fire engineering
Fire
engineering is a relatively new discipline developed principally as a
reaction to the developing trends in building technology. Traditionally,
fire safety in buildings has been achieved by reference to prescriptive
building standards and codes of practice. However, as buildings are
becoming more complex, larger and taller and populated with different
types and abilities of users, traditional designs have become restrictive
and inappropriate in their application often constraining the original
vision.
Performance
based fire safety engineering perceives fire safety more laterally to
identify areas that will fulfil the purpose of ensuring life safety but can
also be used to aid in property protection and business continuity issues.
Fire engineering is used to evaluate a perceived problem; identifying actual
risks and then creating an integrated package of measures to offset, remove
or reduce the risk to an acceptable level. Only by evaluating and
quantifying the risk can commensurate protective measures be designed and
implemented.
Our fire
engineering team's approach is to develop bespoke fire engineering solutions
which deliver fire safety strategies not only to achieve an acceptable level
of safety but also to provide greater architectural freedom and/or financial
savings. This is achieved by investigating and incorporating inherent design
features of a scheme supported by fire precaution measures that will
substantially contribute towards an optimum designed scheme.
The
team also offer a third-party review service. This can include compliance
assessment of prepared plans and drawings and/or the review of proposed
performance-based designs to ensure the designs are appropriate and which,
in the best interest of the clients, may then identify any potential
alternatives that will provide a more beneficial solution.
Computational Modelling
State of the
art computational modelling equipment enables us to offer a full range of
computational techniques to fully support traditional analysis methods. We
utilise a number of software packages on powerful modelling servers to
ensure that any modelling is run quickly and efficiently and that the
results are available to inform the design team at the earliest opportunity.
Computational modelling is an invaluable tool which allows a multitude of
design scenarios to be evaluated in a relatively short space of time; the
data generated by the model is refined and presented in a concise format.
This assists greatly in streamlining the approvals process by providing the
relevant approval authority with sufficient information to take a balanced
view of the alternative solution.
Our Fire
Engineering team is able to use computational modelling techniques to
provide the maximum benefit to the client; in short by allowing a more
specific analysis we are able to streamline the impact of fire safety
systems on building layouts and budgets without lowering the level of
safety.
The
team use computational techniques including structural fire modelling, smoke
modelling and evacuation modelling that can be used to address issues such
as single means of escape, extended travel distances, smoke ventilation
optimisation, exit width restrictions or reductions, and structural fire
resistance ratings reductions or omissions.
International Delivery
Our
engineers have considerable experience in developing new and existing
schemes across a range of sectors throughout the world. This has involved
the utilising of international fire codes as well as the adoption of local
and unique codes of practice to develop the designs. Some of the schemes
have also required our engineers to go and meet with local authorities to
negotiate and agree proposed designs and/or to temporary relocate to the
country to assist in the delivery of the project.
Countries
where our engineers have been involved in include:
UK, Eire,
Portugal, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Egypt, Libya, New Zealand, Australia,
Mexico, South Africa & Russia.
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