Journal of Fire Protection Engineering

This paper reviews the history and development of fire protection engineering from the late 1800's to the current day. The author discusses origins of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and its role in defining the discipline. Future challenges facing the profession are presented. These include technical and liability issues surrounding new engineering methods, professional engineering registration and the increasing importance of fire protection engineering education.

NFPA 13 - Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems requires that all combustible concealed spaces be protected with sprinklers, with certain exceptions. One exception is for combustible wood joist assemblies where the ceiling membrane is within 6 inches (152 mm) of the joists. Two tests were carried out to examine fire spread in such an assembly. Automatic sprinkler protection was included in the tests to determine its effec tiveness in containing fire spread in spaces permitted to be unsprinklered by the excep tion.

The present tests indicate that unsprinklered 6 inches (152 mm) concealed spaces between the ceiling membrane and joists represent a major path for fire spread through out a building. Omitting sprinklers in such a space should only be considered if such spaces are limited in areal extent by fire stopping or some other means is used for limit ing fire spread. These tests also show that sprinkler protection has limited effectiveness

The paper demonstrates how field modelling techniques can be used to understand smoke control strategies during the design phase of major buildings.

The use of animation techniques that combine smoke and people movement results, for a particular fire scenario, to produce a computer driven animated colour portrayal of an evacuation is discussed.