Towards a better understanding of fire performance assessment of façade systems: Current situation and a proposed new assessment framework
Martyn S. McLaggan, Juan P. Hidalgo, Andrés F. Osorio, Michael Heitzmann, Jerónimo Carrascal, David Lange, Cristián Maluk, José L. Torero
Abstract
This manuscript presents tools and data that serve to enable an evaluation of the risk associated with vertical fire spread on buildings. A highly detailed context to cladding fires is described to unveil the complexity and magnitude of the problem and to identify gaps of information. An engineering framework is then developed which delivers required information that fills some of those gaps and that needs to be used towards achieving quantified fire performance. The data itself has been published as a publicly available database, entitled the Cladding Materials Library (www.claddingmaterialslibrary.com.au). This data can be used to support building fire risk assessments or as the basis for more in-depth research into façade fires. This paper presents the context of the data together with the competency framework necessary for upskilling building professionals to have the capacity to implement the engineering framework.