7.5 Technische Eigenschaften von Polymerwerkstoffen
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Eingeladener Vortrag
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Recent facade fires worldwide have driven change in regulations for façade fire safety in different parts of the world. The Grenfell Tower fire 2017 in London triggered a thorough investigation of many aspects of the fire. One investigation was about the UK building regulations from Dame Judith Hackett. This investigation compares the UK with the situation other parts of the world. Key findings of the review of building regulations by Judith Hackett are:
A well-defined terminology of fire-related variables is important for correct analyses and supporting knowledge-based decisions regarding the evaluation of building fires at the European level. After developing an overview of current practices for fire statistics in Part I, the terminology used and the data collected by the EU Member States and eight other countries regarding fire incidents, property damage and human losses were mapped to increase awareness of their practice and support a comprehensive assessment of several fire statistical datasets. A questionnaire was distributed to relevant authorities responsible for the collection, elaboration/analysis, and fire statistical data publications to define and select the essential variables for an appropriate fire assessment and fire incident description. Based on the results of the questionnaire able to identify the essential fire statistical variables and a detailed analysis of current definitions adopted in the fire statistics of the EU Member States and other countries, a common terminology is proposed to collect the necessary data in the EU Member States and obtain meaningful datasets based on standardised terms and definitions. The results will generate essential outputs to move towards harmonised fire statistics at the EU level and contribute to an appropriate analysis able to improve fire prevention and fire mitigation in building fires.
The analysis of the current state of fire statistics and data collection in Europe and other countries is needed to increase awareness of how fire incidents affect buildings and to support pan-European fire prevention and fire mitigation measures.
The terminology and data collected regarding fire incidents in buildings in the EU Member States were mapped to obtain meaningful datasets to determine common terminology, collection methodology, and data interpretation system. An extensive literature review showed that fire data collection systems have been instrumental in informing firefighting strategies, evidence-based planning, prevention, and educational programmes. Differences and similarities between fire data collection systems were also investigated. The amount and quality of the information in fire statistical recording systems appear to be influenced by the complexity and structure with which the data are collected. The analysis also examined the existing fire statistics in the EU Member States and a few other countries. Finally, a detailed investigation of the number of fires, fire deaths, and injuries from 2009 to 2018 in several countries was examined based on data from a report by CTIF. The trends showed differences attributable to the existing fire statistical practices in terms of terminology and data
collection, and interpretation. Part II proposes a common terminology for selected fire statistical variables. The results provide relevant information regarding fire safety at the European level and should be used to guide the development of more uniform fire statistics across Europe.
Crisis management, particularly the evacuation of handicapped People during a fire scenario presents a highly demanding challenge for nursing staff and rescue forces on site. The German research Project SiME is an interdisciplinary cooperation of university and non-university research institutions as well as medium-sized companies, which work together to develop strategies to manage such critical scenarios. In the SiME project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, evacuation characteristics of pedestrians with physical, mental or age-related disabilities are investigated to fit consisting numerical evacuation models with data. One of the major tasks of the OvGU was to set up a database of scenarios related to fire, explosion or substance releases in the working and living environment of handicapped people. Therefore, more than 463 fire Events occurring over the last decade in Germany were documented in this database and categorized by a suitable assignment of characteristics e.g. location of fire, ignition source, number of fatalities and injured.
The evaluated data were the basis for carrying out a quantitative risk analysis. Thus event trees were set up for different integrative infrastructures with which occurrence probabilities for different scenarios could be calculated for each path. The extent of damage, as a quantity describing the impact, was assumed to be personal injury or death or serious injury. By a risk assessment critical Scenarios could be derived from the risk analysis.
In recent years, fire safety requirements for bus interior materials have been increased and introduced into international regulations. Fire safety requirements for the burning rate, melting and dripping behaviour of interior materials already exist for many years. However, it remains unclear to what extent the release of smoke, combustion products and their toxicity should be limited. Therefore, a research and development project 82.0723 funded by BASt (Federal Highway Research Institute) was initiated to develop a simplified procedure for testing the toxicity and smoke development in case of fire of interior materials used in buses. The scope of the research included calculations to assess the toxicity of fire gases and the derivation of specifications for the formation of practicable limit values for smoke toxicity. Further investigations are needed to derive these limit values for smoke toxicity in order to be applicable for real fire scenarios in buses.
