Consultancy - Fire Engineering Exova Warringtonfire fire safety engineering We are committed to the philosophy where the fire safety design supports the vision, innovation or imagination of the building design. Introduction to Exova Warringtonfire Exova Warringtonfire offers a comprehensive range of expert fire safety services to an international market. From developing fire safety design strategies, through testing and certification of fire protection products, to inspection, commissioning and certification of completed projects, Exova Warringtonfire can help with all aspects of fire safety. Our dedicated team of professional engineers and scientists is discreet, friendly and approachable. Exova Warringtonfire is the world's leading independent fire testing, research and fire engineering organisation. Exova Warringtonfire fire technology testing services comprise fire tests and assessments to a large number of national and international standards. Exova Warringtonfire laboratories in Europe, Asia/Asia Pacific, Middle East, and the Americas are accredited ISO 17025:2005 and with their relevant testing accreditation bodies and many of our staff are recognised as international experts within their field and are actively involved in the development of new test procedures. From high-end fire safety engineering through to the audit of existing fire safety measures, Exova Warringtonfire consulting are your global partners, working with you to ensure that your building, transport system or process plant complies with current fire safety guidance in the most costeffective way. With experience in pure research, code consulting and fire behaviour, our fully qualified and experienced engineers work with the design team to ensure that the design is right, first time every time. Our experience of working on iconic projects around the world has given us unique experience in working alongside the relevant authorities in order to secure the necessary approvals, to the relevant national or international design code. This brochure briefly outlines the services that Exova Warringtonfire currently offers. In the space available it is not possible to provide comprehensive details of all our services. If you require additional information, or would prefer to speak to one of our engineers, please contact us. Exova Warringtonfire consulting is the fire engineering and consultancy division of the Fire Safety Technology group. With offices in the U.K, Belgium, Australia, China and Dubai, Exova Warringtonfire consulting is uniquely placed to offer their specialist services to any project anywhere in the world.
Consultancy Exova Warringtonfire offers a fire engineering practice of the highest technical quality; our international presence giving a truly global reach. Our qualified and experienced engineers are drawn from diverse backgrounds, including pure and applied research, fire fighting and code consulting. Exova Warringtonfire has provided design solutions to many of the iconic buildings of the last twenty years and regularly works with the world's leading architects and designers. Innovative buildings and similar complex systems demand innovative solutions, and our engineers work as part of the design team to provide high quality technical design solutions based on an objective analysis of the fire safety problems. Design, however, is often not enough; innovative design solutions require a greater understanding of the building by the end-users. Exova Warringtonfire works with the operators and users to develop management procedures and operating manuals to ensure that those who need to know are provided with the necessary information. With current trends towards risk appropriate compliance, it is necessary to gain a full understanding of the fire risks related to any building or process area. Exova Warringtonfire engineers use the most appropriate hazard identification and risk analysis techniques to provide an independent and objective assessment of fire risk, deriving appropriate mitigating measures if required. Whatever your fire safety design requirements or fire protection problems, Exova Warringtonfire can offer the appropriate solution. The consulting services of Exova Warringtonfire include strategic design, legislative compliance checking, routine fire safety audits and risk assessments, advice in litigation matters and fire safety management advice.
What is Fire Safety Engineering? Fire safety engineering is a term often encountered within the architectural and construction industries - but what exactly does it mean? Fire safety engineering is defined by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) as: The application of engineering principals, rules, and expert judgement based on a scientific appreciation of the fire phenomena, of the effects of fire, and of the reaction and behaviour of people, in order to protect people, property and the environment from the destructive effects of fire." Historically, fire safety measures have been specified by prescriptive codes that provide standard solutions for a given set of building parameters. For many buildings of straightforward construction, layout and use, prescriptive codes and standards provide the designer with an acceptable solution. However, fire safety engineering may be the only viable means of achieving a satisfactory standard of fire safety in more complex or innovative developments. In his report on the Piper Alpha disaster, Lord Cullen stated that: Many regulations are unduly restrictive in that they are of a type that impose solutions rather than objectives and are out of date in relation to technological advances. There is a danger that compliance takes precedence over wider safety considerations. Fire safety engineering addresses these identified weaknesses of the prescriptive codes. This is achieved by taking into account the total firepeople-building safety package and implementing measures that are designed for the actual fire risk in the building. This flexible but formalised approach can often provide a more fundamental and economical solution than traditional approaches to fire safety. The diagram illustrates the main features of the fire-people-building system evaluated during the fire engineering approach.
