Title: The New Zealand Experience with a Performance-Based Building Code
Speaker: Dr. Charles Fleischmann
From: University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Date: Apr09, 2012
Abstract:
The New Zealand Experience with a Performance-Based Building Code
For nearly two decades performance-based design (PBD) has evolved and is now being touted as the future of building design for fire safety providing for cost effective and innovative solutions to fire safety challenges. Although PBD continues to grow in popularity and sophistication, fire engineering has yet to reach the same level of understanding compared with the more traditional disciplines where PBD is common. New Zealand was one of the early adopters of PBD and has learned a great deal from their experience over the last 2 decades. Under the current system the Fire Engineer recommends the design fire scenarios, design fires, performance criteria, and methodology for assessing the fire safety of the proposed design. If the design does not meet the performance criteria, the design is modified until the performance criteria are achieved. However, under the current system, there is a significant variability in the design fire scenarios, design fires, and performance criteria which has lead to inconsistencies in designs and the level of safety provided in some buildings. This presentation discusses the history of performance-based design in New Zealand and the lessons that have been learned. New Zealand is on the verge of releasing a new Verification Method for performance-based design which specifies the design scenarios, design fires, and performance criteria that are the cornerstones of PBD. This presentation will discuss the Verification Method and the process that was used to develop it. An exemplary case study will be presented for a multistory hotel and function centre that will demonstrate how the Verification Method is applied to a building.
CV of the Speaker:
Charley Fleischmann is an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury where he has been a major contributor to the Graduate Fire Engineering Program since it’s inception in 1994. Charley received his Bachelors degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and his Masters and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Much of his research focuses on fire modelling both experimentally and numerically with particular interest in compartment fire phenomena including backdraft and flashover. Charley has over 25 years of experience in fire engineering research and practice. His consulting work includes fire cause, origin, and development as well as specialist consulting on fire design issues. He has given expert witness testimony in civil, criminal, and family court. Since 2004, he has served on the Fire Advisory Panel for the New Zealand Department of Building and Housing. In 2006 he was engaged as a consultant to work on developing a Verification Method for performance-based design for fire safety in New Zealand. He is a Fellow of SFPE and in 2011 he received the Arthur B Guise metal for eminent achievement in the advancement of the science and technology of fire protection engineering. He has over 100 academic and professional publications and has presented many invited and key note presentations around the world.
