quantification of green building features on...

Green Buildings and Firefighter Safety 5/17/2017

WPI and UMD (2017) 1

Meacham, 2017

Quantification of Green Building Features on Firefighter Safety

Presented by:

Praveen Kamath, WPI

Brian Meacham, WPI

Michael Gollner, UMD

2017 NFPA Conference & Expo

Handout Material – Selected Presentation Slides

Meacham, 2017

• Brief overview of project and Year 1 and 2 research and outcomes

• Overview of Year 3 (and 4) research and outcomes

— Natural ventilation

— Structural performance of domestic systems

— Comparative risk assessment tool

• Potential implications / considerations for the fire service

• Future research needs



Meacham, 2017

• The goal of this effort is to reduce firefighter injuries and deaths associated with unknown or unanticipated fire environments and structural responses associated with green building elements.

• Our objectives are to understand, quantify and address fire performance challenges of green building elements as they might impact firefighter safety during fire ground operations.

Meacham, 2017

• The push to ‘green’ buildings is growing. This can include reducing building materials, adding insulation, and installing alternative energy sources.

• However, the extent to which such green building elements and features may increase fire risks or hazards, or decrease building safety performance, has not been systematically studied.



Meacham, 2017

• 22 Fire Risk / Hazard Attributes— Presents a potential hazard

• E.g., ignition, electrical shock, explosion, toxicity

— Hazard attributes • E.g., readily ignitable, burns readily once ignited,

contributes more fuel / increased HRR, etc.

— Failure potential • E.g., shorter time to failure, failure affects burning

characteristics or smoke spread or…

— May impact building FP system or feature • E.g., smoke/heat venting, suppression effectiveness,

apparatus access, firefighter access & operations…

Meacham, 2017

• Research Scope— Understand green building hazards

— Develop risk/hazard screening tool

• Structural Testing— Test residential scale compartments

and structures – post flashover fire to focus on structural failure

• Ventilation Testing— Salt water modeling Residential

Occupancy89%

Commercial Occupancy

11%

Identified Firefighter Injuries or Fatalities in the Green Elements from

FIDO Database (2003-2012)



Meacham, 2017

• Team— Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

• Brian Meacham, Nicholas Dembsey, Praveen Kamath, HonggangWang, Qiang Kan, Matt Yin, Drew Martin, Young-Geun You, Michael Figueroa

— University of Maryland (UMD) • Michael Gollner, Andre Marshall, Pietro Maisto, Jens Triller, Jan

Zimlich, Wuquan Cui

— Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF)• Casey Grant, Amanda Kimball / Project Technical Panel

— National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)• Rita Fahy, Marty Ahrens, and John Hall

— Massachusetts Department of Fire Services (DFS)• Paul Vigneau

Meacham, 2017

Domestic Structural Systems



Meacham, 2017NFPA Annual Conference, June 20159

Meacham, 2017

• SIPs are composite structural panels with an insulating core of rigid foam and structural facings.

• Used for wall, floors and roofs.

https://www.boatcarpetcentral.com/files/u2/bunkmeasure2.jpg

https://www.boatcarpetcentral.com/files/u2/bunkmeasure2.jpg



Meacham, 2017

• 2 Semi-Permanent Walls— Steel construction, single vent

opening, 8 gas burners

• Dimensions— Length – 16 ft. (4.88 m)

— Width – 14 ft. (4.27 m)

— Height – 16 ft. (4.88 m)

• Designed to test 1-level, 1.5-level, and 1-level with roof

• Designed for loaded structure

Meacham, 2017



Meacham, 2017

Ignition of Propane Burners

Meacham, 2017



Meacham, 2017

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Tem

peratu

re (°C

)

Time (m)

North East Corner TC Tree

Series1

Series2

Series3

Series4

Series6

Meacham, 2017

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Tem

per

atu

re (°C

)

Time (m)

Stud Cavity: North WallSeries1

Series2

Series3

Series4

Series6

Series7



Meacham, 2017

Full-Depth Charring of Ceiling Joists at Mid-Span

Full-Depth Charring of Ceiling Joists at Supports

Meacham, 2017

Burning Wall Studs(Flame leak through

cracked gypsum drywall)

Burning Wall Studs(Flame leak through wall-roof connection)



Meacham, 2017

Stay tuned - to be presented!

