California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo Building 180: Baker

This project was performed as part of the requirements for completion of the Fire Protection Engineering Master’s Program at Cal Poly. This project covers a full prescriptive and performance based analysis on the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics. This building was constructed on Cal Poly’s campus in 2013 and serves occupancies such as classrooms, laboratories, and office space for students and professors. The prescriptive based analysis of this report will analyze the applicable building codes and determine if this building is compliant. Relevant codes include the 2016 California Building and the 2016 California Fire Code. In addition to these codes, the following NFPA publications will also be used in analysis: 2015 Life Safety Code (NFPA 101), the 2016 Edition of the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code (NFPA 72), and the 2016 Edition of the Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems (NFPA 13). After a full review of these relevant codes, it was determined that the building was in compliance with all codes. However, there is no data shown for a recent flow test. The last test data was from 2011 and according to code, flow tests need to be done every 10 years. The goal of the performance based design analysis of this report was to determine if the available safe egress time was greater than the required safe egress time. The available safe egress time was determined using design fires and FDS modeling. Tenability criteria was then used to determine when these models reached the conditions that no longer allowed for safe egress. The tenability criteria that was looked at includes carbon monoxide levels, visibility, heat flux, and temperature. In all of these aspects, the tenability conditions were not reached during the duration of the fire. The required safe egress time was determined through egress hand calculations and a pathfinder model. This model showed that 14.27 minutes was required for all occupants to exit the building. Thus, upon this performance based analysis, it is determined that occupants can safely egress the building in the event of a fire. Thus, from both a perspective and performance based design review, the occupants in this building can safely egress in the event of a fire