A New Methodology for the Selective Measurement of building Performance and Safety

Littlewood, John; Alam, Mahmood; Goodhew, Steve

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.195

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Using non-combustible cavity barriers/fire stops in horizontal and vertical directions to prevent the fire/flame spread and reduce the fire input inside the cavity was identified as a fire protection strategy against cavity fire spread in rainscreen façades and wall cavities [15,44,58]. The usage of cavity barriers showed the ability to prevent rapid vertical fire spread [59].…”

Section: Usage Of Non-combustible Cavity Barriers/fire Stopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review on Cavity Fires in Buildings: Flame Spread Characteristics, Fire Risks, and Safety Measures

Godakandage,

Weerasinghe,

Gamage

et al. 2023

Fire

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Fire spread scenarios associated with concealed cavity spaces have been relatively less discussed. The variation in studies with respect to geometry, influential parameters, and protection strategies has been an obstacle to deriving more generalized solutions in terms of cavity fire in buildings. A systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA method to identify the conclusive fire behaviour, safety risks, and protection strategies to enable future researchers to address cavity fire scenarios effectively, avoiding catastrophic disasters. This study identified that relative to open-fire scenarios, cavity fires could result in up to 10 times higher flame spread, up to 14 times higher heat exposure, and temperature conditions 13 times higher. Increased toxicity and smoke velocity are also found with cavity fires. Fire protection strategies and their efficiency were identified for a range of cavity geometries. Altogether, cavity spaces, especially narrow ones, cannot be neglected during fire safety, and proper risk identification is required to ensure the safety of the buildings and the occupants in a fire scenario.

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Section: Usage Of Non-combustible Cavity Barriers/fire Stopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review on Cavity Fires in Buildings: Flame Spread Characteristics, Fire Risks, and Safety Measures

Godakandage,

Weerasinghe,

Gamage

et al. 2023

Fire

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“…One of the greatest problems of new housing is the performance gap, where defects in the construction process can impact upon thermal performance and operational energy use for heating once occupied; a major finding of the UK Government's Building Performance Evaluation programme in 2016 [8,9]. There is significant and compelling evidence of the existence of the Performance Gap in buildings and its impact upon the energy efficiency of dwellings and thermal comfort [10,11,12,13]. The Performance Gap can be described as the "discrepancy between the measured and the theoretical energy performance" [13], also described as "a 'Knowledge Gap' between off-site designers and on-site constructors and within both the policy makers and administrators, including local government building control officers" [5].…”

Section: Context To the Performance Gap And The Safety Gapmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is significant and compelling evidence of the existence of the Performance Gap in buildings and its impact upon the energy efficiency of dwellings and thermal comfort [10,11,12,13]. The Performance Gap can be described as the "discrepancy between the measured and the theoretical energy performance" [13], also described as "a 'Knowledge Gap' between off-site designers and on-site constructors and within both the policy makers and administrators, including local government building control officers" [5]. There are many factors inducing the presence of the Performance Gap in the building industry, some of these factors are the inconsistencies in test guidelines, financial pressures, time constrains that lead to short term fixes [5] as well as the lack of compulsory monitoring standards, particularly at the construction stage, where many issues can be concealed.…”

Section: Context To the Performance Gap And The Safety Gapmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are many factors inducing the presence of the Performance Gap in the building industry, some of these factors are the inconsistencies in test guidelines, financial pressures, time constrains that lead to short term fixes [5] as well as the lack of compulsory monitoring standards, particularly at the construction stage, where many issues can be concealed. Littlewood has gone a step further and identified and entitled a Safety Gap' [5,[14][15][16], and through his work co-funded by Sustainable Construction Monitoring and Research Ltd, and Cardiff Metropolitan University (CMU) he has developed and implemented a non-destructive building fire safety assessment, measurement and reporting protocol that illustrates where the construction process and products can impact upon inadequate fire safety performance, particularly with a lack of or inappropriate fire stopping and compartmentation. Problems with passive fire protection measures were demonstrated catastrophically in 2017 by the Grenfell Tower tragedy [17].…”

