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Fire performance information
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CANADA D I V I S I O N O F B U I L D I N G CouNcu-R E S E A CouNcu-R C HFIRE PERFORMANCE
INFORMATION
BY N . B . H U T C H E O N
A N A L Y Z E D
A R T I C L E S O N F I R E P E R F O R M A N C E R E P R O D U C E D W I T H P E R M I S S I O N F R O M N A T I O N A L C O N C R E T E P R O D U C T S N E W S T E C H N I C A L P A P E R N O . I A 9 O F T H E D I V I S I O N O F B U I L D I N G R E S E A R C HOTTAWA
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T h e n e e d f o r i n f o r r n a t i o n o n t h e p e r f o r r n a n c e o f r n a t e r i a l s a n d c o m p o n e n t s u n d e r f i r e e x p o s u r e i s s e t o u t , a n d t h e v a r i o u s w a y s i n w h i c h i t b e c o r n e s i n -v o l -v e d i n t h e r e g u l a t i o n o f b u i l d i n g d e s i g n a n d c o n s t r u c t i o n a r e d i s c u s s e d . T h e v a r i o u s s t a n d a r d t e s t s b y w h i c h f i r e p e r f o r r n a n c e i s d e t e r r n i n e d a r e d e s c r i b e d , t o g e t h e r w i t h t h e f a c i l i t i e s a v a i l a b l e a n d t h e p r o c e d u r e s t o b e f o l l o w e d i n r n a k -i n g u s e o f t h e r n . T h e p o s i t i o n o f t h e m a n u f a c t u r e f w h o r n a y w i s h t o d e v e l o p p e r f o r r n a n c e i n f o r r n a t i o n o n h i s p r o d u c t a n d t h e w a y s i n w h i c h h e m a y s e e k t o h a v e i t a c c e p t e d i n r e s p e c t o f t h i s p r o p e r t y a r e d e a l t w i t h i n s o r n e d e t a i l ' O n e x p o s e l a n 6 c e s s i t 6 q u t i l y a d ' o b t e n i r d e s r e n s e i g n e r n e n t s s u r I e c o m P o r -t e m e n -t d e s m a -t 6 r i a u x e t d e s p i l c e s e x P o s 6 e s a u f e u e t l r o n p a s s e e n r e v u e l e s d i v e r s e s f a g o n s d o n t c e c o r n p o r t e r n e n t e s t i r n p l i q u 6 d a n s I a r b g l e r n e n t a t i o n d e s p l a n s e t d e I a c o n s t r u c t i o n d e s b i t i r n e n t s . L e s d i v e r s t y p e s d ' e s s a i s p e r r n e t -t a n -t d e d 6 -t e r r n i n e r l e c o r n p o r t e r n e n t d u f e u s o n t d 6 c r i t s a i n s i q u e I e s r n o y e n s d i s p o n i b l e s e t l e s p r o c 6 d u r e s h s u i v r e . E n f i n , o n e x p l i q u e l e p o i n t d e v u e d e s m a n u f a c t u r i e r s q u i a i r n e r a i e n t c o n n a i t r e d e f a g o n p l u s d 6 t a i l l 6 e l e s c a t a c t 6 r i s -t i q u e s d e I e u r s r n a -t 6 r i a u x e t l e s r n o y e n s p a r I e s q u e l s i l s p o u r r a i e n t f a i r e c o d i -f i e r c e s c a r a c t 6 r i s t i q u e s .
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Fire Performance
N. B. HUTcHeoN *
The changing nature of build-ing codes has greatly increased the need for information on the performance of all building ma-terials. In the days when there were few materials available to the industry, building codes de-scribed these materials in all es-sential detail and set appropri-ate limits on their use. Today, when the materials available for use in building are steadily in-creasing in number and variety, there is a need for controls based on performance. There has in consequence been a significant change in building codes from specification to performance type. The National Building Code of Canada which has been adopted or used as a model by many municipalities in Canada, attempts whenever possible to present requirements in terms of performance.