Meacham, 2017




Meacham, 2017


Meacham, 2017

Natural Ventilation



Meacham, 2017

• Natural ventilation is more sensitive to external conditions and changes than forced ventilation— Opening or closing windows/doors

• Boundaries are being pushed removing compartmentalization

• No guidelines on how to respond— Open Windows/Doors or allow automatic function

— How long is necessary for evacuation?

— When will buildings fail?

• Potential for unexpected consequences

Meacham, 2017

Forced convection through a compartment

Highly dependent on external conditions

Some designs have sensitive control algorithms



Meacham, 2017

Driven by density difference between interior/exterior due to temperature differences

Meacham, 2017

The Gherkin in London. Windows open on

the outer skin to allow air to enter the

cavity between the inner and outer skin.



Meacham, 2017

• Add stack or air barrier to encourage heating/ cooling

• Potentially lose separation

• Operable windows

The Gherkin in London. Windows open on

the outer skin to allow air to enter the

cavity between the inner and outer skin.Potential Fire movement in Façade – Simon Lay, Presentation to NFPA Green Building Symposium, Chicago, Il, 2012.

Meacham, 2017

• Natural Ventilation— Indoor Comfort

— Heating or Cooling

— Stratified or Mixed

• Smoke Control— Vent in case of fire

— Time for proper evacuation

— Must remain stratified

Smoke

Warm Air

Cooling Configuration(stratified)



Meacham, 2017

• Model smoke movement in naturally-ventilated enclosures including— (1) Resolution study in large enclosures

— (2) Large atria openings

— (3) Double-skinned facades

— (4) Inclined ceilings

• Develop simple engineering models to— Anticipate external effects on smoke movement

— Highlight dangerous scenarios/configurations

• Translate this into better firefighting practices and code recommendations

Meacham, 2017

• Combine CFD with Saltwater Modeling— Validate smoke movement without large scale

— Saltwater Modeling• Nd-Yag Laser

• PIV (velocities)

• PLIF (densities/temp)



Meacham, 2017

Scale models proposed to test smoke filling dynamics of green building features

including (a) a sloped roof atria configuration with a fire source in the lower right

hand corner and (b) a combined solar chimney, two room, atria and slatted double-

skinned façade configuration.

• Unit Approach• Interchangeable acrylic models to

test ventilation configurations

Meacham, 2017

Smoke layer height vs. dimensionless time,

m*= 3.9e-6, measured at 𝑥1

𝐻= 0.5



Meacham, 2017


Meacham, 2017

A representative room of the22nd floor was chosen as a basisof the dimensions for buildingthe enclosure.

The scales of the several chosen dimensions will be the following:Room height:0.180𝑚

3.9𝑚= 0.047

Room length:0.280𝑚

6𝑚= 0.047

Double Skin façade length:0.06𝑚

1.3𝑚= 0.046

To provide realistic test results thatcan be completely transferable toreal life the model dimensions arebased on the 30 St Mary Axe (widelyknown informally as The Gherkin)



Meacham, 2017

Model has two basic features:

• Exchangeable windows (1)

• Adjustable angle of louvers (2)

• The model was built out of acrylicthat makes it possible to runexperiments with salt watermodeling

• It dissembles two floors with adouble skin façade and louvers,which are a common element usedfor sun protection and naturalventilation

Meacham, 2017

The model gives the opportunity to

run salt water modeling experiences

with various louver positions.

