Fire resistance level assessments in buildings and development of appropriate input data

One of the concerns with some fire safety engineering quantitative assessment tools is that they are limited in their application and scope and yet, they are regularly adopted for performance based assessments beyond their limitations. Almost all formulae and calculation methods used in fire safety engineering assessments have empirical basis. In other words, the accuracy of their estimations is directly related to the experiments they were based on. Their robustness becomes highly jeopardised once their applications are extended to conditions beyond their limitations. This concern applies to the assessment of issues related to structural performance (i.e. fire resistance levels) of buildings. Another concern relates to the availability and accuracy of fire load density data utilised in the aforementioned formulae. Fire load density data is typically obtained from fire load survey studies referenced in relevant guideline documents and publications. In most instances, the fire load data may be outdated or inappropriate for the proposed application. In the context of Australian buildings no such fire load density data is available either in fire load surveys or published data. The objectives of this paper are to discuss various aspects of fire severity and time equivalence assessments; identify the impact of input parameters to the assessments and present the scope and outcomes of a research study in relation to the one of key input parameters, namely the fire loads