Structural Fire Protection, ENFP Course, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

ENFP 405 - Structural Fire Protection (3 credits)

Photo courtesy of Andrew Neviackas ('06) & Danielle Leikach ('06)

Prerequisites:

Textbooks:

Buchanan, A., “Structural Design for Fire Safety,” New York, John Wiley, 2001.
SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 3rd Edition, P.J. DiNenno (ed), Quincy: NFPA, 2002, sections 1-8, 1-10, 4-8 to 4-11.
ASCE/SFPE 29, Standard Calculation Methods for Structural Fire Protection, Reston, VA, ASCE, 2005.

Course Description:

Effects of elevated temperatures on structural materials; steel, concrete, wood, gypsum, glass and reinforced plastics. Exponential evaluation of fire resistance of building assemblies. Analytical methods to evaluate fire resistance of structural members.

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to introduce the student to impact of fire exposure on the materials used in construction assemblies.
The student will be able to relate the importance and role of principal characteristics of construction assemblies on the fire resistance of the assembly.
The student will develop the intended understanding by reviewing data from past experimental programs, applying engineering principles from mechanics and heat transfer and conducting an elementary experiment.

Topics Covered:

Fire Endurance Requirements for Construction Assemblies: basis of classification, performance requirements.
Fire Endurance Tests: building construction assemblies, protection of wall openings, overview of standard test methods, performance criteria, non-standard evaluations.
Review of Mechanics: applied loads, load combinations, beam analysis, stability/buckling analysis.
Evaluating the Fire Resistance of Timber Structural Elements: material properties, effect of fire exposure, glue-laminated members, critical char depth.
Evaluating the Fire Resistance of Steel Structural Elements: material properties, empirical correlations for columns, beams and trusses, thermal response, mechanics-based approach, response of structural frames.
Evaluating the Fire Resistance of Concrete & Masonry Assemblies: material properties, empirical correlations, thermal analysis via graphs/tables, moment-bearing capacity analysis.
Light-frame walls.