- Composite wood joist fire sprinkler design area incrase how to#
- Composite wood joist fire sprinkler design area incrase code#
It classifies buildings according to a risk profile based on occupancy, fire growth rate, ventilation conditions and building height. It seeks to allow the development of solutions based on an understanding of the causes of risk to life and how these can be mitigated.
Composite wood joist fire sprinkler design area incrase code#
This can be reduced by 30 minutes if a sprinkler system is installed.īritish Standard 9999: the Code of Practice for Fire Safety in the Design, Management and Use of Buildings is an alternative to Approved Document B. For example, an office that is less than 18m tall must maintain structural stability for 60 minutes during a fire. Structural fire resistance periods vary between 30, 60 and 90 minutes, according to the occupancy and the height of the building, and requirements change at 5, 18 and 30 metres. The regulations do not specify what a “reasonable period” is, but Approved Document B contains guidance on this. For fire, the relevant publication is Approved Document B (2006).Īn example of a functional requirement that covers structural stability in a fire is that “the building shall be designed and constructed so that, in the event of a fire, its stability will be maintained for a reasonable period”. The government publishes a set of “approved documents” to explain how these requirements can be met.
Composite wood joist fire sprinkler design area incrase how to#
These functional requirements outline what must be done, but do not address how to achieve this. The Building Regulations for England and Wales set out the legal obligations for building designers. “This means we can be confident in the way it performs.” Building Regulations “The good thing about steel is that we know a lot about it and how it behaves,” says Florian Block, senior structural fire engineer at Buro Happold. Steel’s great advantages are that it is non-combustible and that there is a tremendous amount of research into how it performs in a fire. Meanwhile, the fire performance of concrete - with its variety of mixes and formulations - is hard to define. However, slender timber is generally protected by fire-rated board and great care needs to be taken on the detailing of this and on maintenance over its lifetime. Knowing the pros and cons of various construction materials and how they can affect the design is essential.ĭetailed, chunky timber structures, for instance, can perform well by slowly forming a char layer. When it comes to fire performance technology architects should not leave it all up to the fire engineer.