This article provides an update on the progress and focus of the American Society of Civil Engineers/Structural Engineering Institute’s (ASCE/SEI) Fire Protection Committee for the next two years. The aim is to support the field of structural fire engineering through collaboration and sharing of knowledge across industry and academia.
Over the last few years, the field of performance-based structural fire engineering has expanded with a multitude of published guides, standards, and specifications in the United States (U.S.). The new documents are the result of decades of research. Below is the chronological breakdown of various significant published documents:
- 2016: First time publication of ASCE/SEI 7 – Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures, Appendix E: Performance-Based Design Procedures for Fire Effects on Structures enabled the use of performance-based fire design
- 2018: Publication of ASCE Manual of Practice 138: Structural Fire Engineering
- 2020: Publication of Advancing Performance-Based Structural Fire Engineering Design in the U.S. through Exemplar Procedural Guidance
- 2022: Expansion of Appendix 4 of the American National Standards Institute/American Institute of Steel Construction’s ANSI/AISC 360 Specification for Structural Steel Buildings provides more guidance and resources to structural engineers
- 2022: Publication of Post-Earthquake Fire Assessment of Buildings: Evaluation Framework through ASCE/SEI
- 2022: Publication of Fire Design Specification for Wood Construction through the American Wood Council
- 2022: Included target reliability levels for performance-based design of structural systems subject to uncontrolled fires in Chapter 1 of the ASCE/SEI 7: Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures
The listed documents cover different aspects of performance-based structural fire engineering; however, they may not interpret performance-based structural fire engineering in the same way. ASCE/SEI 7 is the governing document and should be fulfilled when performance-based structural fire engineering is implemented.
The proper assessment of risk and implementation of strategies to ensure wildfire resilience require an interdisciplinary approach, involving stakeholders, industry, and community engagement.
Education/Outreach
With the development of the above documents, it is critical to engage with members of industry, academia, and authorities having jurisdiction to educate and prepare a broad audience for the in-practice implementation of performance-based fire design. To accomplish this, the following initiatives are being developed:
Case study history: The committee is collecting examples of projects in the U.S. where performance-based structural fire design has been implemented. These case studies will serve as a repository for the industry to build on. The case studies provided within the Advancing Performance-Based Structural Fire Engineering Design in the U.S. through Exemplar Procedural Guidance did not go through an authority having jurisdiction (AHJ). Although the case studies provided excellent examples of how the structural engineer might approach the design, they did not provide for final, approved designs. In addition, the committee is synthesizing papers and resources in a searchable and user-friendly repository for use by a diverse audience, including building officials, practicing structural engineers, architects, and educators.
Roundtable discussions: The committee plans to hold roundtable discussions to bring together diverse perspectives of projects that have employed performance-based fire design. The aim is to disseminate advances in the field, recognize and address barriers in the application of structural fire engineering, and identify the requirements for successful projects in practice. As a first step, the committee has sponsored a session at the 2023 ASCE/SEI Structures Congress that consists of a roundtable discussion with representatives from professional committees in the U.S. who develop codes, guidelines, documents, and technical content related to structural fire engineering. The panelists presented the latest activities of their committees, future directions, and how the committee products can benefit the industry to design
structures for fire.
Fire Load Report
A “Fire Load” task group within the Fire Protection Committee was formed in 2021 in response to an identified need to provide guidance on the definition and modeling of design fire loads in buildings to be used in performance-based structural fire design. The task group is preparing a report on objective criteria, best practices, and examples for the determination of design fire loads. As such, the report aims to provide engineers, designers, and stakeholders with a common framework to discuss the rationale and assumptions adopted for the fire loads. The report outline includes sections on performance objectives for design, definition of design-basis fires, selection of fire models, methods to interface the results of fire models with structural models, robust evaluation of fire load, and current developments and challenges. The task group is on track to have the report published in 2023.
Wildfires
The frequency and intensity of destructive wildfires that impact communities have been rising and this trend is expected to continue. The proper assessment of risk and implementation of strategies to ensure wildfire resilience require an interdisciplinary approach, involving stakeholders, industry, and community engagement. Over the past decades, civil engineers have contributed significantly to devising solutions for a range of natural and man-made hazards (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, blasts, and more), but they can play a larger role in addressing the impacts of wildfires inside communities. For example, structural engineers can contribute to developing an understanding of the mechanisms by which structures ignite and establishing design and assessment methods to achieve fire-resilient structures, including critical structures such as hospitals and schools, and resilient communities. The committee has sponsored a session at the 2023 ASCE/SEI Structures Congress to engage wildfire scientists and structural engineers to discuss wildfires and their impacts on structures. The outcome of these discussions will be reviewed to guide prioritization of the committee’s future actions in supporting and advancing
the field.
References
AISC. (2022). ANSI/AISC 360 Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. American Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago, IL.
ASCE. (2018). ASCE Manual of Practice No. 138: Structural Fire Engineering. Edited by LaMalva, K. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
ASCE/SEI. (2016). ASCE/SEI 7: Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures – Appendix E Performance-Based Design Procedures for Fire Effects on Structures. Structural Engineering Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
ASCE/SEI. (2020). Performance-Based Structural Fire Design: Exemplar Designs of Four Regionally Diverse Buildings using ASCE 7-16, Appendix E. Structural Engineering Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
ASCE/SEI. (2022). ASCE/SEI 7: Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures – Chapter 1: General. Structural Engineering Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
ASCE/SEI. (2022). Post-earthquake fire assessment of buildings: Evaluation framework. Edited by Elhami-Khorasani, N. Structural Engineering Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
AWC. (2022). Fire Design Specification for Wood Construction. American Wood Council, Leesburg, VA.