New and rapidly changing building trends have resulted in designers increasingly searching for alternatives to conventional structural fire protection approaches. Structural fire engineering (SFE) offers an innovative, cost-effective way to optimize fire protection while reducing dependence on conventional measures.
Mikko Salminen, PhD, discusses the value of structural fire engineering in his article for Consulting-Specifying Engineer. A practical method for determining the potential impact of a fire on a building’s structural elements, SFE helps ensure that structural members and systems within buildings, whether steel, timber or concrete, can maintain structural integrity during a fire.
Prescriptive building codes and standards are often unable to account for all possible cases and solutions for structural fire protection. Structural fire engineering may be the only way for a building to demonstrate a sufficient level of safety and address the fire safety challenges related to new building products and designs.
Incorporating SFE from the early design stages can produce innovative, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing buildings while ensuring compliance with fire safety standards and potentially reducing construction and maintenance costs.
Read the article Structural Fire Engineering for Innovative Solutions in Consulting-Specifying Engineer.
