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Society of Fire Protection Engineers
Engineering a Fire Safe World
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Online Technical Session two part research series from the
SFPE Foundation, in conjunction with the SFPE BC Chapter.
RISK AND PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE AND FIRE RESILIENT BUILDINGS
Presented by Dr. Brian Meacham
Tuesday September 19th, 2023
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
SFPE NCR & SFPE BC members: free
Students: free
Non-members: $10
1:00 - 1:20 PM - SFPE Foundation Update by SFPE Foundation Director, Dr. Leslie Marshall
1:20 - 2:00 PM - Technical Session by Dr. Brian Meacham
ABSTRACT
Buildings of all types are increasingly becoming complex ‘systems of systems.’ They are subject to evolving societal objectives, new and innovative materials, and in many countries, regulatory ecosystems are having difficulty keeping pace with rapidly changing societal, environmental, and technological changes. Two evolving objectives that are stimulating changes to buildings and communities are the desire for a more environmentally sustainable built environment and the need to become more resilient to the many increasingly hazardous impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, in some building designs these objectives are in conflict. As a first step toward a more integrated, holistic tool to aid in the design of sustainable and fire resilient buildings (SAFR-B), research supported by the SFPE Foundation developed a first-order decision framework and applied it to a midrise apartment building. The SAFR-B framework is built on an analysis of design and regulatory objectives for fire safety and sustainability for buildings, and of risk and decision methods that can support design decisions. It makes use of risk indexing and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), with initial soring and weighting of attributes and strategies derived from international experts in the field of fire safety and sustainability through a Delphi process. The SAFR-B framework and its development will be overviewed, along with an application example to a mid-rise apartment building. The full report is available at https://www.sfpe.org/foundation/foundationresearch/fundedresearch.
Learning Objectives
After participating in this session, attendees should be able to:
- Identify types of fire hazards and risks associated with sustainable building attributes.
- Understand better how sustainability and fire safety objectives might be in competition and how this can be resolved.
- Learn how the sustainable and fire resilient building (SAFR-B) decision framework was developed and how it works.
- Learn through example how application of the integrated risk and performance assessment framework can help identify problems and appropriate mitigation strategies.
BIOGRAPHY: Brian J. Meacham, PhD, PE (CT&MA), EUR ING, CEng (UK), FIFireE, FSFPE
Brian is the Managing Principal of Meacham Associates. He develops risk-informed performance-based solutions to complex building and infrastructure challenges, provides peer-review services, conducts building and fire regulatory system studies, and undertakes research in these areas as well as in sustainable and fire resilient built environments and fire safety technologies. His work has been for governments, NGOs and corporations in numerous countries. Over his career, Brian has been an author on more than 320 publications, participated in more than 300 presentations, and has been part of research teams that have been awarded more than $4.5M in research funding. His prior positions include Associate Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the USA, Principal at the international engineering firm Arup, Technical Director and Research Director at the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, and fire safety engineer in Europe and the USA. Brian is Chair of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), Chair of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Fire Risk Assessment Methods, Vice Chair of the IFSS Coalition Committee on a Decade of Action for Fire Safety, a Past President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), and a past Chair of the Inter-jurisdictional Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC). He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Connecticut and Massachusetts, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (UK), a registered European Engineer (EUR ING), a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, and a Fulbright Global Scholar.
PART II
BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING INTEGRATION RESEARCH PROJECT
Principal Investigator: Stephen Roth, PE (Carmelsoft)
Tuesday December 5th, 2023
3 - 4 pm EST
Hosted by the SFPE BC Chapter
More details to follow
Research into integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the design, verification, and maintenance of proper fire protection systems in buildings; The primary objective of the research is to identify opportunities to update and develop new fire protection engineering data repositories that are available to all interested parties, while also identifying interoperability requirements that will help more fire protection engineering software tools better integrate with BIM. In addition, the research aims to identify opportunities for improved toolsets and workflows that integrate with BIM, with the end goal of making it easier for all stakeholders to design, verify, and maintain proper fire safety systems in buildings