Although fire safety regulations for buses have been adapted in recent years regarding, for example, fire detection and engine fire suppression systems, the changes in regulations for bus interior materials are minimal. A comparison of fire safety regulations for interior materials in other transport sectors for trains, ships or aircraft reveals a much lower level of requirements for bus materials. Although repeated bus accidents as well as fire statistics show the danger a bus fire can pose to passengers.
In particular, the combination of a fire incident and passengers with reduced mobility led to severe disasters in Germany and other European countries. To enhance the fire safety for passengers, the interior bus materials are crucial as the fire development in the bus cabin determines whether escape and rescue is possible. Against this background, bus interior materials were tested in different fire test scenarios. Measurement of a wide variety of parameters, for example, the mass loss, ignition time, smoke gas composition, heat release rate among others were carried out. Tested materials complied to the newest set of requirements. For this purpose, interior materials and their components had to be identified according to their chemical structure. Parts of the tests were funded by BASt (Federal Highway Research Institute) in the project 82.0723/2018. Experimental results show reaction-to-fire behaviour which lead to very limited times for escape and rescue in case of fire in a bus cabin. Based on the studies on fire behaviour and toxicity assessment, recommendations for improved fire safety regulations for interior materials could be made.
Recent facade fires worldwide have driven change in regulations for façade fire safety in different parts of the world. The Grenfell Tower fire 2017 in London triggered a thorough investigation of many aspects of the fire. One investigation was about the UK building regulations from Dame Judith Hackett 1,2. This investigation compares the UK with the situation other parts of the world.
Editorial façade fire safety
(2018)
This Special Issue of Fire and Materials brings together a collection of papers that were presented at the 2016 Interflam conference in the Fire & Facades session along with recent submissions to the Fire and Materials Journal that are very relevant to the Fire and Facades subject. Having attended the Interflam conference, all Fire and Materials Journal editors who attended realised the importance of this topic. We felt it important that this session content would both be reviewed and made available to a wider audience and that it was timely that we featured this increasing important topic in our journal. Accordingly, authors of selected papers were invited to update and extend their papers for journal submission, and other appropriate peer review papers subsequently submitted to the Journal were included in the collection.
About 80% of all fire fatalities in Germany occur because of fires in homes. It has been known for some time that modern materials (synonym for materials consisting mostly of synthetic polymers) tend to burn differently from older materials (synonym for materials consisting mostly of fibrous cellulosic substances) and it has been acknowledged that the amount of combustible plastics in homes has increased significantly over the last decades. To investigate the influence of modern furniture and ventilation conditions of fires in homes, a series of four large-scale tests in two Living rooms (LRs) with adjacent rooms (ARs) was performed by BAM and the Frankfurt fire service. Two LRs, one with older furniture and one with modern furniture, were tested twice each. Each test started with the ignition of a paper cushion on an upholstered chair. The influence of modern materials on the fire development was investigated, as well as the influence of the ventilation on the fire development. In all settings, an upholstered chair was the first burning item. Results of the test series show that fires in rooms with modern furniture develop faster than fires in rooms with older furniture.
This is true for temperature development in the rooms as well as for smoke production.
As part of energy‐efficient renovations or for the construction of new buildings often external thermal insulation composite (ETIC) are used. In 2015, in Germany almost 37 million square meters were installed. But several fires involving ETIC systems with polystyrene foam (EPS) insulation in Germany led to an extensive discussion about fire safety of such systems. A collection initiated by the Frankfurt fire service of façade fires which include polystyrene insulation foam1 shows that more than two thirds of all reported fires started in front of buildings. In half of these fires burning waste containers were the first burning objects. Consequently, German building authorities called for tests of existing approved ETIC systems with EPS insulation in a fire Scenario representing a burning waste container. As these tests revealed weaknesses in the existing ETIC systems measures were introduced to enhance the systems. However, the recently introduced German test standard DIN 4102‐20 does not take These changes into account. The DIN test represents a fire where flames emerge an opening but is downscaled regarding the size of the fire load and therefore does not represent a fully developed fire in a room. In ETIC systems with EPS insulation, the render is an important factor for the fire performance of these systems as collapse of the render usually leads to very rapid fire development. Intermediate scale tests with ETICs specimens indicate that mechanical damages of the render weaken the System significantly. Challenges and possible measures to enhance fire safety of ETIC systems are discussed.
