- Author
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Notarianni, K. A.
- Title
- Tool for Quantification of Performance and Uncertainty in Fire Safety of Buildings. BFRL Fire Research Seminar. VHS Video.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
Video
July 26, 2000
- Keywords
-
fire safety
|
uncertainty
|
safety engineering
|
performance based codes
- Abstract
- The treatment of uncertainty is key to ensuring and maintaining an appropriate level of public safety while allowing the flexibility necessary to reduce costs. This is true for all fire safety-engineering calculations whether conducted to meet a performance-based code, to aid in the establishment of a prescriptive requirement, or to compare a performance option to its prescriptive counterpart. However, at present, no method exists for the quantification of uncertainly in a fire safety engineering calculation. Proper treatment of uncertainty will assist engineers and architects in the design process, and assist code officials by increasing confidence in the acceptance of a performance calculation. It will aid researchers in prioritizing enhancements to both the physics and structure of fire models, and aid policy makers by incorporating scientific knowledge and technical predictive abilities in policy decisions. This work suggests a quantitative methodology for the treatment of uncertainty in fire protection engineering design that is rigorous but comprehendible. It suggests modification of the steps in conducting an engineering design to integrate uncertainty analysis. Use of the methodology is demonstrated through application to a case study for a residential high-rise building. The work shows how the results of the uncertainty analysis can be used to create distributions of key outcome criteria, determine time to untenability, determine the effect of performance criteria selection, and judge acceptability of a design. Also, the set of values for key outcome criteria can be used to judge the uncertainty importance of each of the input parameters.