Fire Alarm Detection System of High-Risk Building Burji Dubai - Case Study Example

TOPIC: HIGH RISK BULDING (NAME) (INSTITUTIONS NAME) (COURSE NAME) 14th MAY 2008 Introduction Burji Dubai is the tallest man-made structure on earth. It is a luxury hotel located in Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates. The hotel is managed by a group called Jumeirah. The building hotel was first designed by Tom Wright with the construction and design managed by Rick Gregory a Canadian engineer. The building is 321 metres or 1,053 feet and due to this it is the tallest building on earth exclusively used as a hotel. The hotel sits on an island that was artificially made 280 metres or 919 feet from the Jumeirah beach and it is connected by a private curving bridge to the mainland. It is realistically an iconic structure that is designed to symbolize the urban transformation in Dubai and to also imitate the sail of a boat. Construction of the hotel begun in 1994 and the building was designed to resemble a dhow sailing which was a common vessel that was being used in the Arabian countries. A massive atrium encloses the space between two wings that are spread in a vast mast. The building was designed in such a way that it would become synonymous with the name of the country just like the Opera house in Sydney and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The main architect and engineering consultant for the work was Atkins which is the United Kingdom’s largest consultancy firm. The South African construction contractor Murray $ Roberts company were the main builders of the hotel which cost $650 million to build. Direction In order to reach the hotel it is a guest is supposed to follow the exit from the airport terminal and move towards the Garhoud Bridge crossing. Burj Al Arab hotel is located across the creek via the Garhoud Bridge. A guest is required to follow the signs to Abu Dhabi and Jabeli Ali on the Sheikh Zayed Highway. After reaching this point one is supposed to take the exit at interchange No. 4 and drive to the second traffic intersection where the Souk Madinat Jumeirah is visible from which the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel is visible. Features of the hotel Since the hotel rests on an island it was crucial to secure a firm foundation and this was achieved by the builders through driving a 230 to 340 metres long of concrete piles into the sand. The foundation of the building is therefore held in place by the friction of the silt and sand along the length of the piles. A large surface area made of large rocks was created by the engineers and it was concrete circled with a honey comb pattern and the aim of this pattern was to protect the foundation from eroding. It took the engineers at least there years to reclaim the land from the sea but the engineers took less than the same years to construct the hotel itself.9,000 tons of steel and 70,000 cubic metres of concrete were consumed during the construction of the building. Method The atrium is 590 feet tall or 180 metres on the inside. In order to lower the interior temperature during construction temperature was lowered by six degrees over a period of time. The objective of this was to prevent large amounts of condensation or in fact rain clouds from forming in the hotel while construction was still going on. This was achieved by using cold air nozzles which towered from the top of the ceiling that created a buffer zone which controls the temperature on the interior without massive energy costs. Among the 5-star and 6-star hotels in the world Burj Al Arab characterizes itself as the worlds only 7-star property which is considered by many travel professionals to be a hyperbole. The front part of the hotel is made up of Teflon coated fiberglass. With the building shaped like the sail of a dhow teflon-coated fiberglass encloses the space between the two wings which curve across the front part of the building creating an atrium on the inside. The sail is splendidly made with a material called Dyneon which spans over 161,000 square feet or 15,000m2 and it consists of layers installed vertically and they are divided into twelve panels. For protection from harsh desert wind, heat and dirt the fabric is made up of a DuPont Teflon coating which the fabricators estimate that it will last for over 50 years. The whole design for this was put into forward by a great mathematical and thinker Edah Yllib who was a Scandinavian designer. The building is designed in such a way that it can allow helicopters to land on its top and guests from all over the world can land using helicopter at the top of the hotel. Rooms and prices charged In spite of the large size of the hotel it only holds twenty eight double story floors which have only 202 bedrooms suites. Being one of the most expensive hotels in the world the smallest suite covers an area of 169 square metres or one thousand eight hundred and nineteen square feet while the largest suite occupies an area of seven hundred and eighty square metres or eight thousand three hundred and ninety six square feet. One is required to pay 1500 dollars in order to stay in a suite for one night while to stay in a royal suite one is required to pay 5000 dollars. The bathrooms are accented by mosaic patterns which are made up of tiles on the floors and the walls characterized by Arabian-influenced geometries. Restaurants in the hotel The hotel holds two restaurants, Al Muntaha which is located six hundred and sixty feet or two hundred metres above the Persian Gulf. The restaurant is covered by a cantilever that extends eighty nine feet or twenty seven metres from either side of the mast. To reach to this restaurant one is required to use an elevator that is panoramic. The Al Mahara is accessible only through the use of submarines that are simulated and it features a large sea water aquarium that holds 35,000 cubic feet or over one million litres of water. Fire alarm detection system The fire alarm is the most critical element