New Developments in the Practice of Structural Fire Protection in the U.S. - Third Repeat Presentation

 

This is a live, encore presentation of a webinar that was originally offered on 12/04/18 and 01/08/19. Attendees of the previously offered presentations, RV-W120418 and RV-W011819, will not receive CEU for attending the 02/12/19 presentation.

 

Why do we thermally insulate structural systems? Structural fire protection addresses the low probability and potentially high-consequence event of uncontrolled fire exposure in buildings. The 2016 edition of the ASCE/SEI 7 industry standard has commenced a new and groundbreaking industry-consensus standard of care for structural fire protection in the U.S., and other adopting jurisdictions. The default option is termed 'standard fire resistance design', and is based on a long-standing empirical indexing system that excludes consideration of realistic thermal demands and structural system response. The only permitted alternative to standard fire resistance design is 'structural fire engineering,' as constituted in the new Appendix E section of ASCE/SEI 7, and as described in the new ASCE/SEI Manual of Practice No. 138 (Structural Fire Engineering). These new industry advancements are beginning to disrupt century-long norms in structural fire protection by providing stakeholders enhanced design freedom while also promoting the construction of more intrinsically-safe structures to fire. Moreover, building officials have been further empowered to question and challenge structural fire protection variances that are not conducted in accordance with new industry standards.