ENFE601-24S1 (C) Semester One 2024

Structural Fire Engineering

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 February 2024
End Date: Sunday, 23 June 2024
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 3 March 2024
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 12 May 2024

Description

Introduction to specific fire engineering design of buildings. Active and passive fire protection. Severity of post-flashover fires. Fire resistance of steel, concrete and timber structures.

Structural Fire Engineering introduces graduate students and engineering professionals to performance-based design of structures for fire situations. It covers general fire safety principles, fire resistance and the behaviour, analysis and design of structures at elevated temperatures. In exploring the available fire engineering design methods, the course examines prescriptive approaches, simple calculations and advanced calculation methods. It is aimed at enhancing structural engineering practice for the design of structures exposed to fires.

Learning Outcomes

  • At the end of this course, participants will understand the fundamental behaviours of individual structural elements and structural systems in fires and the different methodologies that may be used to predict these behaviours. Students should be able to distinguish between situations where tabulated and simplified calculations of fire resistance of structural elements are applicable, and where advanced calculations are either the only alternative or a better option.

    Principally, they will be able to estimate:

  • Temperatures in post-flashover fires
  • Equivalent fire severity
  • Temperatures in structural assemblies using hand calculation methods
  • Loads and safety factors for structural fire design
  • Fire performance of steel, concrete, timber and composite frame structures using hand calculation methods
  • When to use advanced calculation methods for the analysis or design of structures for fire

Prerequisites

ENGR403 or subject to approval of the Head of Department

Restrictions

ENCI661

Timetable 2024

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Intensive Block Course A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
26 Feb - 3 Mar
Intensive Block Course B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
26 Feb - 3 Mar
Intensive Block Course C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
26 Feb - 3 Mar
Intensive Block Course D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 May - 26 May
Intensive Block Course E
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 May - 26 May
Intensive Block Course F
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 09:00 - 17:00 FENZ Engineering Facility - Henderson Room
20 May - 26 May

Timetable Note

The course is based on guided self-study, using the textbook Structural Design for Fire Safety (2nd Edition) and other references on structural fire engineering. It is delivered in ‘Block Mode’, with two three-day blocks at the University of Canterbury. To guide students through the course and to prepare them for the final exam, the first block course offers lectures, which are designed to introduce basic concepts and ideas of structural fire engineering. The course textbook and other references cover the material in greater detail: they should be consulted for completeness. There are fortnightly tutorials to reinforce the ideas discussed in the lectures and referenced materials. The second block reviews assignment problems and introduces advanced topics in structural fire engineering amongst discussions of current problems in this field.

This course builds on the structural fire design principles taught in ENGR403 Fire Engineering. It expands on these principles by delving into the fundamentals of the design of structures for fire conditions and addresses the behaviour of single elements and structural assemblies to standard and real fires. We would encourage you to review your ENGR403 notes to enhance your understanding of the basics of structural fire design.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Anthony Abu

Lecturer

Paul Horne

Lab Technician

Grant Dunlop

Student Representative

Gordon Chen

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Block 1 test 10%
Lab Assignments (2) 5%
Tutorials and Quizzes 10%
Design Assignments (3) 25%
Presentation (2) 10%
Final Test 40%


General Information

• The deadlines for all assignments are displayed on the Course Schedule and on LEARN. Any changes to course dates or other details will be communicated through LEARN. It is the responsibility of each student to check the LEARN website regularly.

• Assessments must be submitted by the due date on LEARN. Marks will be posted online as soon as they are available. Late assignments are unacceptable and will not be marked. Our aim is to provide feedback on assessments within three weeks. Where this is not possible, it will be communicated to you. All submissions should be single PDF documents (typed).
ENFE601 Course Outline 2024 3 © Assoc Prof Anthony Abu

• Unless specifically stated, assessments should not exceed 3000 words of typed text. Illustrations are helpful but should be appropriately explained. Items that do not directly contribute to an argument being made in the main body of the text should be put in an appendix. Appendices are limited to a maximum of ten pages.

• Plagiarism is not accepted in any form. Submitted assignments would be checked using “turn-it-in”. All “DRAFT” submissions on LEARN will not be assessed, and will receive a zero grade.


Tests

• There will be a test at 09.00 am on the third day of Block Course 1. The test is based on the items covered during the first two days of the block. In order to fully appreciate the material covered on those days it is recommended that students have a good read of the course textbook ahead of the block.

• The final test (May/June 2024) will be a three-hour online examination. Students will have three days within which to complete the test and upload their solutions on LEARN. Unless otherwise stated the three hours of the test are consecutive. Currently the test is planned to run from 12h – 14th June 2024. If, for any reason, we must change these dates, it will be communicated to you. The test will cover all material in the course.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Buchan, A H and Abu, A K; Structural Design for Fire Safety ; 2nd; John Wiley and Sons, 2016.

Recommended Reading

Hurley, Morgan J. et al; SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering ; Springer New York : Imprint : Springer, 2016.

Lamalva, Kevin. , Hopkin, Danny; International Handbook of Structural Fire Engineering ; 1st ed. 2021; Springer International Publishing : Imprint : Springer, 2021.

Lennon, Tom; Structural fire engineering ; ICE Publishing, 2011.

Purkiss, J. A. , Li, Long-Yuan; Fire safety engineering design of structures ; Third edition; CRC Press, 2013.

Designing steel structures for fire safety by J-M Franssen, V Kodur and R Zaharia (2009)

The course textbook can be purchased in several ways. Physical copies can be obtained through Catherine O’Shaughnessy at the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the university, the University of Canterbury (UC) bookshop (www.ubscan.co.nz) or online through various outlets. A softcopy can also be obtained through the UC Library.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,197.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .

All ENFE601 Occurrences

  • ENFE601-24S1 (C) Semester One 2024