- Author
-
Notarianni, K. A.
- Title
- Dealing With Uncertainty and Improving Regulation. BFRL Fire Research Seminar. VHS Video.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
Video
March 25, 1999
- Keywords
-
regulations
|
fire safety
|
performance based codes
- Abstract
- It is the thesis of this paper that current efforts in fire-safety design comprise a necessary set of actions to enable the shift from prescriptive codes to performance codes, but not a sufficient set of actions to provide for the sound implementation of a performance-based system. To facilitate widespread usage of performance-based standards, we, the fire-safety community, must do more than review engineering methods and document their limitations. We must develop and implement methods for the application of our engineering tools so that they provide all stakeholders with: 1) a shared understanding of benefits, risks, and costs, 2) a known level of confidence in the final design, and 3) an accurate estimation of the life-cycle safety of the building. Currently, a known level of certainty in the final design can not be guaranteed or documented. This paper discusses five related issues: 1) barriers to sound implementation and rapid deployment of performance-based standards, 2) the role for uncertainty in improving performance-based regulations, 3) difficulties with uncertainty analyses associated with performance-based evaluation, 4) a taxonomy of use in identifying uncertainties; and 5) a methodology for dealing with these uncertainties.