Motor Vehicles
(2021)
The amount of plastic and synthetic materials is still growing in all sectors of everyday life. In the automotive industry, plastic materials are now widely used in vehicles because of their excellent mechanical properties and their light weight combined with low production costs. However, plastic materials are flammable and can generate toxic smoke gases which can endanger passengers’ lives in the event of fire.
Several attempts have been made in the past to develop a European harmonized testing and assessment method for façades before the European commission decided to publish a call for tender on the topic. A project consortium from five countries (Sweden, UK, France, Germany and Hungary) applied to the call for tender and was contracted to develop a European approach to assess the fire performance of façades. 24 sub-contractors and 14 stakeholder entities were part of the project.
The objective of the European project was to address a request from the Standing Committee of Construction (SCC) to provide EC Member States regulators with a means to regulate the fire performance of façade systems based on a European approach agreed by SCC. In addressing this objective, the project team was asked to consider a number of issues which are presented and discussed.
Facade fires are of growing concern worldwide. Severe facade fires in different parts of the world as well as activities in many countries regarding the testing of facades show the urgency of the fire safety challenges in façade fires. The need for knowledge and a wide Archive of work in this area has become evident after recent incidents which involved extensive facade fires. These include the tragic fires in Dubai and Grenfell Tower in 2017 in the United Kingdom. In many cases, the widespread live news coverage of the events and size of These fires has emphasized the need for progress in the understanding of the processes involved in these fires and put pressure upon the fire safety engineering community to find effective solutions.
Brandschutz
(2022)
Brandsicherheit von Bussen
(2021)
Grundsätzlich lässt sich sagen, dass Busbrände relativ häufig auftreten, auch wenn sich das im öffentlichen Bewusstsein nicht unbedingt widerspiegelt. In Deutschland gibt es keine einheitliche Brandstatistik, nach einer eigenen Internetrecherche brennt im Schnitt aber etwa an jedem zweiten Tag ein Bus in Deutschland.
Auch eine interne Umfrage eines Verbands von Busbetreibern bestätigte die Häufigkeit von Bränden: Ungefähr 1 Prozent der Busse hatte im Jahr einen Brandfall – wobei hier auch kleinere Ereignisse mitgezählt wurden. Die britische Statistik bestätigt diese Zahlen. Sie führt für die letzten 10 Jahre ca. 11900 Brände pro Jahr in Fahrzeugen, davon ca. 315 pro Jahr in Bussen auf. Brände in Bussen sind für die Passagiere eine große Gefährdung, da sie sich meist sehr schnell ausbreiten.
Zwei schwere Brände ereigneten sich in Deutschland 2008 und 2017.
In this study included:
The consideration of a façade kit as a construction product
The consideration of a façade as a part of a specific building. In some national regulations this would mean that detailing such as
window openings may also need to be considered.
Fire scenario identification for each of the Member States that regulate for the fire performance of the façade system based on alternative assessment methods.
Recent bus fires in Europe, such as the bus fire in France 2015 with 43 fatalities and the bus fire in Germany 2017 with 19 fatalities, show that these fires can be very hazardous and time for escape can be too short. Recently, several fire safety measures came into force for busses. Engine compartment suppression systems will be mandatory for all busses in Europe. This is a big step in fire safety as about 80 % of fires start in the engine compartment. However, in several recent bus fires a time of less than 5 minutes has been reported from detection of the fire to a fully developed fire. As normally many people are on board of a bus, a bus fire is not comparable to fire in a home. Especially for people with reduced mobility or for fires after a collision the available times for escape are too short. When the fire service is on scene the transition to a fully developed fire might have happened already. Passengers who are not able to escape in this short period of time mostly cannot be rescued by the fire service even with quick response times because of the dramatic fire development. Fires that do not start in the engine compartment but develop in the cabin are rarer but extremely dangerous because fire and smoke spread very rapidly. The reason for the fast fire and smoke development in the cabin are the materials which are used. Over the last tens of years materials in busses had major developments. The amount of plastic in the cabin has grown significantly. In a modern coach the biggest fire load often is not the fuel anymore but the interior materials.
