Date

6-2014

Degree Name

MS in Fire Protection Engineering

College

College of Engineering

Advisor

Frederick Mowrer and Christopher Pascual

Abstract

The purpose of this fire and life safety report is to determine whether The Air Force (AF) Child Development Center (CDC) Standard Design meets fire safety goals based on an increased child-to staff ratio and provide a prescriptive based analysis of the of the existing codes that the building was constructed under. The primary fire safety goal is to provide building occupants with an environment that is reasonably safe from fire. A prescriptive-based design approach and a performance-based design approach are used to evaluate building safety in regards to occupant protection, structural integrity, and systems effectiveness. The prescriptive-based approach is used to evaluate the building’s structural fire protection systems, egress design, fire detection and alarm systems, and fire suppression systems using AF criteria. The performance-based design approach is used to analyze how the building will perform in the event of a fire using three performance based design scenarios. This approach evaluates the building based on the Required Safe Egress Time (RSET) and Available Safe Egress Time (ASET) for occupants to evacuate the building safely in the event of a fire. Additionally, the evacuation times were evaluated based on the placement of fire detection. Recommendations and findings to improve building fire safety based on the performance based design scenarios are discussed in the results of this report.

DOI

10.15368/fperpt.2014.12

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