The danger of fire has always been one of the major incentives toward the enactment of build-ing legislation. The fire safety provision of a building code are in consequence of first import-ance and are generally strictly enforced by the authorities. Fire Performance of a Building
A number of features can be incorporated in the design of a building that will contribute to the preservation of life and property in the event of an out-break of fire. The features that relate directly to the fire per-formance of the building mater-ials are as follows:
(L) ConuW,rtmentation A building ,may be designed as a series of fire compart-ments, each capable of con-taining a fire for a mini-mum period. The size of the compartment will depend on the danger to life, the value of the contents, and the cost of the enclosure.
(2) Integri,ta - The structural integrity of the building must be maintained for a period that is determined by the time needed for escape of the occupants and the protection of the fire-fighters.
(3) Surface Burni,ng Chnrac-teristi.cs The surface burning characteristics of interior lining materials can have an influence on the time available for escape, and on the rate of develop-ment of a fire in a compart-ment. Among the character-istics of significance in life safety are flame spread and the production of smoke and poisonous gases. These have a direct bearing on the danger to life in a building fire but there is at present Iittle information availbble on which tolerable limits may be determined.
(41 Cam,busti.bikty - The reg-ulation of the use of com-bustible materials in build-ing construction has been imposed for many years in building codes as a
contri-T h i s p u b l i c a t i o n i s m a d e u p o f t w o a r t i c l e s I ' F i r e Perforrnancett and trHow to get a Fire T e s t R a t i n g . I ' T h e y w e r e f i r s t p u b l i s h e d i n N a t i o n a l C o n c r e t e P r o d u c t s N e w s , V o l . I 0 , N o . 4 , 1 9 5 2 a n d V o l . 1 1 , N o . l , 1 9 6 3 a n d h a v e b e e n r e p r o d u c e d i n t h i s f o r r n w i t h t h e i r k i n d p e r m i s s i o n .
bution 'to fire safety. Re-quirements may be either in specific locations, such as clearance.s between combus-tible materials and heating equipment, or general such as the requirement that a building be of non-combus-tible qonstruction. In prac-tice the specific requirernent is more strictly . enforced, the general condition being more liable to contraven-tion. Some of the materials used as insulation in build-ings would not strictly meet the specification for non-cornbustibility.
Test Methods
The test methods required by the National Building Code as an indication of perfomance in fire are:
'(a) Fo,r Fi,re Endu"ramce Standard Methods of Fire Tests of Buildins Construc-tion and Materials, ASTM E l 1 9 - 1 9 6 1 ,
American Society for Test-ing and Materials, 1916 Race St., Philadelphia. or
British Standard Specifica-tion for Fire Tests on Build-ing Materials and Struc-tures, BS 476 - 1953, Sec-tion Three, Fire Resistance Tests of Structures, H.M.-S.O., London.
(b\ For Fire Doonrs
Standard Methods of Fire Tests of Door Assemblies. ASTM E152 - 1958, American Society for Test-ing and Materials, 1916 Race St., Philadelphia. r , ' Assistant Director, Division
o f B u i l d i n g R e s e a r c h , N a t i o n a l R e s e a r c h C o u n c i l , O t t a w a . '
(e) Fur Flame Spread,
Standard Methods of Test for Surface Burning Char-acteristics of Building Ma-terials, ASTM E84, - 1961, American Society for Test-ing and Materials, 1916 Race St., Philadelphia. (d) For Non-combustibikta
Specification for Deter-mination of Non-combusti-bility in Building Materials, c . s . A . 8 5 4 . 1 - 1 9 6 0 , Canadian Standards As-sociation. 235 Montreal Road, Ottawa.
Performance Information Essential
So far as the Building Code is concerned it is only necessary to specify clearly the test meth-ods by which the required per-formance is to be assessed, and to establish the levels of per-formance required for various purposes. But the Code cannot fulfill its intended purpose un-less it provides or forms part of a workable and acceptable sys-tem in the hands of the Build-ing Official. The Associate Com-i mittee on the National Build-ing Code has therefore had to give serious attention to the availability of adequate per-formance information, without which any requirements based on performance are likely to be unworkable.