Bus fire safety is mainly regulated by ECE regulations R 118 and R 107. A comparison with European standards for trains shows that for trains, in contrast to busses, a holistic fire concept exists. Fire scenarios as well as escape scenarios and passenger behaviour are taken into account, resulting in fire safety regulations on a high level compared with bus regulations. In contrast to regulations for train materials no limits for heat or smoke production are given for bus materials. Larger heat release values promote more rapid fire spread. Also smoke production and toxicity are key factors in fires. The smoke reduces the visibility in the case of fire, and together with the toxicity of the smoke can make escape from the vehicle impossible. Figure 1 shows the remains of the bus from the recent severe bus fire in Germany in 2017.
As a result of experience with real cases and results from research projects we think it is necessary to develop a holistic fire safety concept for busses as it exists for other transport means like railways. The fire safety concept should include vehicle configuration and design as well as areas of use, e.g. use in cities, use in long-distance traffic on motorways and use in tunnels.
Die Präsentation gibt einen Überblick über die Arbeiten im German Pilot des EU-Projekts TREEADS. Es werden klein-, mittel- und großskalige Versuche an Waldboden mit einheimischer Vegetation durchgeführt. Begleitend werden numerische Untersuchungen durchgeführt, die eine Variation der Parameter, wie Bodenfeuchte, Temperaturen und Wind über die Experimente hinaus erlauben. Die gemessenen Materialparameter dienen als Input für die numerischen Berechnungen. Die numerischen Modelle werden mit den mittel- und großskaligen Experimenten validiert.
Das EU Projekt EU FireStat SI2.830108, das vom Europäischen Parlament finanziert und von der DG GROW der Europäischen Kommission in Auftrag gegeben wurde, hat aufgearbeitet, welche Terminologie in den europäische Mitgliedsstaaten verwendet wird und die von den Mitgliedstaaten erhobenen Daten über Gebäudebrände zu analysieren. Dabei wurden die Schwierigkeiten bei der Erfassung und die Unterschiede bei der Auslegung ermittelt und eine gemeinsame Terminologie sowie eine Methode zur Erfassung der erforderlichen Daten vorgeschlagen.
Folgende Schwerpunkte wurden bearbeitet: Zunächst erfolgte eine Diagnose von Terminologie-, Datenerhebungs- und Auslegungsproblemen, Erhebung der Terminologie und der Datenerfassung, Identifizierung der für die Entscheidungsfindung benötigten Daten, Analyse der Methoden zur Datenerhebung Definition einer gemeinsamen Terminologie, Methodik der Kosten-/Nutzenbewertung zur Unterstützung politischer Entscheidungen, Fallstudie zur Anwendung der Methode der Kosten-/Nutzenbewertung, Beschreibung einer zukünftigen Datenerhebungsmethode.
Das Ergebnis des Projekts ist eine Empfehlung, welche Daten in den Mitgliedstaaten erhoben werden sollten, um wissensbasierte Entscheidungen in Bezug auf den Brandschutz zu ermöglichen. Damit wird die Grundlage für Maßnahmen und Initiativen geschaffen, die den Brandschutz und die Brandverhütung der Mitgliedstaaten unterstützen, so dass knappe Ressourcen gezielt eingesetzt werden können.
