Fire Strategy and Fire Engineered Solutions at Initial Building Design Stages - Assignment Example

Building Report Name of the Institution Name of the student (Word count 2423) Part one Building sustainability and carbon reduction are some of the complex challenges that most of the building and construction companies are facing within the building industry. Considering wholesome view of the construction sector value chain means considering all aspects of the design, construction that is used and demolition of building and infrastructure, that goes beyond a mere simple occupancy itself. Energy efficiency improvements in building occupancy means that the amount of carbon emitted indirectly through the supply chain could form an even bigger proportion of the building lifetime. Carbon emission from the building comes as a result of extraction of various materials, the energy intensive process that is associated with the manufacturing and delivery of building materials and the activities of multitude of contractors. There is need to control carbon emission in the industry through proper selection of raw materials (Zhurinsh & Zandersons, 2009). There is need to review the selection of raw materials whenever a firm aims at carbon reduction and sustainable building. Production, extraction and transportation of the raw materials involve a lot of energy use and are carbon intensive, therefore in order to reduce carbon emission, it is important to select the supplier of building products and materials who are actively working to manage and control their own carbon impacts. For instance, the production of cement using fossil fuel involves intensive carbon emission therefore the producer should use alternative fuel like Cemex (Zhurinsh & Zandersons, 2009). Origin of material are also very important, the contractors should use natural stones for sustainable building and low carbon emission. However, the transportation process to the building site might involve production of a lot of carbon, nevertheless, this can be controlled. There is need to consider the emission during the construction phase of the building as multiple factors contributes towards the emission of carbon and sustainability of a given building. There is need to involve experts in the construction face, the right mixture of materials and correct contents. Lastly, the builders should consider the impact of the occupancy and use of building infrastructure. These downstream emissions are generated in the use phase but mostly influenced by architectural specification. It is very important for fire strategy and fire engineered solutions at initial building design stages to consider and take into account the Approved Document B (ADB) but also the use and function of the building needs to be taken into consideration. The plan must take into consideration the continuous and ongoing management of the building when it shall be completed. It should be spacious with fire assembly point and fire exit doors fully furnished with good and recommended ventilation (Pan & Jiang, 2009). For the new building, the fire strategy must be dynamic indicating alterations and changes to the design of the building throughout its construction from the initial stage to the last stage of the building. The building should have fire compartmentation and appropriate fire resistance of between 30munites to 2 hours. A complete fire door with disable refuges and communication points, architectural design should have fire alarms devices at all call point’s smoke detectors among other alert system. The design should have emergency lighting units, fire dehydrants, dry risers and fire extinguishers among other relevant reservation (Pan & Jiang, 2009). In United Kingdom (UK) for instance, a sustainable building should be one with low carbon emission during and after construction. The architectural design should take into account factors like fire resistance, water resistance and the end user that is the sole purpose of the building and the nature of the occupants. The raw materials used in the building should be durable and recyclable among other characteristics. The raw materials should be easily and readily available hence can be easily replaced (Zhurinsh & Zandersons, 2009). The type f architectural design should consider the completion and occupation of the premises in terms of the fire safety management of the proposed construction and the planned maintenance of emergency lighting, fire alarms system and extinguishers maintenance. Part Two Case study of Petrobras platform P – 36 Explosion, the building was located in Rio de Janeiro offshore Brazil. The fire took place in the year 2001 where over eleven crews were killed. The building was made of steel. The P- 36 was transformed from a drilling rig known as spirit of Columbus, into a floating production facility with a production capacity of over 180,000 barrels per day. It was kind of moderately sized semi-submersible platform with two submerged pontoons supporting the four huge columns which in turn supported the main deck housing the manufacture facility. The P – 36 had been in production since May 2000 and had an oil (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2001). production