Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions

Park, Haejun; Meacham, Brian J.; Dembsey, Nicholas A.; Goulthorpe, Mark

doi:10.1007/s10694-013-0365-2

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Other decision criteria e.g. : building aesthetics (Park et al 2014), profit-making, code compliance etc. ; and passive fire protection options e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has identified key decision criteria and sub-criteria (NZFS 1975;Spearpoint 2008;Alvarez et al 2014 andPark et al 2014)as shown in Table 3. In future, the stakeholders may be allowed to include and rate other desires they deem necessary.…”

Section: Proposed Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Performance-based design codes are being adopted in many countries due to their flexibility in satisfying design objectives and required performance of buildings. Studies have shown that building owners, architects, fire engineers, building insurers, fire service and authorities having jurisdiction are involved as stakeholders in most fire safety designs (Meacham 2000;Alvarez et al 2013;and Park et al 2014). These stakeholders have particular interests in specific design options and as a result of the flexibility of performance-based codes, the stakeholders in some scenarios misinterpret the codes, thereby compromising safety, causing delays and increasing costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Balancing stakeholder views for decision-making in steel structural fire design

Akaa¹,

Abu²,

Spearpoint³

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Performance-Based and Life-Cycle Structural Engineering (PLSE 2015)

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Fire design stakeholders such as architects, regulators, fire service, etc., often have different opinions about which passive fire protection approach is the most appropriate one in meeting structural fire performance objectives. There are many options for protecting steel buildings in a fully developed fire, but there is the need to identify a strategy that could satisfy at best the different and sometimes conflictual stakeholder desires, thereby reducing design uncertainties. This paper proposes a three-stage approach to address this issue: (i) stakeholder engagement, to identify and extract stakeholder desires; (ii) decision analysis, and; (iii) risk-based parametric study. The paper focuses, in particular on the first two stages. The first stage describes the process of identification and extraction of stakeholder desires in steel structural fire design from literature and structured interviews through a stakeholder engagement plan. The second stage of the decision-making process is demonstrated using a simple stakeholder goal-rating and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). In particular, the use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed to manage the multiplicity of stakeholder desires towards common decision-criteria, manage possible inconsistent goal-rating, and to rank the different proposed passive fire protection options.

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“…Other decision criteria e.g. : building aesthetics (Park et al 2014), profit-making, code compliance etc. ; and passive fire protection options e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Proposed Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Balancing stakeholder views for decision-making in steel structural fire design

Akaa¹,

Abu²,

Spearpoint³

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Performance-Based and Life-Cycle Structural Engineering (PLSE 2015)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The performance value of travel time attribute may be determined based on the computer simulation results of evacuation modeling programs. In this case, however, the user need to recognize whether the imbedded features of evacuation simulation programs for exit identification such as occupant familiarity, influence of interior design, exit signage, and visual access to the exit door and their effects on the simulation results are reasonable [16].…”

Section: Fire Technology 2015mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They did not comprehensively take into account 'soft' characteristics such as building design features, occupant activities, and the interactions among the soft characteristics and between soft and hard characteristics. This is partly because soft characteristics have not been considered as proper subjects of prescriptive codes due to their high variability and difficulties to control by codes, despite the recognition of their significant effects on building fire safety performance [16]. However, in performance-based fire safety design scheme, both hard and soft characteristics need to be included in the performance analysis since they are also significant attributes to the building fire safety performance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual Model Development for Holistic Building Fire Safety Performance Analysis

et al. 2013

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Abstract. The evaluation of building performance during fires is a critical step in designing appropriate strategies. Inappropriate or incomplete performance evaluations can mislead fire safety design solutions, which may in turn result in unacceptable loss of life or building damage from fire. While various building fire safety performance evaluation models have been developed, they focus primarily on 'hard' characteristics, such as building construction type and fire protection measures. However, 'soft' characteristics, such as building design (architectural) features and occupant characteristics, which also significantly influence building fire safety performance, have not been comprehensively taken into account. In the current study, two conceptual performance models: a generic fire response model and an integrated characteristic interaction model, have been developed to represent the holistic building fire safety performance considering the effects of both hard and soft characteristics. In these models, various cause-effect relationships among building, people, and fire characteristics are identified at the different levels of detail. Based on the conceptual models, a quantitative model utilizing the parameter ranking method and weighted sum method, which are commonly used in analytical hierarchy process, is proposed as a tool to help evaluate building fire safety performance and to assist decision making process of developing fire safety design solutions.

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Group-analytic network process for balancing stakeholder views on fire protection of steel-framed buildings

Akaa

Abu

Spearpoint

et al. 2017

J. Multi-Crit. Decis. Anal.

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To select appropriate fire protection options for buildings during their design stage, economic, safety, environmental, and societal criteria need to be accounted for. The divergent and sometimes conflictual desires from different fire design stakeholders involved in the process present a multicriteria decision problem. Design decision criteria and fire protection options can be interdependent, and so there is a need to manage these desires with an advanced decision analysis technique, thereby reducing uncertainties in the complex decision-making process.The aim of this paper is to use the weighted/geometric mean method-analytic network process (W/GMM-ANP) to balance the opinions of fire design stakeholders extracted from 42 structured stakeholder interviews on selecting the most suitable fire protection option for buildings constructed of steel frames. Different categories of interdependent decision elements were developed from 22 design decision criteria and 5 proposed fire protection options to produce a network of decision clusters for multicriteria decision analysis. In the synthesis and ranking of fire protection options, the W/GMM-ANP accounted for the multiple interdependencies of weighted and unweighted stakeholder desires and managed the complexity of the decision-making problem. The technique is proposed for approaching suitable group decisions in structural fire design of steel-framed buildings as well as other performance-based engineering decision making that may involve multidisciplinary stakeholders. KEYWORDSfire protection options, group decision making, multicriteria decision analysis, stakeholder views, steel-framed buildings, weighted/geometric mean method-analytic network process (W/GMM-ANP) | INTRODUCTIONFire safety is one of the fundamental necessities in the design and construction of buildings and other infrastructural facilities, with the aim to reduce to an acceptable risk level the loss of life, property, and environmental damage (Buchanan, 2001).This entails the determination of the fire risk levels (i.e., likelihood and impact of fire) at the initial design stage before deciding the means of achieving safety. Modern facets of fire safety in buildings include preventing fire ignition through fire risk management, fire detection and provision of warning to building occupants, provision of adequate escape routes, fire growth and spread management, enhancing firefighting operations, and averting building collapse (Yung, 2008). In cases of controllable or slowly growing fires, these fire safety goals can be achieved through timely detection and suppression with automatic sprinklers. However, during a severe or fast growing fire, the control of fire spread, protection of adjacent buildings, and prevention of building collapse will necessitate fire resistance of structures and fire barriers (Buchanan, 2001). In this case, the fire is resisted with passive protection measures, which are systems that are built into the structure and fabric of buildings.Building designs for fire safety...

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Enhancing Building Fire Safety Performance by Reducing Miscommunication and Misconceptions

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

Balancing stakeholder views for decision-making in steel structural fire design

Balancing stakeholder views for decision-making in steel structural fire design

Conceptual Model Development for Holistic Building Fire Safety Performance Analysis

Group-analytic network process for balancing stakeholder views on fire protection of steel-framed buildings

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