FIRE Protection

DEFINITION

 Resistant to fire that, for a specified time and under

conditions of a standard heat intensity, it will not fail
structurally and will not permit the side away from the
fire to become hotter than a specified temperature.
 NFPA 251 Standard for Methods of Tests of Fire
Resistance of Building Construction and Materials
 FIRE RESISTANCE LEVEL

 The FRL is the ability of a building element to withstand a fire

under test conditions for a certain period of time and consists of the
three criteria listed below:
1. structural adequacy
2. integrity
3. .insulation
 STRUCTURAL FIRE PROTECTION.
 fire-resistance rated walls:
firewalls not only have a rating, they are also designed to
sub-divide buildings such that if collapse occurs on one side, this will
not affect the other side. They can also be used to eliminate the need
for sprinklers, as a trade-off.
 fire-resistant glass :
Glass using multi-layer intumescent technology or wire
mesh embedded within the glass may be used in the fabrication of fire-
resistance rated windows in walls or fire doors.
 Fire-resistance rated floors:
1. occupancy separations (barriers designated as occupancy
separations are intended to segregate parts of buildings, where
different uses are on each side; for instance, apartments on one side
and stores on the other side of the occupancy separation).
2. closures (fire dampers) Sometimes fire stops are treated in building
codes identically to closures. Canada de-rates closures, where, for
instance a 2-hour closure is acceptable for use in a 3-hour fire
separation, so long as the fire separation is not an occupancy
separation or firewall. The lowered rating is then referred to as a fire
protection rating, both for fire stops, unless they contain plastic
pipes and regular closures.
 Firestops:
Grease ducts (These refer to ducts that lead from
commercial cooking equipment such as ranges, deep fryers and double-
decker and conveyor-equipped pizza ovens to grease duct fans.) In
North America, grease ducts are made of minimum 16 gauge (1.6 mm)
sheet metal, all welded, and certified openings for cleaning, whereby
the ducting is either inherently manufactured to have a specific fire-
resistance rating, OR it is ordinary 16 gauge ductwork with an exterior
layer of purpose-made and certified fireproofing. Either way, North
American grease ducts must comply with NFPA96 requirements.

.
 Cable coating :
Application of fire retardants, which are either endothermic or
intumescent, to reduce flamespread and smoke development of
combustible cable-jacketing.
 fireproofing cladding :
Boards used for the same purpose and in the same applications as
spray fireproofing .Materials for such cladding include perlite,
vermiculite, calcium silicate, gypsum, intumescent epoxy, Durasteel
(cellulose-fibre reinforced concrete and punched sheet-metal bonded
composite panels), MicroTherm
 spray fireproofing:
Application of intumescent or endothermic paints, or fibrous or
cementitious plasters to keep substrates such as structural steel,
electrical or mechanical services, valves, liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) vessels, vessel skirts, bulkheads or decks below either 140 °C
for electrical items or ca. 500 °C for structural steel elements to
maintain operability of the item to be protected.
 Enclosures:
Boxes or wraps made of fireproofing materials, including fire-
resistive wraps and tapes to protect speciality valves and other items
deemed to require protection against fire and heat—an analogy for this
would be a safe or the provision of circuit integrity measures to keep
electrical cables operational during an accidental fire.
 Fire Resistance Rating
 Fire-resistive barriers are evaluated in testing furnaces by exposure
to a fire whose severity follows a time-varying temperature curve
known as the standard time-temperature curve. The curve was
adopted by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
in 1918 and has been the basis for almost all fire-resistance testing
ever since .
 Building materials are provided a rating on their ability to resist the
effects of fire without failure, which is typically expressed in hours.
Tests used to evaluate the fire resistance of material include
Underwriters Laboratories 263: ‘‘Fire Tests of Building
Construction and Materials,’’ ASTM E119: ‘‘Methods of Fire Tests
of Building Construction and Materials,’’ and NFPA 251: Standard
Methods of Tests of Fire Endurance of Building Construction and
Materials (NFPA 2002b, § 2-1).
 These fire-resistance tests contain detailed test procedures, a guide
on the restraint required, if any, and a suggested format for reporting
results. The standards also specify the preparation and conditioning
of the test specimen and acceptance criteria, which are specific to
the element tested.
 . In general, the test continues until failure, which may include any
of the following (NFPA 1997, 7–51):
Failure of test specimen to support a load Temperature
increase on unexposed surface of 250F above ambient Passage of heat
or flame sufficient to ignite cotton waste Excess temperature on steel
members Failure of walls and partitions under hose stream Information
on a building material’s fire-resistance rating is available from a variety
of sources such as the UL Fire Resistance Directory and Building-
Materials Directory. The Fire Resistance Directory provides hourly
ratings for a variety of building components, such as beams, columns,
and floors. The Building Materials Directory contains a listing and
classification for various building materials based on flame-spread
ratings.
 MAJOR TYPES OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
The construction of a building has a significant
influence on its fire and life safety and capabilities (NFPA 1997, 7–3). Building
construction for life safety includes the layout of the facility, the traffic-flow
patterns of the occupants, the types of construction materials used, and their
fire-resistance ratings. The design of the facility can aid in preventing the fires
from occurring and, once they do, limit the spread of the fire through
containment. The NFPA has developed a classification system for building
types. All buildings and structures shall be classified according to their type .
 FIRE-PROTECTION FEATURES
Fire protection of building elements is provided for two reasons:
(1)to prevent the spread of fire within or into the building during an
uncon trolled fire, and
(2) (2) to ensure that, even under that exposure, the building frame or
elements of that frame will not collapse (NFPA 1997, 7–17).
 Occupant protection in today’s buildings improves the safety of
people by slowing the spread of smoke and flames.
Compartmentation limits the size of the fire. The goals of room
compartmentation in confining a fire to the room or suite of rooms
of origin are to generally segregate a space with a higher level of fire
hazard than the surrounding area and to minimize the risk of loss to
an occupant of one space as a result of a fire in a space controlled by
another. The most common failure of compartmentation is that a
door is left open
FIRE RESISTANCE OF AREAS ADJACENT TO EXTERNAL AREAS
Fire resistance classes