The Fire Safety Strategy Holistic Design All buildings must, as a general rule, comply with certain safety-related legislation. The rules associated with this legislation can be difficult to interpret and, if applied litterally, can have an extremely restrictive impact on a building's design Legislation varies between countries, and even within the same country; some jurisdictions even have local legislation that can impose restrictive requirements on buildings being developed in a certain area, or to certain classes of buildings. Navigating a clear path through legislation, without radically changing your building design or incurring additional costs, can seem impossible. Taking a holistic approach to the fire safety design of a building, with Exova Warringtonfire, can provide the design team with the confidence to proceed with the design in the knowledge that the chosen solution will gain the approval of the authorities having jurisdiction. A carefully developed fire strategy will demonstrate the ways in which the chosen design meets the requirements of the relevant legislation and, more than this, provides a defined philosophy around which the fire safety and fire protection measures can be further defined. The fire safety strategy, once fully developed, forms one of the key design documents, and will contain key information on the specification of systems, as well as full details and justification of any alternative, or engineered, solutions. Such is the importance of a fully integrated fire safety strategy that, in many cases, it will form the sole basis of the submission for the relevant approvals. Further to this document will be developed the various management manuals, operating instructions, cause-and-effect analyses and other documents that, together, form the keystone of modern innovative buildings. Without an effective fire strategy document, it will not be possible for the design team to have a clear understanding of the fire safety and protection philosophy, nor to fully appreciate what effects the strategy has on the design. With Exova Warringtonfire, working as part of your design team, you can be sure that your building meets all of the necessary requirements in the most cost-effective manner possible, whilst still meeting your design aspirations. With experience gained from working on some of the world's most outstanding and iconic buildings, Exova Warringtonfire can provide you with strategic advice when you need it.
Computer Modelling Many building fire safety codes contain equivalency clauses, whereby alternative design solutions can be adopted, provided it can be demonstrated that the level of safety is not diminished. In the past, the determination of equivalency has been largely based on subjective judgements and qualitative arguments. However, advances in fire safety engineering have made it possible to perform engineering analyses of the fire safety systems in the buildings, and to model the development and impact of fire in a building using mathematical modelling techniques based upon empirical data, statistics and fundamental scientific/engineering theory. Many design problems can be solved by the application of deterministic mathematical models that have been developed to address a particular aspect of the problem. These single parameter models, often derived empirically, can usually be solved by the engineer using simplistic calculations. However, more complex problems and interfaces require more detailed algorithms and calculations. In these cases fire safety computer models can prove a powerful tool. Types of computer models Zone models These types of models solve the fundamental equations of mass, momentum and energy transfer for fairly large regions or zones, within the room or compartment being modelled. Typically these models divide the compartment or room into two or more discrete zones representing the fire plume the hot smoke layer and the cooler clear layer, as shown in Figure 1 below. Field models (computational fluid dynamics) Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predicts the way that a fluid may flow for a given situation. In fire modelling, the fluid to be analysed are the gases influenced by the combustion process. The governing equations for fluid behaviour generally consist of three-dimensional, time-dependent, non-linear partial differential equations, and are often referred to as the Navier-Stokes equations. It should be reminded that fire testing can also be used as a means to collect data from real, but highly monitored, fire events. Exova Warringtonfire is uniquely placed to offer this level of performance verification. Plan view of smoke temperature and distribution in shopping mall using FDS Cross section of visibility results from rail tunnel simulation using Solvent Investigation of fire plume impact to structural steel elements using FDS CFD modelling set up of multi-storey open deck car park
Finite element analysis The finite element method is a numerical technique used for analysing continuous domains. It is often impractical and too complex to solve realistic problems using classical analytical methods (e.g. heat transfer), albeit for limited simple cases, and often restrictive assumptions have to be made with respect to geometry, material properties, and boundary conditions. With the advances in algorithms, processor speeds and memories, computers have now made it possible for numerical methods to be used to accurately predict the behaviour of structures subject to fire conditions. In addition to the reviewing heat transfer through heterogeneous materials and complex geometries, modelling of fully framed systems can be undertaken where the frame structure behaves differently, and usually better than the individual elements. This form of modelling can be undertaken during any time of the design or on existing structures to provide indication of the likely performance of a building element or system. Finite element analysis model depicting the heat transfer through a steel column and the walls of a tunnel. The colours define the temperature gradient through the systems. Full frame structural fire engineering There are many ways of designing a structure to resist fire. One option is to apply external fire protection to the structure. Another option would be to rely on the inherent fire resistance of the structure. Vulcan allows experienced fire engineers to investigate either of these options, or normally a combination of both, to find the most cost effective design. Verification of modelling package has been undertaken using real fire tests for comparison with modelling results.