That makes it possible

to compare the different

results and so helps to

understand how the

louver angle effects the smoke

behavior

Closed Louvers at Enclosure

Closed Louvers Double Skin façade

90° Position Louvers Double Skin façade

90° Position Louvers at Enclosure



Meacham, 2017

Three different louver positions were tested:

b) 45a) 90

c) Closed

Meacham, 2017




Meacham, 2017

Meacham, 2017




Meacham, 2017

Hazard / Risk Tool

Meacham, 2017

Consequences

Firefighter Operations

Structural Fire Performance

Material Fire Performance

Short time to failure

Potential to Collapse

Defensive Attack

FireGrowth

KeepSearching

Injuries or Fatalities

Trapped

Injuries or Fatalities

Risk of Lightweight Construction Failure on Fire Service




Ramachandran, G., and David A. Charters. Quantitative Risk Assessment in Fire Safety. London: Spon, 2011. Print.

• Several risk assessment approaches available

• Target was quantitative, but need data


Poses p

otentia

l igniti

on haza

rd

Poses p

otentia

l shock

haza

rd

Potentia

l exp

losio

n haza

rd

Poses p

otentia

l toxic

ity h

azard

Readily

ignita

ble

Burns r

eadily o

nce ig

nited

Contribute

s more

fuel /

incr

eased H

RR

Mate

rial a

ffect

s burn

ing ch

arac

teris

tics

Fast(e

r) fir

e growth

rate

Significa

nt sm

oke p

roduct

ion/h

azard

Potentia

l for s

horter t

ime to

failu

re

Failure

affe

cts b

urnin

g chara

cteris

tics

Failure

pre

sents

stab

ility c

oncern

Failure

pre

sents

smoke sp

read

concern

Failure

pre

sents

flam

e spre

ad conce

rn

Mate

rial p

rese

nts fla

me sp

read

conce

rn

May i

mpact

smoke

/heat v

enting

May i

mpact

occ

upant evac

uatio

n

May i

mpact

FF wat

er ava

ilabilit

y

May i

mpact

suppre

ssio

n effe

ctive

ness

May i

mpact

fire

appara

tus a

ccess

May i

mpact

FF acc

ess a

nd opera

tions

May i

mpact

conta

inm

ent of r

unoff

Relative ri

sk le

vel

Exterior Materials and Systems

- Structura l integrated panel (SIP)

- Exterior insulation & finish (EFIS)

- Rigid foam insulation

- Spray-appl ied foam insulation

- Foi l insulation systems

- High-performance glazing

- Low-emiss ivi ty & reflective coating

- Double-skin façade / cavi ty wal l

- Bamboo, other cel lulos ic

- Bio-polymers , FRPs

- Vegetative roof sys tems

- Insulating materia l

- Thickness

- Type of vegetation

- PVC ra inwater catchment

- Exterior cable / cable trays

- Extended solar roof panels

- Exterior solar shades / awning

- Exterior vegatative covering

Façade Attributes

- Area of glazing

- Area of combustible materia l

Risk Ranking Key

Low or N/A Presents a low risk when unmitigated or is not applicable to the listed attributes

Moderate Presents a moderate risk when unmitigated.

High Presents a high risk when unmitigated.



Meacham, 2017

• Selected comparative risk approach— Insufficient statistical (historical) fire loss data, and

insufficient fire test / experimental performance data on materials and systems for absolute risk approach

• Comparative approach allows establishment of a benchmark, for which sufficient data are available, and look at relative increase or decrease in risk

• Benchmark is traditional 2”x4” stick construction

Meacham, 2017



Meacham, 2017

How to fix weighting factors?

Time

Meacham, 2017

How does a green building feature affect the fire growth or structural stability?



Meacham, 2017

How does a green building feature finally affect the occupants’ safety or Fire fighters’ safety?

Meacham, 2017



Meacham, 2017


Meacham, 2017

Outcomes, Conclusions, Future



Meacham, 2017


Meacham, 2017




Meacham, 2017


Meacham, 2017

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?



Meacham, 2017

CEUs: To receive CEUs for this session, scan yourbadge at the back of the room before leaving

Evaluation: Complete a session evaluation on the mobile app. (Search app store for ‘NFPA 2017 C&E.’)

Handouts: Handouts will be available via the mobile app and at nfpa.org/conference

Recordings: Audio recordings of all sessions will be available free of charge via NFPA Xchange.

2017 NFPA Conference & Expo

quantification of green building features on...

Documents