Fire Risk Analysis of a 6-storey Residential Building Using CUrisk

AbstractA quantitative fire risk analysis computer model CUrisk is being developed at Carleton University to evaluate the fire performance of buildings. For different fire scenarios, fire conditions in all the compartments of a building can be predicted by the Smoke Movement and Fire Growth submodels. CUrisk also considers fire spread from the compartment of fire origin to other compartments using the newly developed Fire Spread submodel. The results of these submodels as well as the outputs of the Occupant Response and Evacuation submodels are used by the Life Hazard and Economic Loss submodels to determine the consequences of each scenario in terms of expected number of deaths or injuries and fire losses. CUrisk takes into consideration the effect of different fire protection measures such as sprinkler systems, detectors and alarms and fire department actions. After analyzing all the possible fire scenarios, two final decision making parameters, the Expected Risk to Life and Fire Cost Expectation are calculated. A case-study using a six-storey residential building has been conducted using CUrisk and results are presented and analyzed in this paper.© 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Science and Technology