Das EU Projekt EU FireStat SI2.830108, das vom Europäischen Parlament finanziert und von der DG GROW der Europäischen Kommission in Auftrag gegeben wurde, hat aufgearbeitet, welche Terminologie in den europäische Mitgliedsstaaten verwendet wird und die von den Mitgliedstaaten erhobenen Daten über Gebäudebrände zu analysieren. Dabei wurden die Schwierigkeiten bei der Erfassung und die Unterschiede bei der Auslegung ermittelt und eine gemeinsame Terminologie sowie eine Methode zur Erfassung der erforderlichen Daten vorgeschlagen.
Folgende Schwerpunkte wurden bearbeitet: Zunächst erfolgte eine Diagnose von Terminologie-, Datenerhebungs- und Auslegungsproblemen, Erhebung der Terminologie und der Datenerfassung, Identifizierung der für die Entscheidungsfindung benötigten Daten, Analyse der Methoden zur Datenerhebung Definition einer gemeinsamen Terminologie, Methodik der Kosten-/Nutzenbewertung zur Unterstützung politischer Entscheidungen, Fallstudie zur Anwendung der Methode der Kosten-/Nutzenbewertung, Beschreibung einer zukünftigen Datenerhebungsmethode.
Das Ergebnis des Projekts ist eine Empfehlung, welche Daten in den Mitgliedstaaten erhoben werden sollten, um wissensbasierte Entscheidungen in Bezug auf den Brandschutz zu ermöglichen. Damit wird die Grundlage für Maßnahmen und Initiativen geschaffen, die den Brandschutz und die Brandverhütung der Mitgliedstaaten unterstützen, so dass knappe Ressourcen gezielt eingesetzt werden können.
The importance of empirical relations to quantify the movement of pedestrians through a facility has increased during the last decades since performance-based design methods became more common. Bottlenecks are of special interest because of their importance for egress routes and as they result in a reduced capacity. The empirical relations as the density-dependent movement speed or flow rate were derived by studies under laboratory conditions, which were usually conducted with populations of homogeneous characteristics forbetter control of influencing variables.
If individual characteristics of a crowd become more heterogeneous, individuals were forced to adapt their individual movement and control individual manoeuvring.
These unintended interactions lead to a different shape of the fundamental empirical relations. Here, we present results from a movement study under well-controlled boundary conditions in which participants with and without different characteristics of disabilities participated. To consider the effect of different heterogeneities on the capacity of a facility, fundamental diagrams are generated using the Voronoi method. If participants with visible disabilities (such as using assistive devices) are part of a crowd, significant differences relating to the shape of the empirical Relations and the capacities are found. This indicates that the heterogeneity of a Population leads to an increased interpersonal interaction which results in influenced movement characteristics.
Emergency exits as bottlenecks in escape routes are important for designing traffic facilities. Particularly, the capacity estimation is a crucial performance criterion for assessment of pedestrians' safety in built environments. For this reason, several studies were performed during the last decades which focus on the quantification of movement through corridors and bottlenecks. These studies were usually conducted with populations of homogeneous characteristics to reduce influencing variables and for reasons of practicability. Studies which consider heterogeneous characteristics in performance parameters are rarely available. In response and to reduce this lack of data a series of well-controlled large-scale movement studies considering pedestrians using different types of wheelchairs was carried out. As a result it is shown that the empirical relations are strongly affected by the presence of participants with visible disabilities (such as wheelchair users). We observed an adaption of the overall movement speeds to the movement speeds of participants using a wheelchair, even for low densities and free flow scenarios. Flow and movement speed are in a complex relation and do not depend on density only. In our studies, the concept of specific flow fits for the nondisabled subpopulation but it is not valid for scenario considering wheelchair users in the population.
Emergency exits as bottlenecks in escape routes are important for designing traffic facilities. Especially the fundamental diagram is a crucial performance criterion for assessment of pedestrians' safety in facilities and an important basis for calculation methods. For this reason, several studies were performed during the last decades which focus on the quantification of movement through bottlenecks. These studies were usually conducted with populations of homogeneous characteristics to reduce influencing variables and for reasons of practicability.
Studies which consider heterogeneous characteristics in performance parameters are rarely available. In response and to reduce this lack of data a series of well-controlled large-scale movement studies considering pedestrians with different disabilities was carried out.