Nature of the Performance Tests
Two of the three test methods, those for fire endurance and flame spread, are unfortunately based on rather large specimens and require large and relatively costly equipment. It is not feas-ible, therefore, to require that such tests be repeated on suit-able samplei whenever verifica-tion of performance is required, the cost and the delay introduced while testing is being carried out being too great. The fire en-durance test in particular may cost several thousand dollars and require several months for prep-aration and curing of the speci-men prior to test. It is necessary
to have some system by which performance information can be developed and recorded so that it is available when required.
There is another complicating feature; the performance of con-structions under fire exposure, particularly in the case of fire endurance, involves a large num-ber of factors. This means that the number of possible construc-tions for which endurance rat-ings may be required is extreme-ly large, and further, with Pres-ent knowledge it is not alwaYs possible to predict with anY cer-tainty how much a given vari-ation from one construction to the next may affect the Perform-ance. It would be prohibitive in cost to the country as a whole to require that all possible con-structions be tested for fire en-durance according to th9 stand-ard test.
Extending the Results of the Full-Scale Tests
It will be evident at this stage that it would be highlY desirable to be able to extend the results of a limited number of full-scale standard tests to Provide Pre-diction of the performance of other constructions, particularly those which differ only slightlY from constructions already test-ed. Some measure of interPola-tion and extrapolainterPola-tion of results is a practical necessity in achiev-ing a workachiev-ing system.
Individuals having some back-ground in fire science could readily identify many cases in which such predictions could be made with reasonable certaintY. A moderate amount of suPPle-mentary laboratory investiga-' tion could point out many more. The building official, however, whose responsibility it is to de-termine that the constructions offered are in fact acceptable often hesitates, quite naturally, to rely upon his own judgment, and tends to ask for test evi-dence, or alternatively for the judgment, of some comPetent authority. He may even require assistance in the collection of ex-isting test information for his own use.
Supplement No. 2 of the N.B.C. It was these considerations among others that led to the publication of Appendix 4.1.B
(Now Supplement No. 2), Fire Resistance Ratings, of the Nat-ional Building Code.
A revision of Supplement No. 2 is now under consideration and it will contain as much addition-al information as can be ob-tained from test results or by interpolation where supplemen-tary evidence exists. The revised publication will also contain data on fire performance related to the other standard tests rec-ognized by the National Building Code, such as flame spread. The information in Supplement No. 2 will probably be directed to-ward assemblies and materials rn common use that can be ac-curately described and repro-duced.
The survey of concrete blocks at present being conducted by NCPA may be expected to pro-vide valuable information on the range of these materials being produced in Canada and contri-bute to a better understanding of the problems faced by manu-facturers in obtaining fire re-sistance ratings.
Role of the Division of Building Research
The Division of Building Re-search through its Fire ReRe-search Section is willing to do what it can to assist in the provision of needed fire information. It has the facilities in which both testing and research can be car-ried out, with the present excep-tion only of the tunnel apparatus required for the flame spread test.
DBR is prepared to carry out commercial fire tests for manu-facturers when facilities are not available elsewhere in Canada. DBR is also prepared to carry out a substantial amount of test-ing in order to provide improved or needed information on what may be called non-proprietary constructions.
The Fire Research Section is also prepared to make a contri-bution through research. Some
of this effort can be directed to providing: a better understand-ing of the fire performance of constructions. It is believed thatl with such improved understand-ing, many ways can be found of improving the prediction of fire performance. One ultimate ob-jective of this work would be to render unnecessary the present large and costly fire endurance test. Already, extensive use is being made of a small panel fire endurance furnace, which can 'give very useful indications of the probable fire endurance of a large-scale panel when the limit-ing factors are thermal and not structural. Apparatus is being established for the determina-tion of strength and creep of ma-'terials at elevated temperatures,
thermal conductivity, thermal expansion and apparent specific heat. Measurements can also be canied out on the thermo-bal-ance and differential thermal analyses apparatus available within DBR, to provide useful indications of some Pertinent properties. Some of these meas-urements are being carried out routinely in connection with standard end-urance tests and will, it is hoped, Provide useful correlations with Performance under the fire endurance test which may later be used alone to predict at least some asPects of performance.
