Fire Resistive Design for   Preventing Upward Fire  Spread

Kenichi Ikeda

doi:10.20965/jdr.2011.p0558

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JDR Vol.6 No.6 pp. 558-567

(2011)

doi: 10.20965/jdr.2011.p0558

Paper:

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Fire Resistive Design for Preventing Upward Fire Spread

Kenichi Ikeda

Environment & Technical Solution Division, Shimizu Corporation, 1-2-3 Shibaura Minatoku, Tokyo 105-8007, Japan

Received:

August 1, 2011

Accepted:

October 26, 2011

Published:

December 1, 2011

Keywords:

fire, super high-rise building, upward fire spread, fire resistance, spandrel, collapse

Abstract

Recently the fires in which super high-rise building collapsed occurred relatively frequently in overseas countries. The following three reasons can be thought to the question why fire led to the collapses of the buildings: failure of first-aid fire fighting, lack of capabilities of structural member of fire compartment for preventing spread of fire, and lack of fire-resistive performance of building or its structural member. If all these conditions are met, building collapses. The second reason mentioned above all is regarded as an important factor for promoting spread of fire. Especially, defectiveness of the interlayer compartment causes upward fire spread, makes fire fighting activities from the floor above difficult, and constitutes a primary factor to make the fire large-scale. In the case of super high-rise building, lack of capabilities for preventing upward fire spread on typical floor constitutes a decisive factor in making fire extensive, because such building normally consists of continuous typical floors on the same plane surface. To prevent the upward fire spread, it is important to use higher spandrel for exterior wall of building and to construct it without fault. The height of spandrel varies depending on the intended use of the building and the shape of openings, but the height of about 1.2 m to 2.0 m is needed. In Japan in many cases the height of spandrel of a super high-rise building is around 90 cm. Using the spandrel of this size, delay of upward fire spread can be expected to some degree, but not enough to complete prevention. In addition, to prevent collapse of a super high-rise building by upward fire spread, it is indispensable to equip the system for first-aid fire fighting and use the structural members resistant to heating of fire.

Cite this article as:

K. Ikeda, “Fire Resistive Design for Preventing Upward Fire Spread,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.6 No.6, pp. 558-567, 2011.

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References

[1] J. Beitel and N. Iwankiw, “Analysis of Needs and Existing Capabilities for Full-Scale Fire Resistance Testing,” Hughes Associates Inc., Report NIST GCR 02-843, December 2002.
[2] H. Niwa, “Fire damage Investigation ofWindsor building in Madrid No.5 The learning from the recent fire accident,” Fire Vol.55, No.5, p. 32, 2005.
[3] “Fire damage Investigation of Windsor building in Madrid 2006.6.30,” Research group of Windsor building fire in Madrid.
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[7] K. Ikeda “About the structural fire safety design of super high-rise buildings,” Reconsidering about the fire safety of super high-rise building September 2006, Research material of the Research conference of Annual meeting Architectural Institute of Japan pp. 14-24, Research committee on fire safety Architectural Institute of Japan.
[8] “Fire of First Interstate Bank building and fire fighting,” Journal of Architecture and Building Science Vol.104, No.284, pp. 72-73, 1989.
[9] “Recommendation for high-rise building,” Architectural Institute of Japan, 1964.
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This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.

[1] [1] J. Beitel and N. Iwankiw, “Analysis of Needs and Existing Capabilities for Full-Scale Fire Resistance Testing,” Hughes Associates Inc., Report NIST GCR 02-843, December 2002.

[2] [2] H. Niwa, “Fire damage Investigation ofWindsor building in Madrid No.5 The learning from the recent fire accident,” Fire Vol.55, No.5, p. 32, 2005.

[3] [3] “Fire damage Investigation of Windsor building in Madrid 2006.6.30,” Research group of Windsor building fire in Madrid.

[4] [4] “World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection,” Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA 403 / May 2002.

[5] [5] S. Shyam Sunder, “Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster,” August 26, 2008.

[6] [6] “Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7,” Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1A) November 20, 2008.

[7] [7] K. Ikeda “About the structural fire safety design of super high-rise buildings,” Reconsidering about the fire safety of super high-rise building September 2006, Research material of the Research conference of Annual meeting Architectural Institute of Japan pp. 14-24, Research committee on fire safety Architectural Institute of Japan.

[8] [8] “Fire of First Interstate Bank building and fire fighting,” Journal of Architecture and Building Science Vol.104, No.284, pp. 72-73, 1989.

[9] [9] “Recommendation for high-rise building,” Architectural Institute of Japan, 1964.

[10] [10] “Structural method of Curtain wall,” Technical recommendation No.621 9^th May 2008, Building Guidance Division Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.