Evacuation models Most guidance documents on fire safety recommend standard simple methods for calculating exit capacity. These methods are simple to use, but do not give a real indication of an evacuation. More complex analyses allow an accurate picture of the evacuation to be determined. Combining this with smoke flow model, the exits can then be sized to ensure that the occupants have sufficient time to evacuate before conditions become untenable. This can be used either to reduce the sizes of the exits that may be required (as appropriate) or to give more confidence that the exit capacity is sufficient. Evacuation through a single stair using EXODUS There are a number of ways to carry out means of escape analyses for buildings, ranging from relatively simple methods to detailed, computerbased simulations. Calculation of evacuation times Exova Warringtonfire can carry out fire engineering analyses of the actual time taken to evacuate a building. The time required once the people start to move (known as the 'movement time') is only one component of this analysis because other factors such as the alarm time and the premovement time can significantly affect the overall evacuation time. This type of analysis may therefore contain a number of elements such as a calculation of the activation time of the smoke detection system. Computer simulations Exova Warringtonfire has experience in all commonly used computerbased evacuation analysis programs EXODUS, STEPS, SIMULEX and EvacNET. The choice of which package is dependant on the scenarios considered, the graphical nature of the output requested by the client or the requirements of the relevant authority. Analysis of queuing at a stairway entry using SIMULEX High rise evacuation considering a simultaneous evacuation strategy through a single stair using STEPS FBIM can be used to consider the role of fire services in the design of a building. This tool can be used as part of a deterministically (Gantt chart) or probabilistically using a Monte Carlo simulation. Frequency 600 500 400 300 200 100 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% Cumulative Frequency Fire Brigade Intervention models FBIM is event based package to model the activities and tasks of the Fire Services from fire ignition through to control and extinguishment. The modelling allows for the consideration of the functional role of the Fire Services into the building design process and performance based design methodology. It provides the framework to measure Fire Brigade tasks on a time-line basis, and to utilise the output of other sub-systems in the decision process by using detailed analysis of time data for Fire Brigade tasks and activities. Exova Warringtonfire has significant experience in use of this design tool in both deterministic and probabilistic fire engineering analysis. 10.00% 0 0.00% 0 150 300 450 600 750 900 1050 1200 1350 1500 1650 1800 1950 2100 2250 2400 2550 2700 2850 3000 3150 3300 3450 3600 3750 3900 4050 4200 4350 4500 4650 4800 4950 5100 5250 5400 5550 5700 5850 6000 Time (s)
Fire Risk Assessment The recent trend has been to base all safety related legislation on the evaluation of risk arising from a particular hazard. Fire safety is no exception. Performance based codes can be used when designing the fire safety and fire protection facilities for a building. As the practice of fire safety engineering becomes more widely accepted, there is an associated need to evaluate the fire risk associated with any particular building design or building type. Successful fire safety engineering relies on the accurate identification of fire hazards and the objective evaluation of fire risk. From relatively straightforward qualitative fire risk assessments, through to more complex quantitative or probabilistic assessments, our engineers have experience of using a wide range of engineering risk assessment methods to help you define the associated fire risk. From the development of safety cases through to meeting the requirements of national fire safety regulations, Exova Warringtonfire will identify the most effective methods for hazard identification and risk assessment, carry out and document the analysis and provide a schedule of recommendations to enable the risk to be managed to an acceptable level. Expert Witness Exova Warringtonfire engineers are available to carry out post fire analysis expert witness testimonies.. Using our expertise in fire dynamics and our knowledge of building design, and working where necessary with our colleagues in the Exova Group, we are able to provide you with the right professional advice in support of litigation and fire loss, if required. Post-fire analysis may identify areas of a building where the relevant design codes were not adequately complied with, or where substandard workmanship or materials were used. Fire Audits An independent audit of a building may reveal deficiencies in the fire safety or fire protection arrangements; deficiencies that may prove very costly, if not catastrophic, in the event that a fire does occur. Exova Warringtonfire engineers are able to work with you to complete the audit and from there, to provide a schedule of improvements that will reduce your loss exposure in the most cost effective manner, prioritising those measures that will have the greatest impact on reducing the risk of damage from a fire. Business Continuity On a global basis, all building legislation is designed to safeguard the health and safety of the building users, and of those other people who could be affected by a fire in the building. Generally, little provision is made to reduce the damage to the building or to the building contents. No measures are required to safeguard the continuing use of the building. It is believed that about 40% of all businesses that suffer a fire, cease to continue as a viable business. Loss prevention, property protection and business continuity are all aspects of loss management that require specialist advice. Our engineers are available to provide businesses with advice and guidance on state-of-the-art fire protection systems and methodologies. Not all systems are equal, however, and we will ensure that resources are targeted to those methods and systems that will provide the best return in terms of business survivability.