This developing need for im-proved fire performance infor-mation is not just something' imposed arbitrarily bY some
official to plague the manufac-turer or the supplier on the one hand, or the owner on the other. It is an essential part of the improvement of buildings in which the owner, the architect, the building official, the building research worker, the builder and the manufacturer all have an in-terest, This trend may be expect-ed to continue as new develop-ments take place and there is need.for co-operation and under-standing in working:toward the common goal.
This article is the first in a series which is being sponsored by the Technical Committee of the Association to provide the membership with the best pos-sible information on the fire per-formance and testing of concrete, products.
Regulations in Codes and BY-Laws It was pointed out in the previous article that since safety is involved, fire performance is commonly a matter for regulation in building codes and by-laws. fn most cases, then, the manufacturer will Prob-ably want to obtain evidence that his product, when used in a building will at least conform to the mini-mum requirements set out in the applicable regulations.
He must, therefore, become fa-miliar with the regulations which apply in the areas in which he wishes to sell his product. Fortunately for the manufacturer in Canada there is only one model code, the National Building Code, which is widely used as a basis for the various municipal building by-laws. But he must also be aware of possible differences in individual municipal by-laws.
It follows that among those who may require evidence of satisfactory minimum fire performance will be the building officials who have the responsibility for administering the
building by-laws in the various municipalities in which the product is to be rnarketed, together with the architect who will also want to be assured that the finished building will be acceptable under the aPPli-cable regulations.
It must also. be, realiznd that, since matters of safety are in general a provincial responsibility, the pro-vincial Fire Marshall or Fire Com-missioner may wish to exercise over-riding supervision of fire safety matters, particularly in respect of public buildings, over and above the regulations imposed in a parti-cular municipal building byJaw. This supervision may be exercised through the rnunicipal fire chief who is usually given power to act bn behalf of the provincial fire authority.
The Dominion Fire Commis-sioner may exercise a similar au-thority over buildings constructed under federal jurisdiction.
These, then are the authorities who having concern for, or res; ponsibility'for, fire matters may
How To Get A Fire Test Rating
The first article in this seriessponsored by the NCPA Technical Committee dealt with the need for evaluation of fire Performance and provided background information. (See NCP News, Fourth Quarter, 1962.) The problems of the manu-facturer who wishes to develoP fire performance information on his product will now be discussed.
The development of adequate fire performance information on a Pro-duct or building comPonent will usually be both complex and costly. The manufacturer should therefore in his own interest be quite clear on what it is he wants and how it can be obtained before embarking on any such program. His ultimate objective will almost alwaYs be to obtain continuing acceptance of his product. But he must analYse his requirements in detail and ask what are the specific requirements to be met, who will require evidence of the performance, how this evidence can be obtained and, finallY, what he can do to ensure continuing ac-ceptance.
require evidence of fire performance to assist them in the decisions which it is their responsibility to make. Determining the Need for Fire Tests
The regulations concerning fire, in most building by-laws will usually be based on three distinct proper-ties of the materials or components immediately involved. These pro-perties are combustibility, surface burning characteristics or tendency to support flame spread, and fire, endurance. The significance of these, and the test methods by which they are measured for purposes of the National Building Code have already been discussed in the pre-vious article.
The manufacturer, before em-barking on a test program, should become familiar with existing fire test or fire rating information on products similar to his own. His own Trade Association will usually be in a position to assist.
Some useful information may be found in the pertinent publications of the British Joint Fire Research O r g a n i z a t i o n a n d o f t h e U . S . National Bureau of Stadards as well as those of the Division of Building Research. Established ratings pub-lished in Supplement i\o. Z{ to ttre National Building Code and in the Underwriters' of Canada Lists of Inspected Appliances, Equip-ment and Materials,.should also be studied. It may be found that in many cases the existing information may provide sufficient basis for ac-ceptance.
Finally, after consultation with the various officials involved it should be possible to determine what further information may be necessary and whether a testing program is required.
The agencltjs in a position to car-ry out fire testing or fire perform-ance evaluation, notably the Divi-sion of Building Research, National
* Fire resistance ratings 1961.- Supple-ment No. 2 to the National Building Code of Canada, National Research Council, As-sociate Committee on the National Building Code, NRC No. 6484.
