PASSIVE FIRE PREVENTION
Passive Fire Prevention is the only solution to contain the fire, as it is fire that operates the Passive Fire Prevention Products, here no human or electrical power needed.
Passive Fire Prevention Products are available for all those places that can ignite and spread the fire. Compartmentalization of the building with Passive Fire Prevention Products can turn the building into Built-in fire Protection. In the vicinities containing high voltage electrical junction boxes and plumbing for flammable home use gasses (methane/propane), Fire Barriers are the ultimate solution to stop the fire whereas Doors, Furniture and fittings can be protected with coating of intumescent paints.
Compartmentalization of buildings can dramatically reduce the spread of fire from one section to another. Passive Fire Products are very flexible, which is the key to guarantee a solution for any kind facility.
A high-rise building is one in which emergency evacuation is not practical and in which fire must be fought internally because of height. The usual characteristics of such a building are:
- Beyond the reach of fire department equipment
- Poses a potential for significant stack effect
- Requires unreasonable evacuation time
High rise facilities present a unique fire safety requirement to designers. Getting fire fighters and equipment to the fire location is the primary challenge for high-rise fire fighting. It may take more than thirty (30) minutes to position fire fighters and begin manual suppression tactics for fires located on high level floors.
Fighting a high-rise fire typically requires extensive resources. Fire fighters quickly become exhausted while simply trying to reach the fire and deploy equipment. Fires on high levels are normally not reachable by fire fighting apparatus; therefore, fire fighters must use interior stairs to ascend to the fire. Occupants are usually descending down the same interior stairways that fire fighters are trying to ascend to reach the fire.
The primary means of way out for high-rise buildings are stairways. Elevators are typically considered unsafe during a fire.
In many cases, however, this is not typical. The use of stairways often results in more significant queuing and delayed egress times from the high-rise building. Often, the sheer height and distance between upper floors and the ground makes way out very long compared to non high-rise buildings.
The role of the fire door is one of the most important elements of fire protection in a building. Its effectiveness in resisting flames and smoke helps to prevent a fire from spreading, thus saving property and lives by allowing time for the occupants to escape. The fitting of a fire door is more complex than it seems. For example, a fire door must have intumescent material around either the door edge or the frame. Smoke seals should be fitted, and the door furniture should be installed with fire protection in mind.
Intumescent paint and Smoke seals has been designed to maintain the integrity of the fire door, particularly doors used in a house of multiple occupants. Existing doors can be upgraded to fire-rated doors by utilizing intumescent Paint and Smoke seals.
Wind effects can also significantly impact air and smoke movement in high-rise buildings. Wind effects are dependent on temperature, building height, and surrounding environment. The combined effects of wind and stack effect strongly impact how air and smoke move within high-rise buildings. Since high-rise buildings stack many floors directly above one another, an increased fuel load is placed directly above fires occurring within high-rise buildings. High-rise fires, which have not been controlled, have shown a trend towards burning for very long periods of time. Passive fire Prevention Products like Intumescent Slabs, Fire and Smoke stopping pillows, Acrylic Mastic and etc. became a Fire barrier and reduce the spread of smoke and fire, Built-in Fire protection is an exceptional means to stop the fire by using Passive Fire Prevention of the structure.
The World Trade Centre Disaster enabled Engineers to provide a safer environment for the users of similar and other types of buildings. The Passive Fire Prevention Systems to enable building designers and fire safety engineers, if they so wish, to design buildings, and specify passive fire protection products and systems, which can provide a higher level of protection than that currently require Passive fire protection is a barrier or shield, stopping the spread of fire from one area to another.
From the perspective of a Fire protection Engineer, the design of a building can be approached to achieve certain safety goals. Complex buildings such as the World Trade Centre and even, in the event that they existed, they are of questionable effectiveness. Furthermore, if a scenario such as the one of September 11th, 2001 needs to be considered as a possible event during the life of the building, design on the basis of safety goals is the only path that can be followed.
A fire has a significant effect on a structure but the characteristics of the compartment that encloses the flames also have an impact on the nature of the fire. Temperatures within the compartment and duration of the fire are defined by the supply of fuel and oxidizer as well as being affected by heat transfer through the compartment boundaries. Fuel generation, in turn is the result of energy feedback from the flames.
It is clear that as the height of the building increases the time to evacuate the occupants will increase. As can be noted, the burning rate is strictly dependent on the incoming air or ventilation factor. It is important to note that these empirical relationships between the burning rate and the ventilation can be supported by simple analytical expressions allowing for the calculation of the conditions within the compartment.
If the burning rate can be established then, knowing the heat of combustion, the energy release rate can be calculated and thus the temperature of the compartment. An element that still remains un-addressed is the fraction of the energy that remains within the compartment. Passive fire Products are the best solution for compartmentalization.
To estimate the evacuation time, all point out to the conclusion that evacuation of a floor (or a limited number of floors) to an adjacent area is feasible within the characteristic times corresponding to the fire reaching non-tenable conditions.
Structural integrity of the area needs to be achieved in the absence of any form of fire control and passive protection for a time that tends to infinity.
The rest of the building needs passive protection systems can be assumed to remain in place. The reliability of active suppression systems under the Fire conditions would have to be assessed in great detail. Unlike Active fire protection products such as sprinkler systems, fire alarms, fire extinguishers & fire hoses which become active in the event of fire, passive fire products remain non active and only work in the area which is affected by the Fire as its fire which operates the Passive fire products, no human or electrical support is needed.
One of the reasons modern skyscrapers are not fire resistive is the central air-conditioning system installed in someof them. A central air system in a high-rise building interconnects 10 to 20 floors for the purpose of heating and cooling. Ducts, shafts, and poke-through holes, floors, walls, and ceilings. These air conditioning openings and holes allow fire and smoke to spread throughout the 10 or 20 air-conditioned floors of a high-rise building. The spread of fire and smoke through the central air conditioning system kills everyone present in the room as fire burns and smoke kills. The air-conditioning system pumps Smoke, heat, and flame throughout the vicinity.
All of these compromise the ability of the fire integrity of the room. These penetrations need to be filled with passive fire products, such as fire doors & glass both with suitable fire rated frames and hardware. Power points, lights, and switches are also required to be suitably fire rated. A high-rise building can be defined as a structure more than 75 feet high if your aerial ladder reaches only 75 feet or as a structure more than 40 feet high if your highest ladder is a 40-foot extension ladder. People trapped in a burning high-rise building who cannot be reached by your highest ladder will leap to their deaths. The hazard are those things in vicinity which will turn into the fuel of fire or ignition of fire all these objects must be protected by Passive fire Prevention Products as the in the high raised buildings fire fighter need more time than a single story building more times mean more things to burn more hot gases and Fumes, As the fire spreads very quickly the only way to stop the spread of fire is compartmentalization. Divide and Rule.
MOHAMMED IMRAN
Technical Passive Fire Consultant
ENVIROGRAF UK
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