Project Title: The key technologies of building performance-based fire protection design and its applications

Principal Investigator: Prof. Sun Jinhua

Funding Source: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Project Period: 2006-2009

Abstract:

Large-size modern complex buildings emerge in larger and larger numbers with the unprecedented development of urbanization as the society and economy advance fast in China. Since these kinds of buildings are different from the traditional buildings in terms of function of use, materials, structural patterns, special scales, auxiliary facilities and so on, the fire safety of modern buildings can not be satisfied by fire design based on the conventional fire protection codes and specifications. Therefore, the progress of both urbanization and modern construction industry is constrained significantly in China. Focusing on the key technologies of building performance-based fire protection design, basic data base is developed in the project, which is suitable to the national situation of China, for fire risk assessment and performance-based fire protection design. The applicability of the usual models and tools of performance-based fire protection design is scrutinized. And the engineering models and tools of direct property loss prediction in building fire and performance-based fire protection design suitable to the situation in China are developed as well. Meanwhile, the specifications of building performance-based fire protection design are established. The methods of building performance-based fire protection design is developed on the basis of fire science, modern safety engineering theory and computation techniques. And the problems in large-size complex buildings design as well as the contradiction between building functions, architectural art and fire safety are solved subsequently.