Research Council and the Under-writers Laboratories of Canada. are always ready to assist through dis. cussion and by way of information in planning a program whether it be for {evelopment or for acceptance purposes.
Provincial research councils and research foundations as well as c o mm erc i al testing la'bpratories though not equipped to carry out the large-scale flame spread and fire endurance tests, may be able to rassist in development work and with advice on testing to be carried out elsewhere. They may often be able to assist with the smaller tests, and with non-standard tests for infor-mation and planning purposes. Identification, Listing and Labelling
Any testing program to be car-ried out as a basis for acceptance of a product should always take into account a very difficult but .basic problem which may be des-,cribed as identification. The au-,thority to whom test evidence will rbe directed is entitled to ask for assurance that the results presented do in fact apply to the product which will be delivered to the build-ing site. When the test method involved is relatively inexpensive and can be carried out in d short time, it is possible to take samples from the material proposed for a particular building and to carry out tests as required.
When, however, the tests are costly and time-consuming as in the case of fire endurance tests this is no longer a feasible procedure. It then becomes necessary to establish performance on the basis of repre-sentative samples selected at some prior time 4n{ to provide some means of satisfying the authorities concerned that the product deliver-ed to a particular job from current production is at least the equivalend of that tested.
This is the real core of the manu. tfacturer's problem, which occurs in ,its most extreme form if the authori. ',ties concerned insist on some fornt of certification from an independent' agency of the quality or probable performance of the product to be used on the job.
There. is one way open to the manufacturer bv which he can be relieved of this problem in the case of flame spread and fire endurance evaluations. He can seek listing of his product by Underwriters Lab-oratories of Canada.
Underwriters Laboratories will undertake to provide a complete service which may include factory inspection and sampling of produc-tion for test, laboratory testing, est-ablishment of a performance rating, gnd periodic inspection of subse-quent production. On the basis of this they will list the product, identi-fying it by trade name and manu-facturer, and will provide a labelling or certification service which con-stitutes their assurance that the product as manufactured on a con-tinuing basis will meet the assigned fire endurance or fire hazard (flame spread) rating.
This is the only service of thisr kind available to Canadian manu-facturers in respect of fire per-formance of materials and con-structions, and the advantages to be ,gained, in return for the fees which must be paid for it, ought always to be considered carefully whenever large scale fire test results are re-quired.
M o s t a u t h o r i t i e s w i l l a c c e p t Underwriters' Listing and Labelling as adequate assurance of fire per-formance, and having them, the manufacturer will normrilly be re-lieved of any further problem in convincing authorities that his pro-duct will meet the rating established by test. Continuation of a listing 'is contingent, however, upon peri-odic inspection and payment of the required annual fee. Also, any change in the product may require :new tests to establish a new listing. ; Tests are almost alwayb required as the basis for an Underwriters Listing except in cases where it is :known from experience that a pro-tduct made to a pafticular specifica-tion will have a given, predictable fire rating. For example, concrete blocks made fo certain specifications may be assigrred ratings without ,ffg .endUrance tgsts.
Underwriters Laboratories will also undertake to assist in develop-ment tests but will not carry out a standard fire test and issue a test 'report certifying as to the results as a testing laboratory service indepen-idently of their Listing and Labelling
service.
Manufacturers may be unwilling !o pay for the complete service offer-bd by Underwriters Laboratories ior may not consider it necessary in particular cases. They may be able jn some cases to rely upon a descrip-tion of their product as a means of ,identifying it with some similar product for which ratings have al-ready been established or assigned.
Where this is not generally ac-ceptable to the authorities, manu-facturers may have standard tests carried out, relying upon the willing-,ness of the authorities to accept the reports of such tests as assurance that the product to be delivered will provide the required minimum per. formance.
It will be evident that such a pro-cedure is most likely to meet with success if the product involved is one which can be readily described so as to make it possible to deter-mine with reasonable assurance that' it is likely to have the same fire performance- -3q lhqq qsled. How-, ever, the use of the Listing and L a b e l l i n g s e r v i c e p r o v i d e d by Underwriters Laboratories may be the only satisfactory way of pro-viding the necessary assurance to authorities in the case of many p r o p r i e t a r y p r o d u c t s w h i c h a r e difficult to describe or to .identify.