rate of 80,000 barrels at the time o fire incident. In the initial hours of the 15th March 2001, there were three explosions that occurred in the starboard after column of the Petrobras platform P – 36 causing the fire and flooding of the platform. The platform later sunk into a water of approximately 1360 m deep on March 20th 20001. The rapture of the emergency drain tank was the cause of the incident within the Starboard after the excessive pressure on the column. The explosive caused damage for many equipments and installations leading to the flooding of water oil and gas into column. The emergency fire fighting was sent to the area after around 17 minutes of the occurrence, the gas that was dispersed caused huge fire causing further huge explosion, 165 people were evacuated but some with serious burns and one person succumbing to the burns (Petrobras, 2001). The preliminary investigation showed that the lacking procedure and poor training to deal with such kind of emergency was the major factor leading to such a huge damage and catastrophic disaster. The watertight compartments, providing the buoyancy to the platform, were not sealed allow the excessive flooding hence was major architectural defect in the building. The emergency response team should be properly trained as if they were, the death of 11 people would have not occurred. There was no account of any fire resistance in the building showing construction defect in fire safety and sustainable building structure (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2001). Crystal Palace Fire Crystal Palace was a huge glass and iron structure initially built in early 1851 for one of the Britain great exhibition that was held in London’s Hyde Park. By the head of society art Prince Albert had an idea of an exhibition to impress the world with Britain great industrial achievements. Very many European countries attended the function by then where raw materials, machineries manufacturers and Fine Arts attended the show. The design of great palace building was done by Sir Joseph Paxton and moved it to Penge place estate after the exhibition. The whole building was huge with 1,848 feet long and 408 feet wide that includes two huge towers and several fountains with over 11,000 jets that emerge into the air. In November 30th, a devastating fire broke out; Henry Buckland and his daughter Crystal were out walking their dog and noticed a small fire at the palace. This quickly escalated and a huge fire broke out across the building. By morning, most of the palace was already destroyed. Around 88 fire engines, 438 officers, men from 4 fire brigades and around 749 police officers on duty on that historic night (BBC News Online). The fire outbreak was mostly as a result of gas leak which was taking place within the premises. Through the architectural design was alright, it was noticed that the structure was not sustainable as the repair work and maintenance was not put in placed. The leakage was warned early but the occupants and the building management did not took it serious resulting into the most disastrous events of that evening. The fire brigades tried to put it off, but as a result of poor ventilation and lack of alarm bells in the building, they arrived late after most of the destruction had taken place (BBC News Online) Part three 1. Explain nomenclature of halon and fire on systems Halon is a terminology that was adopted by the chemical fire protection industries to explain the halogenated hydrocarbon used in fire protections. Halogens: fluorine (F) chlorine (Cl) Bromine (Br), iodine (I), all are reactive and highly toxic in isolation as elements. The essential elements in making halon are Cl and Br which is one of the most effective fire extinguishers. It should be noted that C and F are crucial in making the halon safe and stable. Halon contains one or more of the halogens atoms. Most likely hydrogen (H) atom that is only attached to the only carbon (C) atoms. The halon number is simply the number of atoms in the atoms, F number and Cl number of the Br atoms. Number of H atoms is not included, but can be calculated more easily. Also, in very old equipment (aircraft), chlorobromomethane may still be used = halon 1011 = CBM = bromochloromethane (Zhurinsh & Zandersons, 2009). Effective management of halon and halon application is very important in ensuring proper environmental protection and legislation compliance. Halon if not properly managed is harmful to environment and can result to air toxicities resulting to the death of living things. The chlorine component may results into formation of acidic rain if released into the air causing corrosion of both roofs and metal materials exposed to the rain. Proper policy procedure needs to be properly followed when using halon to reduce its impacts on environment. Under Montreal Protocol, Halon was mostly replaced as a result of its side effect to the environment and the cost incurred in its preparation. From the environmental protection perspective, it is justified to replace the halon since globally, environmentalist and other policy makers are supporting green revolution hence need to extend it to the fire fitting industry. Therefore, halon replacement was right decision to be taken (Zhurinsh & Zandersons, 2009).. 