By: MS4-08:
Fire safety of structures made of timber and other bio-based products – COST Action FP1404

Joachim Schmid¹, Massimo Fragiacomo², Steve Craft³, Koji Kagiya⁴

¹ETH Zurich (Switzerland), COST FP1404 ; ²University of L'Aquila (Italy), COST FP1404; ³Carleton University (Canada),  ⁴Building Research Institute (Japan) 
 

Timber and bio-based building products have been used extensively in construction in the past. In the last 100 years, however, combustibility has been a key reason why products made from wood were not permitted e.g. in many multi-storey building applications.

When Performance Based Design (PBD) for fire safety was introduced, many building regulations opened the market for products which demonstrably meet the required performance objectives. Based on extensive international collaboration, research institutes and industries provided results, techniques and calculation models on how fire safety can be achieved for many fields of application. Large differences in the local regulations among countries still exist, and the use of combustible building products remains limited in countries where only prescriptive rules are used (e.g. bio-based insulations is allowed up to a building height of 18 m or more in Spain, whereas it is limited to 7 m in Germany).

Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) is a possible tool to achieve satisfactory fire safety levels for specific building solutions and any building material. The implementation of FSE and PBD for timber and bio-based building products requires cooperation between (i) structural engineers, (ii) material scientists, and (iii) fire safety engineers, amongst others including architects and regulators.

The intended mini-symposium will provide insights into the latest achievements in the area of fire safety of bio-based construction materials and systems, including calculation methods, experimental testing at different scales, and best practice in Europe, Asia, America, and Australasia. Materials like cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, active and passive fire safety tools, as well as possibilities and limitations of material treatments will be discussed. The mini-symposium will consist of three sessions covering the above specific areas of research, as well as a more global overview on the relevant challenges.

Submit an abstract to this mini-symposium here.