Section: Context To the Performance Gap And The Safety Gapmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building Performance Assessment Protocol for Timber Dwellings—Conducting Thermography Tests on Live Construction Sites

Littlewood

Waldron

Newman³

et al. 2019

Sustainability in Energy and Buildings

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This paper introduces the pan Wales (UK) Home Grown Homes (HGH) project (2018 and 2020) which focusses on three areas of improvement for delivering high performance, affordable and healthy homes. The HGH project is funded by Powys County Council, through the European Regional Development Fund's Agricultural Stream. The HGH project is being delivered by Woodknowledge Wales in a consortium with Cardiff Metropolitan University (CMU), TRADA and Coed Cymru, with seven work packages. 'More & Better Homes from Wood' (work package (WP) WP3) focusses on the assessment of building performance for dwellings using timber, and is being delivered by a multi-disciplinary team at CMU through the Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment group (SuRBe). This paper discusses the context and need for the HGH project as Wales launched its low carbon agenda in March 2019. The focus for the paper is to introduce the building performance assessment (BPA) protocol to be implemented by SuRBe across several housing case studies in Wales, through the design, in-construction and occupancy phases, to address thermal and fire (TaF) performance issues, and impacts upon occupant quality of life, comfort and safety. Preliminary results are presented of in-construction testing on a live construction site with the challenges of conducting thermography tests whilst construction progresses and the weather becomes warmer in April 2019. This paper will be useful for academics, architects, building contractors, housing developers and professionals undertaking building performance assessment and evaluation on live construction sites.

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“…For example, smoke that emerged during the fire and contains unsafe gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon IV oxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and carbon dioxide (BSI, 2012). The emerged smoke affects both the dwellers and building structure and may cause demolition (Littlewood et al , 2017). In the United States of America, McCarthy and Gaucher (2004) attempted to provide data and information that would enhance the framework necessary to develop fire safety plans in hospital operation rooms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a framework for fire safety management plan: the case of Malaysia's public hospital buildings

Jaafar

Salim

Salleh

et al. 2021

IJBPA

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PurposeGlobally, several studies have shown that hospital building is charged with multiple inherent risks because a large number of users are vulnerable in tragic events. Thus, the need for the fire safety management plan (FSMP) has been proved as an instrument to mitigate fire and related risks in healthcare facilities. In Malaysia, FSMP regarding public healthcare building is yet to be explored in-depth. Therefore, this paper explores the information necessary to develop the FSMP framework for public hospital buildings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper’s objectives were accomplished via a combination of five face-to-face interviews and observations of five selected public hospitals in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. The five key participants were across the five public hospitals and collated data analysed through thematic analysis with the assistance of MAXQDA 2018.FindingsFindings show that fire safety stakeholders practice system, fire safety action plan and fire risk management were the three main variables that promote fire safety programme and will improve FSMP for Malaysia’s public hospital buildings.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper’s data collection is limited to Penang, Malaysia, and a qualitative research approach was used, but this does not deteriorate the strength of the findings. Future studies are needed to consider validating findings from this paper via a quantitative approach.Practical implicationsThe suggested framework can be employed by Malaysia’s public hospital authorities as a guideline to mitigate fire hazards in the country’s healthcare facilities.Originality/valueThis paper is encouraging hospital operators and other key stakeholders to improve on their FSMP for healthcare buildings across Malaysia as part of the study implications.

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A New Methodology for the Selective Measurement of building Performance and Safety

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

A Systematic Review on Cavity Fires in Buildings: Flame Spread Characteristics, Fire Risks, and Safety Measures

A Systematic Review on Cavity Fires in Buildings: Flame Spread Characteristics, Fire Risks, and Safety Measures

Building Performance Assessment Protocol for Timber Dwellings—Conducting Thermography Tests on Live Construction Sites

Developing a framework for fire safety management plan: the case of Malaysia's public hospital buildings

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