Understanding movement in heterogeneous groups is important for a meaningful evaluation of evacuation prediction and for a proper design of buildings. The understanding of interactions and influencing factors in heterogeneous groups on key performance figures is fundamental for a safe design. This contribution presents results of experimental studies on movement of a crowd through a bottleneck involving participants with and without disabilities. High precise trajectories of the attendees extracted from video recordings were used to calculate density and velocity of the participants. Besides the well-established fundamental diagram new insights into the individual relation between density and velocity are discussed. A complex structure and considerate behaviour in movement implicates a strong influence of the heterogeneity on key performance values of safe movement.
Evaluation of evacuation process is common separated by two phases: pre-movement and movement-phase. Individual capabilities of pedestrians have an impact on both and therefore on the time required for safe escape. In view of evaluating the evacuation process, characteristics of realistic movements of pedestrians involved are needed, but so far such data are mainly available for individuals with unrestricted evacuation capabilities only.
Due to the lack of available data, parameter studies in an assisted living for people with disabilities were performed to explore the movement during evacuation. Preparation times for assistance (n = 10), unimpeded walking speeds (n = 34) depending on the assistance devices in the plane as well as walking speeds on stairs (n = 11) were focussed.
Time to prepare an assistance device for utilisation depends significantly on the kind of device type. Further on, practical experience in handling the devices for assistance has an impact on the preparation time. In contrast to the results of the preparation times, any relation on assistance devices were investigated for the unimpeded walking speed in the plane. A remarkable decrease of walking speed on stairs was observed which is independent from the utilised assistance device.
The presented data improve and extend the insufficient engineering data base and raised up questions regarding the complexity of considering pedestrians movement with impairments in evacuation planning.
Studien zur Erforschung von Kenngrößen der Bewegung von Personen wurden in der Vergangenheit meistens mit jungen und fitten Menschen durchgeführt. In Folge des demographischen Wandels und der Anforderungen an barrierefreies Bauen stellt sich die Frage, ob die so ermittelten Kenngrößen der Bewegung auch auf heterogene Personengruppen übertragen werden können. Da bei der Berechnung von Räumungszeiten zunehmend Ingenieurmethoden eingesetzt werden, deren Ergebnisse ganz wesentlich von den zu Grunde gelegten Bewegungsparametern, wie z. B. der freien Gehgeschwindigkeit, abhängen, hat die Validität der Kenngrößen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die sicherheitstechnische Evaluation von Gebäuden und Versammlungsstätten.
In diesem Artikel wird anhand aktueller Forschungsergebnisse aus Bewegungsstudien, an denen Menschen mit und ohne Beeinträchtigungen teilgenommen haben, der Einfluss der Heterogenität auf Kenngrößen der Bewegung vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus werden die Besonderheiten des Studienablaufs und die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Untersuchungsmethode dargestellt. Die Untersuchungen bestätigen, dass die Berücksichtigung besonderer Personengruppen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Kenngrößen der Bewegung hat und daher die Ergebnisse der Ingenieurmethoden beeinflusst und zukünftig bei heterogenen Personengruppen beachtet werden muss.
Evaluation of evacuation process is common separated by two phases: pre-movement and movement-phase. Individual capabilities of pedestrians have an impact on both and therefore on the time required for safe escape. In view of evaluating the evacuation process, characteristics of realistic movements of pedestrians involved are needed, but so far such data are mainly available for individuals with unrestricted evacuation capabilities only.
Due to the lack of available data, parameter studies in an assisted living for people with disabilities were performed to explore the movement during evacuation. Preparation times for assistance (n=10), unimpeded walking speeds (n=34) depending on the assistance devices in the plane as well as walking speeds on stairs (n=11) were focussed.
Time to prepare an assistance device for utilisation depends significantly on the kind of device type. Further on, practical experience in handling the devices for assistance has an impact on the preparation time. In contrast to the results of the preparation times, any relation on assistance devices were investigated for the unimpeded walking speed in the plane. A remarkable decrease of walking speed on stairs was observed which is independent from the utilised assistance device.
