| Performance-based fire protection design provides several advantages over prescriptive-based designs. However, development of design fires has always been a difficult task as a result of several uncertainties in inputs used for fire tests and computer simulations. Those inputs include: fire load and its pertinent characteristics. The survey methodology used to obtain fire load has been recognized to have a significant impact on survey results; however, this impact has not been explicitly quantified. This thesis seeks to correlate various fire load survey methodologies and to enhance and develop guidance on the means to conduct fire load surveys to reduce the level of uncertainty in results. In addition, the study seeks to recommend design fire curves that are representative of typical office occupancies using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling. A total floor area of 935 m2 in five office buildings was surveyed. Percentage differences and comparison of fire load density among different methodologies have been presented. Discussions based on design fire curves presented in this study offers valuable insights in the development of design fires for office occupancies in a performance based fire design. |