of the hotel. Fire alarm panels are installed on different floors in the hotel and 20,000 devices are fed from these panels. A terminal node placed in the security room enables the interconnection of the nine fire alarm panels. The terminal code is monitored by the PC based Graphic system. The function of the system is to make the decision of whether a fault or a fire exists by comparing the plotted patterns against known fault and fire patterns which are held in the control panel’s memory. The architecture of the fire system is based around loops of two core cables on which evacuation as well as the detection circuits are installed. More than 200 addressable devices can therefore be connected to each loop and more than 31 panels may be connected to a terminal node in a secure network. The fire detection and alarm systems in the hotel provide a primary control and monitoring of a building’s life safety systems which are designed to provide early warning of smoke and fire conditions as well as safe evacuation of the occupants of the building. Furthermore the combination of the event information, tracking and prompting response capabilities makes it an exceptional incident management and compliance tool. The fire stations outside the hotel are automatically activated using the addresses at the commissioning through soft addressing which removes the need for switches to be manually set up each device. The hotel is also equipped with an intelligent detector which is the latest detection technology that is aimed at preventing the false alarms. The new fire technology in the hotel offers several benefits such as detecting a wide range of burning materials which are consistent and reliable in sensitivity and which can differentiate between false fires from genuine fires. It also assists in differentiating interference particles such as steam and fumes thereby eliminating false alarms. The technology is also helpful in detecting a fault that is up to 1 km from the control panel and this is made possible using the analogue technology. Evacuation Evacuation from the hotel in case of emergence is done through the high speed elevators which are used to ferry guests from the building to the outer most part of the hotel. Since every floor has fire alarms the guests are able to get an early warning hours before the real fire elapses in the building. The extensive fire equipments and fire warnings in the hotel in every room and this make it easy for the guests to escape from the emergence. Water supply The building has extensive water supply channels that are spread all over the building though invisible. Every floor and every room has its own water supply. Water reservoirs in the hotel are used during dry seasons to water the floors which increase to the elegancy of the hotel. The water supply in the hotel ensures that the pools are full of fresh water very day and night. Regular check up ensures that there is no contamination of water that might cause dangerous health hazards to the guests. Rubbish pipes Rubbish pipes are connected to every room for easy disposal of wastes by the guests without necessarily going out of the room. The rubbish pipes are also well embedded with materials that make them invisible and cleanliness in the hotel is maintained twenty four hours. Radio communication From a central room in the hotel the engineers are able to communicate with other supervisors and heads of various units in the hotel. The same office is used as the central point from where the engineers monitor every single detail that may put the guest’s lives at risk such as fire and other disasters. The radio communication is made possible by the intelligent detector which triggers communication to all radio holders in and around the hotel. Back draught The fire fighters in the hotel are well trained to be able to identify conditions that may lead to a back draught. They are able to identify a fire that has been burning in a compartment for some time, deposits of oil on windows, some pulsating smoke from openings and blue flames in the hot gas layer. Tactics such as offensive and indirect application of water and venting are used by the firefighters once they realize such signs of back draught. Traffic Traffic outside the hotel is well-stream lined to prevent any traffic jams. The XM and the NavTraffic offer an overlay of color-coded traffic flow which prevents any unnecessary traffic jams towards the hotel. Distance of fire engines The fire station is around 20 km from the hotel although stand by private fire engines are hired ensure that risks of fire are dealt with immediately they occur. A fire engine from the fire station would take around 20 minutes to arrive at the hotel and this is risky enough because fire will have spread greatly. Analysis The risks to the guests increases in the highest floors because the time required to evacuate the guests from high floors incase of emergency is more as compared to the time required to evacuate guests in lower floors. It is even more risky at night because if the fire starts in a guest room it would be difficult to raise the alarm while they are still asleep. Although the control room is set at the central point in the hotel the fire fighters would take long to reach the rooms which are far from the ground. Hence the risk increases with increase in the height of the hotel.                                               REFERENCES Damluji, S. (2006), the Architecture of the U.A.E. (London, Oxford University Press) Design and Engineering Solutions available from www.wsatkins.com (Retrieved November 4, 2004) Dubai prestigious hotels available from www.iklimnet.com (Retrieved on 13th June 2008) 2004) Emporis Burj Al Arab available from www.emporis.com (Retrieved on 25 November 2004) Fortney available from www.futronix-info.com (Retrieved on December 1 2004) Jumeirah International available from www.burj-al-arab.com (Retrieved Nov 2004) McBride, E. (2004), Architecture, (Washington: Washington Press release) Read More