Architects are increasingly using sustainable materials in the design of building façades.
This presents challenges to regulators since the existing requirements in the National Construction Code Series may be considered inappropriate.
This guideline provides advice on designing combustible external wall systems (façades) and guidance on analysing the system’s performance in relation to vertical fire spread within a building and fire spread to and from adjacent buildings. The intended users are fire safety engineers, regulators and approval authorities experienced in the use of fire safety engineering to determine designs comply with building regulations.
The guide consists of five topics:
- an overview and general description of fire scenarios
- data, reasoning and references which may be used in the selection of design fires for the analysis, and calculation methods which may be used to estimate the resulting actions from these fires
- methods to determine the performance of the external façade when exposed to the design fire using calculation methods
- methods to determine the performance of the external façade when exposed to the design fire using intermediate scale or full scale test methods
- selection of acceptance criteria and how it can be shown that the system meets, or does not meet, these criteria.
Reference Number:
PNA217-1011
