- Author
-
Bukowski, R. W.
- Title
- Review of International Fire Risk Prediction Methods.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- Interscience Communications Ltd.; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Building Research Establishment; and Society of Fire Protection Engineers. Interflam 1993. (Interflam '93). Fire Safety. International Fire Conference, 6th. March 30-April 1, 1993,
Interscience Communications Ltd., London, England,
Oxford, England,
Franks, C. A., Editors,
437-446 p.,
1993
- Keywords
-
fire safety
|
fire science
|
risk assessment
|
fire risk
|
performance based codes
- Identifiers
- United States; Japan; Australia
- Abstract
- The long sought after benefits of performance based codes may finally be within reach as many countries are developing comprehensive building fire risk evaluation methods to support the determination of compliance with their goals. The Japanese published a formal method of establishing compliance with their Building Standard Law in 1988 which is now in use. Australia is presently developing such a method as part of a national building code regulatory reform project. The Canadian government has committed to adopt the Australian method once completed. In 1990, NIST published a product fire risk evaluation method which can also be used for quantifying the risk presented by a specific building design. Similar projects are known in the United Kingdom, Finland, and Sweden. The Japanese have further funded a project to study the various methods developed or in process and to suggest ways of harmonizing the results. This paper reviews the US, Japanese, and Australian efforts and summarizes their extensive similarities and few diferences. Given the similitude a collaboration is recommended which would result in a coordinated approach incorporating the best aspects of each method.