ENFP 411 - Fire Risk Assessment (3 credits)

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

Prerequisites:

• Introduction to Life Safety Analysis (ENFP 250).
• Fire Alarm and Special Hazards Design (ENFP 255).
• Permission from the Department.

Textbooks:

• SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering.

Course Description:

• Appraisal and measurement of fire safety. Application of systems analysis, probability theory, engineering economy, and risk management in the identification and synthesis of components of fire protection engineering. Methods for the development of criteria for the design, evaluation and assessment of fire safety or component hazards.

Course Objectives:

• Understand terminology and issues related to fire risk assessment and management.
• Analyze uses and limitations of various fire risk assessment methods and tools.
• Apply analytical tools for fire risk assessment to a range of fire safety problems.
• Understand global trends in performance-based fire safety analysis and design.

Topics Covered:

• Introduction: Concepts and terminology.
• Process: Basic process of FRA, qualitative FRA, fire scenarios.
• Hazard Identification and Fire Risk Indexing: Techniques of hazard identification, concepts and theory of fire risk indexing, application and evaluation of fire risk indexing.
• Probability: Mathematics of uncertainty, set theory and probability theory, random variables, probability distributions and models.
• Statistics: Descriptive and inferential statistics, statistical models, data sources.
• Network models: Nodes and paths, influence diagrams, Fire Safety Concepts Tree, FTA, ETA.
• Reliability: Component reliability, failure and hazard rates, series and parallel system reliability, role in risk assessment and fire safety design.
• Engineering economics: Consequence analysis.
• Applications: Process hazard & risk management.
• Synthesis: Student presentations, reports and assessments.

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