- Author
-
Kim, W. K.
- Title
- Exterior Fire Propagation in a High Rise Building.
- Coporate
- Worcester Polytechnic Inst., MA
- Report
-
Thesis
November 1990
132 p.
- Keywords
-
high rise buildings
|
fire spread
|
statistics
|
case histories
|
building codes
|
failure analysis
|
fire protection
|
equations
|
flame height
|
fault trees
|
burning rate
|
building design
- Abstract
- While people like to have more glass in the exterior walls of their buildings, fire protection of exterior walls has not been considered. Today's exterior walls in high rise buildings are mostly made of aluminum and glass which provide lighter weight and better vision. But these construction materials are not fire resistant. Aluminum parts start to be deformed and the glass breaks easily before the fire reaches its maximum burning rate. Statistics shows that the fire can be propagated to floors above the fire by breaking of window glass. Statistics, case studies, technical literature, and building codes were reviewed to analyse the failure and to select the appropriate technique for modeling fire spread by exterior means and for the evaluation of proposed fire protection designs.