The fire resistance of building components and constructions

are classified in different fire resistance classes or
combinations of those. The different fire resistance classes
specify different performance criteria.
Normally the fire resistance classification is followed by as a
time limit in minutes 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, or 360
which shows the time the performance criteria is fulfilled
during a standardized fire test.
Requirements for the classes
R Load bearing capacity
E Integrity
I Insulation
W Radiation
M Mechanical resistance
C Self closure
S Smoke leakage
K Fire protection (coverings)
 R Load bearing capacity
 The load bearing capacity, R, is the ability for a building element to
resist a fire when exposed on one or several sides and when
supporting an external load during a time period without losing its
stability. The performance criteria varies on the type of construction.
The two following things are distinguish between:

 Elements that are axial loaded (for example columns and walls)
where the requirements are the rate of deformation and maximum
deformation.
 E Integrity
 The integrity E is the ability of a test specimen of a separating
element of building construction, when exposed to fire on one side,
to prevent the passage through it of flames and hot gases and to
prevent the occurrence of flames on the unexposed side. The
requirements are the following:

 - cracks gaps of certain dimenisons

 - ignition of a cotton wool pad

 - sustained flaming on the unexposed side

I Insulation
 The insulation is the ability of a test specimen of a
separating element of building construction when exposed
to fire on one side, to restrict the temperature rise of the
unexposed face to below specified levels.
 W Radiation
 The radiation W is the ability of the element of
construction to withstand fire exposure on one side only,
so as to reduce the probability of the transmission of fire
as a result of significant radiated heat either through the
element or from its unexposed surface to adjacent
materials. The element may also need to protect people in
the vicinity.
 M Mechanical action
The mechanical action M is the ability of the element to
withstand impact, representing the case where structural
failure of another component in a fire causes an impact on the
element concerned. The test is carried out immediately after
the building element has been tested during a certain time for
another classification (R, E or/and I).
 C Self closing
 The self closing C is the ability of an open door or window
to close fully into its frame and engage any latching device
that may be fitted, without human intervention, by stored
energy, or by mains power backed up by stored energy in
case of power failure.
S Smoke leakage
 The smoke leakage S is the ability of an element of
construction to reduce the passage of hot and/or cold gases
or smoke from one side of the element to the other to
below specified levels.
 Fire resistance rating
 A fire-resistance rating typically means the duration for
which a passive fire protection system can withstand a
standard fire resistance test. This can be quantified simply
as a measure of time, or it may entail a host of other criteria,
involving other evidence of functionality or fitness for
purpose.
The following classifications may be attained when testing

Class 125 Rating

 This rating is the requirement in data safes and vault structures for
protecting digital information on magnetic media or hard drives.
Temperatures inside the protected chamber must be held below 125
°F (52 °C) for the time period specified, such as Class 125-2 Hour,
with temperatures up to 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) outside the vault. The
temperature reading is taken on the inside surfaces of the protective
structure. Maintaining the temperature below 125 °F. is critical
because data is lost above that temperature threshold, even if the
media or hard drives appear to be intact.
 Class 150 Rating
 This is the rating required to protect microfilm, microfiche, and
other film-based information storage media. Above 150 °F (65.5 °C)
film is distorted by the heat and information is lost. A Class 150-2
Hour vault must keep the temperature below 150 °F. for at least two
hours, with temperatures up to 2,000 °F. (1,093.3 °C) outside the
vault.
Class 350 Rating
 This rating is the requirement for protecting paper documents.
Above 350 °F (176.7 °C) paper is distorted by the heat and
information is lost. A Class 350-4 Hour vault must keep the
temperature below 350 °F. for at least four hours, with temperatures
up to 2,000 °F. (1,093.3 °C) outside the vault.
THANK YOU