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Canada's fire research facility
Ser
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no.
1234
National Research
Conseil national
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CANADA'S FIRE RESEARCH FACl LlTY
by
A.M. Phillips
Appeared in
Fire Journal
Vol. 78, No. 2, March 1984
p. 46
-
48
O
1984 National Fire Protection Association
Reprinted with permission
DBR Paper No. 1234
Division of Building Research
Price
$1.00
OTTAWA
NRCC 23745
L e s p r o g r s s rgalis'es a u Canada e n m a t i s r e d e s ' e c u r i t ' e i n c e n d i e d a n s l e s b a t i m e n t s , a l l i ' e s
2
l ' b v o l u t i o n q u i marque l e domaine d e l ' a r c h i t e c t u r e , d e l a c o n c e p t i o ne t
d e s t e c h n i q u e s d a n s l ' i n d u s t r i e d e l a c o n s t r u c t i o n , o n t r e n d u n G c e s s a i r e l a r ' e a l i s a t i o n d ' u n e i n s t a l l a t i o n d a n s l a q u e l l e i l e s t p o s s i b l e d ' e ' t u d i e r l e s i n c e n d i e se t
l e u r s e f f e t s d a n s d e s c o n d i t i o n s c o n t r a l a b l e s e t r ' e e l l e s q u a n tB
l ' a m p l e u r ,b
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l a q u a n t i t ' e d e c o m b u s t i b l e . Une t e l l e i n s t a l l a t i o na
gt'e c o n s t r u i t e . E l l e s e compose d ' u n a b r i d e s t i n ' e a u x e x p s r i e n c e s d e combustion e n v r a i e g r a n d e u r e t d ' u n e t o u r e x p ' e r i m e n t a l e d e d i x S t a g e s p e r m e t t a n t r - l ' g t u d i e r d i v e r s e s m ' e t h o d e s d e d'esenfumage d a n s l e s b a t i m e n t s e n h a u t e u r . C e t t e communication d ' e c r i t l e s b a t i m e n t s e t l e u r g q u i p e m e n t , l e mode d ' e x p l o i t a t i o n e t l e programme e x p G r i m e n t a 1 d e r e c h e r c h e , e t i n d i q u e 6 g a l e m e n t l e s m g t h o d e s d ' e ' v a l u a t i o n d e s e f f e t s p r o d u i t s s u r 1 'environnement.
Through its Division of Building Research, the National Research Council of Canada has been involved in fire research since 1950. Original laboratories in Ottawa were opened in 1958 and enlarged in 1976. Those facili- ties, while adequate for conducting small-scale experi- mental fires, did not permit researchers to conduct large-scale or full-scale experimental fires. To add that capability, the Division of Building Research con- structed its Field Station in Carleton Place, Ontario. The two-year construction project was completed in 198 1 and the Field Station became fully operational in 1982.
Located on a former farm about 40 miles from Ottawa, the new 200-acre Field Station is in a relatively isolated and predominantly rural setting. The complex includes a "burn hall," a ten-story tower, and an ancillary building housing support services. For convenience during winter operations, the buildings are connecting and in- tercommunicating. All fire experiments will be per- formed inside, in either the burn hall or the tower.
BURN HALL
The burn hall is, in effect, a sophisticated shed. The unheated hall has 17,640 square feet ofcolumn-free floor
FIRE RESEARCH
FACILITY
ALAN M. PHILLIPS
Dr. Phillips is Director of the Fire Research Field Station, a facility of Fire Research Section, Division of Building Research, National Re- search Council of Canada in Ottawa. This article is a contribution of the Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada, and is published with the approval of the Director of the Division.
area and roughly 41 feet of head room. The structure is. steel-framed and has preformed, uninsulated steel ex- terior cladding. The peripheral columns are covered by sprayed-on fibrous material for fire protection, and there is a continuous flat ceiling of 1-inch vermiculite-gypsum plaster. The attic space above the ceiling is mechanically ventilated to prevent excessive heat build-up in the roof structure.
The floor area is divided into six equally-sized work spaces. Beneath two of the work spaces is a grid of 32
concrete piers, extending down to bedrock and anchored to resist uplift forces of up to 890
kN
per pier.' This "reaction floor" will be a test bed for studies of the forces that structural frames produce when subjected to fire.The burn hall has two systems for smoke removal. Fans located just below ceiling level at each corner of the building give a total flow of almost 184 cubic feet per second. Power-operated louvers at the same level extend the full length of each side of the building. Fourteen garage-type doors sized to admit any highway vehicle let clean outside air enter any part of the bum hall.
Domestic and fire-fighting water, compressed air, electricity at standard voltages, propane, communica-
One kilo Newton (a unit of force) is approximately equal to 200 Ibs. of force.
tions equipment, and data terminals are all available within the burn hall.
THE TOWER
Not just a building, the 10-story tower is actually a complex piece of research equipment comprised of an experimental tower and an attached observation and ac- cess tower.
Within its minimal (1,500-square-foot) floor area, the experimental tower contains all the shafts and other structural features needed to simulate normal air and smoke movement patterns in actual buildings. Experi- mental fires are conducted in an area of only 390 square feet, as the research is designed so as to simulate effects in normal buildings, without requiring the usual amount of floor space. A peripheral corridor isolates the group of shafts &om the exterior walls, creating a typical central core.