The presented data improve and extend the insufficient engineering data base and raised up questions regarding the complexity of considering pedestrians movement with impairments in evacuation planning.
In der Vergangenheit wurden Kenngrößen der Bewegung von Menschen zumeist in Studien gewonnen, die mit jungen und fitten Menschen durchgeführt wurden (z. B. Studierende oder Soldaten). Aufgrund des demographischen Wandels und aktueller Entwicklungen im Kontext der Barrierefreiheit stellt sich jedoch die Frage, ob die in diesen Studien gewonnen Kenngrößen, z. B. freie Gehgeschwindigkeiten, ohne weiteres auch auf heterogene Personengruppen übertragen werden können.
Bei der Bewertung der Sicherheit von Menschen, z. B. in Wohneinheiten, Verwaltungsgebäuden und Versammlungsstätten, kommen heute Ingenieurmethoden zum Einsatz, welche auf den oben genannten Kenngrößen basieren. Insofern ist es erforderlich, Menschen mit und ohne Beeinträchtigungen bei den Bewegungsstudien zu berücksichtigen. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden aktuelle Ergebnisse solcher Studien vorgestellt. Zudem werden Besonderheiten sowie Grenzen und Möglichkeiten der Untersuchungsmethode herausgearbeitet.
To quantify the evacuation process, evacuation practitioners use engineering egress data describing the occupant movement characteristics. These data are typically based to young and fit populations. However, the movement abilities of occupants who might be involved in evacuations are becoming more variable—with the building populations of today typically including increasing numbers of individuals: with impairments or who are otherwise elderly or generally less mobile. Thus, there will be an increasing proportion of building occupants with reduced ability to egress. For safe evacuation, there is therefore a need to provide valid Engineering egress data considering pedestrians with disabilities. Gwynne and Boyce recently compiled a series of data sets related to the evacuation process to support practitioner activities in the chapter Engineering Data in the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. This paper supplements these data sets by providing information on and presenting data obtained from additional research related to the premovement and horizontal movement of participants with physical-, cognitive-, or age-related disabilities. The aim is to provide an overview of currently available data sets related to, and key factors affecting the egress performance of, mixed ability populations which could be used to guide fire safety engineering decisions in the context of building design.
This study provides an analysis on the fire safety of passengers and the fire protection of coaches and buses. A brief review of major bus fire incidents, an overview of current regulations in Europe, and their limitations are presented. The study finds that the current small-scale fire test methods described in UN ECE Reg No. 118 need to be replaced by test methods that can assess the reaction to fire of materials when exposed to ignition sources of varying sizes. To address these shortcomings, the study proposed an expert recommendation to update the material fire safety requirements and testing for buses. Additional measures are proposed, derived from objectives and strategies applied in other transport sectors, and can be tested through existing European and international standards, which are widely used by several industries. These measures aim to extend the time with tenable conditions for a safe evacuation in case of fire, reduce the degree of damage to buses, reduce the risk for fast and excessive thermal exposure on modern energy carriers needed for a more sustainable transport sector.
Several attempts have been made in the past to develop a European harmonized testing and assessment method for façades before the European commission decided to publish a call for tender on the topic. A project consortium from five countries (Sweden, UK, France, Germany and Hungary) applied to the call for tender and was contracted to develop a European approach to assess the fire performance of façades. 24 sub-contractors and 14 stakeholder entities were part of the project. The objective of the European project was to address a request from the Standing Committee of Construction (SCC) to provide EC Member States regulators with a means to regulate the fire performance of façade systems based on a European Approach agreed by SCC. The initial stages of this Project were focused on establishing a Register of the regulatory requirements in all Member States in relation to the fire Performance of façade systems, and to identify those Member States who have regulatory requirements for the fire performance façade systems which go beyond the current EN 13501 (reaction to fire and fire resistance) classification systems and to collate the details of these additional requirements. After having confirmed the regulatory needs a testing and classification methodology based on BS 8414 and DIN 4102-20 was developed to address the identified key performance and classification characteristics.
This paper is a short overview of results the two-year development work, which Final Report published by the European Commission in 2018.