Fire Protection Technology in Buildings and Homes - Research Paper Example

Fire Protection Technology in buildings and homes: Overview: Fire protection is one of the biggest concerns in the design of buildings in the modern age owing to the huge losses that have been incurred as a result of massive fire breakouts in the past. There have been many approaches towards the development and implementation of a fire protection technology in buildings and houses in the past. The most proactive approach towards designing such a technology is to minimize or completely eliminate the possibility of negative effects of a fire on the building in case it breaks out. An elegant and succinct statement of this goal for a building is simply that Fire Resistance ≥ Fire Severity. (Goode, 2004, p. 2). In order to arrive at this relation, it is imperative that a basis for evaluation of each side of the inequality is developed. Before reaching at the most suitable fire protection technology, it is good to realize that fire breakout is not essentially the result of an internal source. Instead, various external factors can contribute to the breakout of fire in the building like the fire that broke out in the World Trade Center on 9th November, 2001 as a result of the aircrafts’ collision with the building. Hence, an effective fire protection technology serves to make the structure intact against both internal and external hazards. This paper aims at evaluating various fire protection technologies that are conventionally employed in buildings and homes and discussing modern trends in the field. Difference between the fire protection requirements of buildings and homes: Fire protection technologies employed in houses and buildings are fundamentally the same, despite the vast differences in the strength and nature of materials involved in the two of them. Homes are conventionally made up of brick masonary with concrete tops. Occasionally, brick or reinforced concrete columns may be employed in the design of homes for structural or aesthetic purposes. All homes are traditionally made up in the same fashion almost all over the world. Exceptions like wooden homes may be seen specially in earthquake prone areas. On the contrary, various systems have been developed for the construction of buildings and towers that include but are not limited to curtain wall buildings, frame structures, reinforced concrete and steel structures. Structural load in huge buildings is fundamentally carried by structural elements made of concrete or steel or a combination of both. Thus, although there may be different styles of construction for buildings and homes, yet the materials employed in the construction are fundamentally concrete, steel and bricks. An efficient fire protection technology is one that is able to make the structure safe by protecting these materials against the harmful effects of fire for as long as possible. Conventional fire protection technologies employed in buildings and homes: The fire protection technologies commonly used to protect the buildings and homes against the potential hazards of fire can fundamentally be classified into insulation, membrane protection, coating and water circulation. One of the key factors that need to be considered while choosing the most suitable fire protection technology for a building or a home is to know the performance criteria that include but are not limited to the buildings exposure, aesthetics and the nature of materials used in its construction. Also, it needs to be understood that any efficient fire protection technology would focus upon protecting the structural members because they are fundamentally responsible for taking the load and ensuring the integrity of any structure, whether it is a home or a building. The technologies mentioned above along with their specialties are discussed below. Insulation: Insulation is one of the most widely employed fire protection technologies both in buildings and in homes because of its quality to protect the structural members enclosed in it against the fire. The members stay intact wrapped in a fire resistant material and can carry the structural loads for longer periods of time prior to failure caused by the ultimate exposure to fire. Insulating materials are poor thermal conductors. Typical insulators are concrete, brick, asbestos and gypsum. Insulation may be applied in the form of spray or encasement of structural members into insulating sheets. Typical example of a sprayed insulation is that of asbestos that was mixed with cementitious binders and sprayed on walls and roofs of homes in the past. However, the practice is not very common today because of the extremely harmful health effects of asbestos on the workers and residents. What makes gypsum an excellent insulator is the high proportion of water that it contains. It takes a lot of time for the fire to dehydrate gypsum insulation which makes it a very efficient and cost effective insulating material specially for homes. In large structures, fire proofing is derived from the low thermal conductivity of thick concrete cover around the structural reinforcement. Membrane protection: Membrane protection is one of the most commonly employed fire protection technologies specially in houses. In this technology, fire protection is achieved with the help of suspended ceilings that are typically made up of gypsum that serves as an insulating material because of its hydrated nature. These suspended gypsum ceilings particularly protect such structural members as beams against fire and also add to the beauty of finish by providing a smooth and uniform surface. They are suspended by steel or aluminum frames specially designed for holding the gypsum ceiling. Special considerations in the design of a suspended ceiling are the provision of joints to allow expansion so that the gypsum sheets are not punched or broken as heat tries to penetrate inside them. Also, special access must be provided for the technicians who might need to access the hidden mechanical and electrical pipes for fixation and maintenance purposes in the life of the structure. Carelessness on the part of technicians might result in a loss of the strength and durability of the membrane protecting the hidden structural members. Coating: One very unique approach towards designing a fire protection technology for a building is to block the radiations produced by the burning fire from reaching its precious load carrying members. This can be achieved by coating the structural members with either ablative or water based intumescent coatings. The water based intumescent coatings are equally effective in blocking the fire radiation as solvent based alternatives yet they bring the added advantage of not emitting harmful chemicals as they are applied on the structural members. Besides, these coatings take far less time to dry up and hence, tend to save the application time. On the other hand, ablative coatings turn into gaseous form as they burn thus preventing the heat of fire from reaching the coated member. However, the application costs associated with the latter are much higher than those with the former. Filling: This fire protection technology tends to increase the capacity of heat consumption of the structural members as successive heat is consumed by the material filled in the hollow structural members. Thus the member is able to sustain the effects of heat for a longer period. This type of fire protection is typically suitable for use in hollow steel column buildings. Concrete and water are commonly used as fillers which tells that the filling material may not necessarily be solid, but a fluid like water can also serve the purpose. Filling hollow steel columns with concrete not only serves to provide the member with additional fire resistance but also serves to take the structural load as the yield strength of the steel cover is reached. Steel members filled with concrete should be provided with ventilation holes in order to allow steam generated by the heated concrete to escape. Besides, when water is used as a filler, the fire resistance of the water filled member depends upon its capacity, volume and temperature of the water in it. Also, whether the water is to be pumped in only in case of fire breakout or it has to remain permanently inside the member is a matter of choice and convenience. Water circulation in hollow walls and other structural members not only provides the structure with added fire resistance but is also sometimes employed to regulate the internal temperature of the structure. Conclusion: The fire protection technologies discussed in this paper may be employed individually for individual structures or as a combination of two or more of them in a single structure depending upon the various decisive criteria as budget, suitability and location. The efficiency of these as fire protection systems is evident from the fact that there is little or no demand of innovative approaches towards achieving fire protection in the present age. The general industry opinion seems to be that the material technologies that are currently available perform well and are sufficient to meet the needs of the building industry in most cases. (Goode, 2004, p. 20). Modern research in this field is more directed towards finding new areas of application of the already known fire protection technologies instead of exploring even newer fire resistant materials. References: Goode, M. G. (2004). Fire Protection of Structural Steel in High-Rise Buildings. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 23 July 2010. Retrieved from http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build04/PDF/b04047.pdf. Read More