Both towers are constructed of monolithic reinforced concrete, since research considerations required virtu-
ally no uncontrolled air leakage into and within the building. Designed for four-hour fire resistance, the ex- perimental tower uses calcareous aggregate to reduce spalling. Wire mesh, embedded in the concrete surface wherever high temperatures are expected, also controls spalling.
Despite these precautions, assuring the long service life of a building that will be repeatedly subjected to fire is difficult. For this reason, additional fire protection fea- tures can be installed at critical locations whenever necessary. The overall maintenance program includes periodic inspection and reinstatement of deteriorated concrete.
A small separate structure contains the experimental tower's air-moving and heating plant, with ducts carried underground through a short tunnel. One of the two independent air systems handles the main air supply and heating load. Although it normally operates in a return mode, this system can be operated on 100 percent &esh air and pressurize the entire building. Pressurization by such a method is one of the techniques currently employed by building designers for control of smoke
movement during fires in high buildings. The system can also operate in an exhaust mode, using a separate variable-flow exhaust fan mounted at the top of tllc return-air shaft.
The second air system supplies heated air to the exper- imental stair and elevator shafts or to vestibules located between the entrances to the shafts and the burn area. Supplying air to the stair and elevator shafts2 controls smoke movement to escape routes through the pres- surized vertical shaft method, while supplying air to the vestibules controls smoke movement through the pro- tected (pressurized) vestibule access method.
A smoke shaft, placed next to the burn area and open- ing through the roof, is located in the building core to permit study of the pressurized building method of smoke control. A service shaft is included for studies of fire propagation and suppression in service shafts and also simulates normal air leakage flow between adjacent floors in actual buildings.
The openings on most shafts have variable area gates for airflow adjustment. Similar gates on openings in the exterior walls simulate skin leakage flows. Coarse-mesh metal screens over the openings prevent the escape of large firebrands and sparks.
Removable precast concrete panels form the exterior walls of the burn area on each floor. Through this ar- rangement, researchers can easily install any type of ex- terior facade for experiments on the ways that a building envelope, including windows, can influence fire spread from floor to floor. A plugged opening in the center of the burn area on each floor permits a 10-story column to be built within the building. This continuous column pennits researchers to examine restraint forces produced in columns under fire conditions or to study the fire performance of water-filled steel columns.
Services in the access tower parallel those in the burn hall. Services in the experimental tower are limited to surface-mounted electrical lighting fixtures that can be replaced if damaged by fire.
AIR QUALITY CONTROL
Environmental protection, including air quality, is regulated by provincial authorities in Canada. Calcula- tions of the amount of fuel to be burned, rates of burn- ing, and expected concentrations of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide gases demonstrated that the Field Station's ability to meet air quality standards would de- pend upon three conditions. These conditions were: 1) that weather would permit contaminants to be dis-
- - -
The experimental elevator shaft is not equipped with an elevator car and hoisting gear as these items are unnecessary for studies of the elevator shaft's function in smoke movement.
persed, 2) that simultaneous burns would not be carried out in both buildings, and 3) that the buildings would be at least 550 feet from the Station property line. Opera- tional procedures (such as the scheduling of experi- ments) allow the first two conditions to be met, while the Station site fulfills the last requirement.
CURRENT AND FUTURE ACTIVITIES
The new Field Station's laboratory facilities make it the only establishment in Canada designed and equipped for fire experiments that burn relatively large amounts of fuel in a controlled fashion in realistic set- tings. The burn hall will be used to study the fire per- formance of existing doors, residential sprinkler protec- tion, the role of lining materials and furnishings in room fires, and the toxic products of combustion. Other studies in the burn hall will include optimizing the fire performance of structural frames, cavity wall studies, roof space modeling, fire and smoke spread in dwellings, and fire and smoke spread through complex buildings.
Already in the burn hall, a room burn facility to ASTM specifications has been built. Experiments have included full-scale compartment burns to verify the theorum of uniformity of normalized heat load and examination of factors influencing the potential for harm by furnishings involved in fire. Another facility, with variable ceiling height, is under construction. The burn hall is also being used for work on pool fires up to eight feet in diameter.
Studies to be carried out in the tower building fall into three categories. The first category consists of basic studies on how smoke spreads in tall buildings under different indoor and outdoor environmental conditions. These basic studies will focus special attention on the role of stair and elevator shafts, the effects of stratifica- tion of smoke, the effects of fire temperatures, the effects of sprinkler systems, and the effect of summer and winter environmental conditions.
The effectiveness of the components of various smoke control systems will be the topic for the second area of study. Shaft pressurization, elevator shaft pressurization, vestibule pressurization, fire floor venting, and natural venting of vertical shafts are among the planned experi- ments in this area. Investigations of the performance of complete smoke control systems comprise the final area to be studied in the tower.
The study on stairwell pressurization is in progress. Preparations included installing 400 sensors throughout the tower, linked to the data acquisition center. Variables ofinterest are chiefly air temperatures, internal and exter- nal air pressures, and concentration ofcarbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases. Thermal effects of fire are simu- lated by propane gas burners with peak output of 17 mil- lion British Thermal Units per hour and 30 to l turn-
down.
L
T h i s p a p e r , w h i l e b e i n g d i s t r i b u t e d i n r e p r i n t form by t h e D i v i s i o n of B u i l d i n g R e s e a r c h , remains t h e c o p y r i g h t of t h e o r i g i n a l p u b l i s h e r . It s h o u l d n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n whole o r