It may also be noted that Under-writers' Laboratories of " Canada have the only facilities in Canada to carry out tests according to ASTM 884-1961, Standard Methods of Test for Surface Burning Character-istics of Buildine Materials.
The Nationdl- Research Council has in the Fire Research Laboratory of its Division of Building Research the large scale vertical and horizon-tal furnaces required for standard tests of fire endurance of walls and floor assemblies according to ASTM E119 or the corresponding British test B5476.
The floor furnace can also bc used for the evaluation of column protection on the basis of tempera-ture rise, These facilities which are in the first instance inten@d for resbarch purposes are madb' avail-able for commercial testing since there are no other standard furnace facilities for this purpose in Canada. The only other standard fire naces in Canada are the floor fur-naces of Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada. They are used by ULC in tests of floor assemblies for List-ing and for development purposes as already described. Manufacturers wishing to have wall assembly tests carried out in Canada for ULC Listing purposes may first make the necessary arrangements with ULC and may then arrange with DBR/ NRC to have the wall furnace tesr' carried out.
DBR/NRC has a small panel furnace for non-standard fire en-durance testing. This facility is useful for development or explora-tory testing and may often be used to advantage in combination with testing in the large standard fur-naces.
Facilities are available for non-combustibility tests according to CSA 854.1 and for exploratory or development tests for flame spread using the small radiant panel ap paratus of the National Bureau of Standards.
Testing will be carried out on a commercial test basis for manu-facturers on any of these facilities. The results are described in test re-ports which are for the private use of the proponent. The results of these tests may be used by a manu-facturer as a basis for the claims he may make for his product but he may not publicly identify NRC as the testing agency. He may, how-ever, make use of a limited num-ber of copies of any report as a private document, for information purposes only, buJ not for product promotion, in the hands of his tech-nical sales representatives.
Reports issued by NRC giving the results of tests must be regarded as applying only to the actual
material submitted for test. No r e s p o n s i b i l i t y i s a s s u m e d f o r sampling or selection of the material to be tested, or for any corresPon-dence between the material submit-ted and the regular production of the manufacturer. Statements made by the manufacturer as to source, composition, or properties of the material tested will be identified in the report as coming from him. On the other hand, all pertinent details of the specimen and of the actual test to which NRC is in a position to certify will be included in the report.
The proponent is encouraged to provide all pertinent information which will serve to identify the material submitted and tested. He may extend the usefulness of the report and relate it to his production by employing an independent testing, agency to supervise the sampling of the material to be submitted for test and to certify to NRC as to the f o r m u l a t i o n , m q t h o { o f m a n u -facture, and physical properties of the material submitted.
Any such information submitted will be included in the test report, identified as to source. Having done this, the manufacturer may at some later date request the indepen-dent testing agency to repeat thq observations and .tests on curient production, thus providing some reasonable basis for comparing current productipn with the earlier production from which the samples for the fire tests were taken. He may then use this evidence in sup-port of any claims he may wish to make that his current production is the equivalent of that previously evaluated by fire tests.
NRC is prepared to take one further step under certain conditions in extending the usefulness of the results of tests to the manufacturer and to others. When the material submitted is identified to the satis-faction of NRC, and with the agree-ment of the manufacturer, NRC may finally publish the results of the test in its Fire Study Series. The justification for this will be that the results constitute a useful contribu-tion to the record of published
infor-mation on fire p3rformance of ma-ter ials.
These then, are some of the problems and considerations which must be faced by the manufacturer who wishes to develop fire perfor-mance information on his product. The use of the large scale fire test facilities is both cumbersome and costly, but there is no suitable alter-native to them at the present time. Improvement and refinement can only be found through further in-vestigation and better information on the fire performance of materials. R e s e a r c h a g e n c i e s s u c h a s t h e National Research Council are working toward these objectives, but they can be greatly assisted by the understanding and cooperation of manufacturers who when the' opportunity arises will also do what they can to contribute to knowledge of fire performance.
