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dissertation (2)


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2021 (2)

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Dissertation
Review of the passive fire protection requirements in Belgium, The Netherlands and France
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Year: 2021 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen

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Abstract

At European level, fire safety legislation falls entirely within the competence of the Member States (MS), unlike the Construction Products Regulation and the harmonised Eurocodes. The consequence of this European approach has led to the development of different perspectives regarding fire safety legislation that are being used by the MS. On the other hand, fire safety legislation in each MS is being composed in a different way. Besides national regulations, fire safety legislation may be shaped on other levels as well such as on regional level, by the mayor on municipal level or by the fire department. Due to the shared objective of obtaining an adequate level of safety in all MS, and given that serious fire accidents have occurred in the recent past, the decentralised approach to fire safety has been criticised. In terms of the fire safety of buildings, one can say that the EU does not provide a comprehensive approach. The lack of a framework to address fire safety legislation in a harmonised manner is recognised, as well as the need to do so equally in all Member States. Secondly, a growing need for harmonious cooperation between MS, and the joint resolution of fire safety problems in buildings is tangible. This raises the question as to whether or not there is an overlap of fire safety legislation between the various MS and how the differences and similarities are reflected. In this research, an attempt is made to shed light on these unanswered questions. A comparative study between Belgium, The Netherlands and France will reveal the similarities and differences between these countries with the aim of encouraging the harmonisation of fire safety legislation of buildings on European level. The emphasis of the aspects examined is placed on the passive fire protection requirements with specific attention to compartmentation, evacuation and building elements such as structural elements, walls, (interior) doors, ceilings and facades. Increased risk profiles will not be included in this research. Specifically, this concerns schools, hospitals, industries, and underground car parks. On the basis of an analysis of the national legislation of these three countries, a comprehensive table was established for each country containing all passive fire protection requirements of buildings. Subsequently, an overall table was drawn up covering all three countries. The results show that there are large differences in the harmonisation of national fire safety legislation, that each country has a different classification, that the fire resistance values (REI values) are not uniquely used in countries and that differences exist between a comparative table across the three countries. The overall table shows that the emphasis is different across countries on certain aspects. Finally, the recommendations give a direction as to how harmonisation of fire safety legislation in Europe can be promoted. Remarkably, the shortcomings of the prescriptive approach, such as the over-regulation of some aspects, and the complicated explanations of some articles, become apparent here as well.

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Dissertation
Exploratory study of the temporal evolution of pressure due to fire in enclosures relevant for the nuclear industry by means of zone models
Authors: --- ---
Year: 2021 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen

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Both for industrial and private buildings insulation is an important factor. Insulation will be described by the airtightness of the compartment and the boundary condition insulation used. Insulation and airtightness are important to residential buildings because of the need to be energy efficient. This is for economic and ecological reasons. Like the residential reasoning, the industry can benefit from high insulation grades and airtightness of compartments. For example; the nuclear industry. It is clear to see when working with radioactive substances, these substances need to be contained. Airtightness and insulation will be parts of this containment plan. Airtightness and high insulation grades also have a disadvantage relevant to safety. Fire in airtight and well-insulated compartments results in increased compartment pressures due to the release of hot combustion gasses of the fire. This results in safety hazards. Due to high peak values for positive and negative pressures, structures can be permanently damaged leading to possible collapses. Another hazard is entrapment of people in compartments due to increased compartment pressure. Increased compartment pressure will prevent a door from being opened, as little as 100-200Pa pressure difference could be enough to hinder evacuation. When being entrapped, not only the possibility of a building collapse is imminent, but also the heat and intoxication are hazardous to people. Being able to realistically assess what is going on in a compartment during a fire is key in keeping people safe in and around the impacted compartments. Knowledge of what is going on inside a compartment is key to being able to mitigate the outcome of such an accident. Researching or investigating a fire and its impact on the pressure, temperature and other variables in a compartment can be achieved by using zone modelling tools. In this thesis two tools are used called CFAST and Fortran. CFAST or ‘Consolidated Fire And Smoke Transport model’ is a program created by NIST or the ‘National Institute of Standards and Technology’. Fortran is a coding language. A basic zone modelling code is written using the formulas found in report. The Fortran code is created and discussed in thesis [2]. The Fortran code is a more basic version of the CFAST zone modelling program. A comparison is performed between the two zone modelling tools in this thesis. Experiments performed and documented in publication [1] are used to compare the two tools. The experiments describe a fire in a well-confined room, an admission and an extraction fan are mounted to the compartment ceiling. A propane burner is used as a fire load. The compartment and ducting have several measuring devices installed for data acquisition. First the Fortran code is extensively verified because of missing information in the original text. This is called ‘functional testing’ (see chapter 3). After that, the CFAST program is installed and this installation is verified. Chapters 4.5 until 4.7.3 describe the comparison between the two zone modelling tools. During the comparison several findings were observed and highlighted. These findings are summarised in the conclusion in the form of advantages, disadvantages and improvement suggestions (see chapter 5). The thesis is ended by describing some future work suggestions and final thoughts. This is very important because this thesis documents how to simulate using both tools and what the pitfalls or differences are.

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