ENFE605-21X (C) General non-calendar-based 2021

Fire Safety Engineering Design

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2021
End Date: Sunday, 28 November 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 7 March 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 17 September 2021

Description

Building fire safety legislation and design framework; Societal expectation of life safety and property protection; Prescriptive and performance-based fire engineering design approaches; Application of qualitative and quantitative fire engineering analysis.

Students will assess the fire safety risks of common buildings in New Zealand and formulate different fire engineering strategies to mitigate the identified risks based on Acceptable Solution C/AS2, Verification Method C/VM2 and Alternative Solutions. The students will interpret legislation and the application of general fire engineering design principles to New Zealand practice. Students will adapt knowledge from this course in conjunction with background from all other courses in the fire engineering programme to design fire-safe buildings.

Learning Outcomes

  • Interpretation of NZ legislations (Building Act and Building Code Clauses) on building fire safety and the different pathways to achieve compliance with the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC), including prescriptive Acceptable Solution, Verification Method C/VM2 and Alternative Solutions.
  • Develop appropriate design practice, including analysing design fire scenarios, developing fire protection strategies, evaluating tenability of occupied spaces, evaluating occupant evacuation, evaluating life safety and property risks associated with fire spread, and assessing other fire-related risks.
  • Develop understanding on fire risk analysis, decision-making and code of ethical conduct in the fire safety design of buildings.

Prerequisites

Co-requisites

Course Coordinator

Dennis Pau

Lecturer

Anthony Abu

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Acceptable Solution C/AS2 project 10%
Alternative Soluton Project 70%
Verification Method C/VM2 Project 20%


Acceptable Solution C/AS2 project: Students will work individually to develop a prescriptive fire safety review of a simple building in accordance with the (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) MBIE Acceptable Solutions C/AS2. The assignment is worth 10% of the course marks.

Verification Method C/VM2 project: Students will work individually to develop a performance-based fire safety assessment  of  the  same  building  in  accordance  with  the  MBIE  Verification  Method  C/VM2,  demonstrating  the engineering calculations performed and outcomes attained. The assignment is worth 20% of the course marks.

Alternative  Solution  project:  Students  will  work  in  groups  of  2,  and  each  group  will  be  assigned  a  complex building, to develop a performance-based fire safety design in accordance with an Alternative Solution, supported by   scientific,   engineering-based   calculations,  justifications   and   references.  The   fire   safety   design   will   be comprehensive  and  may  require  advanced  analysis  techniques.  However,  there  are  also  limits  on  the  maximum page lengths of submitted documentation.

The project is divided into the following tasks with the percentage of the course mark indicated:

Fire Engineering Brief (FEB) 10%
Detailed Design Report 30%
Peer Review Engagement 10%
Presentation                 5%
Final Fire Safety Report 15%

Textbooks / Resources

Required Reading – Important details on building fire safety regulations in New Zealand, and the various pathways to demonstrate compliance fire safety.

 Extract from the New Zealand Building Code: Clause C1-C6 Protection from Fire, Clause A3 Building Importance Levels; https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/building-code compliance/c-protectionfrom-fire/asvm/c1-c6-protection-from-fire-a3.pdf

 C/AS2 Acceptable Solution for Buildings other than Risk Group SH;
https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/building-code-compliance/c-protection-fromfire/
asvm/cas2-2019-protection-from-fire-amendment-2.pdf

 C/VM2 Verification Method: Framework for Fire Safety Design;
https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/building-code-compliance/c-protection-from-fire/asvm/cvm2-protection-from-fire-amendment-6.pdf

 Commentary for Building Code Clauses C1-C6 and Verification Method C/VM2;
https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/building-code-compliance/c-protection-from-fire/asvm/cvm2-protection-from-fire-amendment-2-commentary.pdf

Recommended Reading – Below are some readings to reinforce your understanding of the concept of performance based fire safety design and Alternative Solution. These will get you started with the complex Alternative Solution project (these are not the only documents to consult), and you should find more information to help you complete the project.

 International Fire Engineering Guidelines, 2005
 SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance-based Fire Protection, 2007
 SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 2016
 Fire Protection Handbook, 2008
 Fire Engineering Design Guide, 2008

Some lecture handouts will be made available on LEARN. This course, especially the Alternative Solution project will require your ability to formulate scientific, engineering-based justifications to support the assumptions and inputs you propose in your fire safety design. Several fire engineering journals within the literature, such as Fire Safety Journal, Fire Technology, etc. can be accessed from the UC Library, and will be useful sources of information.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $2,228.00

* 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.

Limited Entry Course

Maximum enrolment is 25

For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .

All ENFE605 Occurrences

  • ENFE605-21X (C) General non-calendar-based 2021