

the occupants. The assumptions in the use of Pathfinder are;

i. All the occupants are assumed to evacuate with the same speed which is an

average depending on the occupation.

ii. All the occupants of the storey are conversant with their environment and

therefore able to locate the nearest safest exit with the least time possible.

iii. The exit of the storey is assumed to be going the exit staircase which is per

floor. The fire exit stairway is assumed to be a safe space from fire occurring

on the storey level.

iv. The exit stairway empties with the same speed as the floor level with no

bottlenecks at the stairway.

The modelling on pathfinder is through the importation of the model from PyroSim

because of their compatibility as shown below.

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Figure 13: Pathfinder model
The synchronization of the floor is the first step in the process followed by the

placement of the exits at the staircase. This is closely followed by the addition of

occupants to the storey. There occupants of the school block are as shown on the

architectural drawing which is a population of 76 people per storey. The occupants

of the residential storey were estimated to 5 persons per room which adds up to a

total of 60 people per storey.

In addition to the occupation there is the speed of the movement of the occupants.

The occupants of the school block are assumed to move at a constant speed of 1.0

metres per second while those of the residential block will move at 0.75 metres per

second. The model is run as shown below.

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Figure 14: Pathfinder run

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CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 DESIGN AND RESULTS

4.1 School block

The PyroSim models did take a good number of minutes to run considering the

normal run for 100 seconds simulation duration. The selection of the fire scenarios is

to investigate the fire duration and its effect on evacuation. The fire is chosen nearest

to the exit because it has the possibility to render one exit not usable when the smoke

moves to the exit route to the staircase. The smoke view results from the run are as

show below.

Figure 15: PyroSim school lock smoke view at 56 seconds of fire breakout
The school block population was estimated at 76 persons as informed by the

architectural drawings. the maximum population that is estimated by the fire code is

244 persons which is from a population density of one person per 2 m2. The

distribution of the occupancy is random by the Pathfinder algorithm as shown below.

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Figure 16: Pathfinder school block occupancy distribution
The occupants of the school block are assumed to homogenous and therefore will

move faster at a constant speed of 1.0 metres per second. The occupants are mostly

young people with a fairly good knowledge of their surrounding and able to react to

fire alarm as swiftly as possible.

The evacuation of the school block only takes a maximum of 56 seconds when the

occupancy splits into two groups to their nearest exit. The Pathfinder model for the

school block was done with one exit only and the duration increased to 103.5

seconds as shown below.

Figure 17: Pathfinder school block model with a single exit

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The single exit model was observed to have crowding at one exit that really hindered

the evacuation process as shown in the figure below.

Figure 18: School block crowding with one exit

The use of a single exit is not recommended for the school block because the

duration taken to evacuate from the storey is more than 100 seconds which as

observed from the PyroSim model will allow smoke into the exit route and therefore

hinder evacuation.

Figure 19: PyroSim school block smoke view at 100 seconds of simulation

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4.1 Residential Block

The selection of the fire scenario is to investigate the fire duration and its effect on

evacuation. The fire is chosen nearest to the exit because it has the possibility to

render one exit not usable when the smoke moves to the exit route. The smoke view

results from the run are as show below.

Figure 20: PyroSim school lock smoke view at 56 seconds of fire breakout
The residential population was estimated at 60 persons as informed by the estimation

of a room occupancy of 4 persons per room. The maximum population that is

estimated by the fire code is 104 persons which is from a population density of one

person per 4.5 m2.

The occupants of the residential block are assumed to heterogenous and therefore

will move at a slower constant speed of 0.75 metres per second. The occupants are a

mix of family people with the young and old part of the population. The assumption

is that the occupants have a fairly good knowledge of their surrounding and able to

react to fire alarm as swiftly as possible but not as fast as the occupants of the school

block.

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The evacuation of the school block only takes a maximum of 65.5 seconds when the

occupancy splits into two groups to their nearest exit. The Pathfinder model for the

residential block was done with one exit only and the duration increased to 106.5

seconds as shown below.

Figure 21: Pathfinder residential block model with a single exit

The evacuation time for a single exit for the residential is close to the exit time for

the school block.

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CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Fire poses great risk to the property and occupants of a building and therefore study

of fire movement and evacuation simulation is important to understand this

important phenomenon. The modelling of the fire situation is purely predictive with

too many assumptions that may not be met an actual break out of fire.

5.1 CONCLUSION

The use of fire modelling is key in prediction of fire outbreaks but the use of

PyroSim software has a disclaimer that the results are for estimation and are in no

way equivalent to the actual situation. Circumstances of an outbreak that may be

beyond the predictive ability of the software and therefore treated as such when they

occur.

The evacuation of the residential building is much slower when compared to the

school block because of the higher response time of the occupants and also the

presence of very many walls that hinder the movement of the occupants. The

additional time required to navigate the walls was an added advantage when one exit

was used and therefore reduced crowding at the exit.

5.2 RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that the fire modelling to be done using several software and

incorporate different code of practice so as to give a comprehensive analysis and

arrive at a good conclusion. The use of PyroSim and Pathfinder from only one

company does little to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the software.

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A1 SCHOOL PLAN DRAWING

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APPENDIX A2 RESIDENTIAL PLAN DRAWING

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