This book describes a way to understand building fire performance and risk characterizations using an analytical framework that guides the thought process combined with evaluations of critical events
The systems approach described in this book will enable an individual to move back and forth between the specific behavior of individual components and the holistic performance of the building. Examples of routine applications include:
- Technical decision making. (Are the fire defenses appropriate for my objectives, and how can I improve their performance quality?)
- Prescriptive code equivalency documentation.
- Performance-based design approval.
- Fire reconstruction analysis.
- Resource management. (How can I do better with what I now have?)
- Fire risk management and resource allocation.
- Emergency planning.
- Fire ground operations planning.
Building Fire Performance Analysis will be of significant interest to fire safety practitioners making day-to-day risk informed decisions. These include building code officials, fire service officers, fire safety engineers, the fire equipment industry, insurance inspectors and underwriters, architects and facility risk managers.
Contents
- Understanding, deciding, communicating
- Fire defenses
- Basic concepts
- The anatomy of building fires
- A way of thinking
- Framework for analysis
- Prolog to applications
- Design fires
- Barriers and multiroom fires
- Barrier performance
- Detection and initial actions
- Fire service manual suppression
- Automatic sprinkler suppression
- Putting it together: The L curve
- Concepts in structural frame analysis
- Smoke analysis
- Building performance
- Risk characterizations
- Introduction to risk management
- Prevent established burning
- Decision making and communication
Appendix
Analytical Foundations
What about the numbers?
The role of judgment in engineering evaluations
Inspection report forms
Fire safety evaluators
Symbols and abbreviations
Index
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