2. Calculate thermal radiation emission from the compartment An object is called a black body if, for all frequencies, the following formula applies: ɋ + ε = 1 Therefore if, (ε=0.75) ɋ + 0.75 = 1 ɋ = 1-0.75 ɋ = 0.25 The result shows that it is lower than the maximum radiant heat flux for in definite skin exposure of 0.89. 3. Explain what different and common issues between the Fahrenheit/ Rankine and the Celsius/Kelvin temperature scales. There are three main temperature scales and they include Fahrenheit, Celsius and Kelvin. The Fahrenheit scale of temperature was first developed in 1724 by a German physicist Daniel Gabriel. On the Fahrenheit temperature scale, the melting and boiling points of water are at 180 degrees apart hence indicating that one single degree on the Fahrenheit scale is 1/180th. Celsius on the other hand, was developed by different scientist. On Celsius scale, the melting point is at 1/100th of the temperature indicating the difference between the two points. This is the main different between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature scales. 4. Mixed fuel is composed by methane (volumepercentis 0.45); carbon monoxide (0.15) and hydrogen (0.40).Calculate the lower flammable limit concentration for the mixture and the concentration of each component in the mixture with air. LEL = (P1 + P2 + ... Pn)/ (P1/lel1 +P2/lel2 + ... Pn/leln) P1 - vol fraction of first component lel1 - lower explosive limit of component 1 (0.45 + 0.15 +0.40)/ 0.45/0.55 + 0.15/0.85 + 0.40/0.60 1/ 0.82 +0.18 + 0.67 = 1/ 1.67 = 0.599 For each component Methane = 0.45 * 0.599 = 0.27 Carbon monoxide = 0.15 * 0.599 = 0.09 Hydrogen = 0.40 * 0.599 = 0.2396 5. Consider a1.2m diameter pan fire of petrol with heat release intensity of about 490kW/m2of surface area. Calculate the flame height under the normal atmospheric conditions Flame Height = (D*Intensity of surface area) 0.09 = (1.2 * 490)’ = 588/0.09 = 6533.33 m Normal atmospheric condition is at 1000 Celsius or 180 Fahrenheit 6. Compare the chemical reaction rates at three temperatures–100,500 and1000 K. The activation energyis100kJ/mole. Make your conclusion how temperature affects chemical reaction rate. Chemical reaction = 1-100/100j/m = 0kj/mole = 1 – 500/100kj/m = -4 kj/m = 1 – 1000/100j/m = - 6 kj/m Changes in temperature changes chemical reactions, as the temperature increases, the rate of chemical reaction also increases in equal measure. The chemical particles react when they collide, when a substance is heated, the particles tend to move faster hence collides more frequently resulting into increase in the rate of reaction. The collision only result in a reaction if the particles collide with enough energy to get the reaction started. The minimum energy which is required to get reaction started is called activation energy and increase in energy increases the mobility of the particles speeding up the reaction. 7. Calculate the wavelength for infrared thermal radiation with frequency 1014 Hz. Compare the result with the wavelengths for Smooth Radio 100.4 and visible radiation for to the human eye. A Wavelength is defined as the difference between two successive crust and trough. It is denoted by \lambda. Wavelength Formula for any wave given by Where v is the wave speed and f is the frequency taken. If 0.333 Hz gives 8 meters Therefore 1014 Hz = (1014 *8)0.333 Therefore = 25009 meters The wave length is greater than the smooth Radio wave length of 100.4 m to the human high and can cause effect to human eye hence need for reflector. 8. What time is needed for the person to achieve the fire exit? Assume that ADis7 m, BC is3m and α=30o The time is given by 7cos 30 + 3sin60 = 6.06 +2.6 = 8.70 seconds 9. Find the minimum time needed to reach the fire exit. Explain your answer and indicate the right direction for his evacuation Distance = (speed X time) Time = distance/ Speed = 10 cos30/ 1.25 = 8.66/1.25 = 6.93 seconds The minimum time needed for evacuation is 6.93 seconds while the direction should be towards the fire exit direction since it gives the shortest distance of 8.66 meters compared to other distance which is 10 meters away. 10. How different is the result for the previous question, if air movement changes its direction on opposite (U =- 0.3m/s). Distance = (speed X time) Time = distance/ Speed = 10 sin30 /0.3 = 5/03 = 16.67 second If the direction changes and speed changes, the evacuation distance would have increased to 16.67 seconds from the initial time of 6 seconds. Reference BBC News Online / World / Americas - UK Edition Pan, J. & Jiang, N (2009 ) A novel QSPR model for prediction of lower flammability limits of organic compounds based on support vector machine, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 168 962-969. Petrobras (2001). Inquiry Commission P-36 Accident, Final Report. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (2001). "Giant oil rig sinks." Oil Drop, 5(1), pp 1-3. Zhurinsh, J & Zandersons, G. (2009), Slow pyrolysis studies for utilization of impregnated waste timber materials, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 74 (2005) 439-444. Read More