Compartment Fire Dynamics in Taller Timber Buildings: Guidance for Performance-Based Fire Safety Engineering

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Abstract

In comparison to non-combustible construction materials commonly used for taller buildings, timber elements can significantly alter the fire dynamics in a compartment. This fundamentally challenges many of the conventional fire safety strategies and design approaches for mid-rise and high-rise buildings. Consequently, many building industry practitioners are questioning the limitations of existing methodologies, while searching for additional ways to account for this different fire behaviour in the design, construction, and operation of timber buildings. In seeking to address these questions, this chapter describes the state-of-the-art and recent advances in understanding the fire behaviour in compartments with areas of exposed timber (e.g., engineered wood products), and protected timber elements that may contribute to the fire if their encapsulation fails. Relevant experimental findings and engineering approaches to date are summarised and discussed, and design guidance is provided in relation to the typical phases of realistic or ‘natural’ fires, namely the growth phase, the fully-developed phase, the fire decay, and the cooling phase. Critical fire phenomena and their impacts on the fire safety strategy are addressed, such as fire spread; active fire suppression; heat induced delamination and char fall-off; and self-extinguishment.

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