wvnuethestructuralengineeror9 Technical TheStructuralEngineer Timber Engineering Notebook August 2018 imber Engineering Notebook series No. 6: Timber frame structures - separating distances during construction for fire safety Introduction . ee Tied ested Pie GT Ries creme neccaetan Fire safety is an essential building regulation design requi by EI UKTRA (UKTFA) represents over 85% of the | any completed building, It covers aspects such as fire resistance, UK's timber structural frame supply | means of escape, fre spread and space separation. The latter industry ands trade organisation | Getermines the minimum distance of te completed bling from that provides business and technical |g notional boundary such as a centre ling of a road. The notional Support tothe industry. The Assocation | boundary concept applies 10 every ne 6 provides peer reviewed outputs Eat eaenneipee tie on subjects related tothe tnber ae ce tanmeae industy suchas heslthand safely, | Separation in-service fabric and technical performance ee satel promotion ard waning TMese | jnacompleted balding Gocurents and other iformationare | tec atet ney eta available at wrw.uktfacom construction howeve porary expaced timber frame struc tray presen ais of fire cpa oross tho i, creating a safety tak people and property beyond ths ris. For buidings Even sate une otquceomiisecakotteenconswctonsts under constuction there are no codes or standards that provide tectnical guidance to determine wna the sate fie space separation site SAFE 7 Should be to existing bugs outside ofthe site boundey, Within the LTA Fe sy nig eotcon Site the contractor has the ay to control works and escape routes forthe se abou, for which there are raining and guidance evalabl. ‘The UKTFA working with the Fire and Rescue Service, Association of British Insurers (ABI), The Fire Protection Association (FPA), Health 7 and Safety Executive (HSE) and Fire Engineers has developed . V ‘uidance, together with supporting documents, to address this gap a in good practice information. The guidance relates to safe separating distances during construction for timber frame buildings with a total floor area >600n¥. The work undertaken by these organisations is the focus of this Timber Engineering Notebook. Methods of achieving the in-service fre resistance of completed timber frame structures will be addressed in a subsequent article. PROCUREMENT Background documents The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 requite the designer to consider safety in their choice of materials and how they are assembled in the building process and to ensure: that inherent risks are designed out wherever possible. ‘The HSE published a revision of HSG 168" which is aimed at all methods of construction, but which includes a section specifically for timber frame buildings. This document reinforces the requirements, of COM for good fire safety on ste and introduces the need, on large sites, for consideration to the risk of fire spreading off the site to adjacent buildings,lie TheStructuralEny Technical August 2018 Tiber EngneoingNotebook eat Okie aegoect tnt re haernces mht tbe rae _ Sandrine ame Reed fie sreat be ame || Fe spread rete tinbekame ‘Cine Capt SS wet gti (Rien) Suntstipoon ida Oa pRB r cere ie timber frame sntntroeie [Somigaainsst | [Uma poaeasaltia | | Row corre | The FPA pubsh guidance entitled Fire Prevention on Construction Sites’ This publication i targeted at main contractors and has. a section that sts recommended approaches to provent fe spread ‘onlarge timber trame project. The guidance references the UKTFA's own guidance as a source of information fr contractors. Insurance companies expec all contractors on projects above C2\t to comply with this FPA guidance | Category B BBE | key changes trom FA category & ‘The UKTFA has, as a mandatory requirement of membership, a Site Safe Policy that addresses the approach needed to mitigate fre risks on construction sites; the policy covers a comprehensive sot (of guidance papers (ynwwwuktfacom). Figure | provides the scope of the UKTFA Site Safe Policy and relevant documents matched to the FIBA plan of works. Included in the Site Safe Pokcy isthe UKTFA Design Guide to Separating Distances During Constructon*. The ‘guidance is aimed at timber frame structures with a total flor area of | Flame retards materials anc insulation me: There are th >600m?. The building types covered by the guidance are: classrooms, i aia terraced houses, care homes, hospitals, hotels and mult storey | mae sceommodaton balding For srr developments (2007) the : f feet ‘uidance can be used, but wll be too onerous for single houses and overly conservative for maisonettes and other dwelings of 3-4 units. ‘The guidance is intended for new build developments in all normal environments; urban, suburban and rural and where the new Construction is to be bul in lose proximity to properties where people sleep, or areas of public gathering such as schools, colleges, ‘restaurants, offices, commercial properties and factories. ‘The purpose of the design guide is to reduce radiant heal emissions | to.acceptable levels bythe selection of appropriate timber frame | ‘material specications via timber frame categories ‘The document (freely avaiable at: yr ukt{a.com) provides simple tables from which to select separation distances based (on the emitter building dimensions. There are several tables providing three different categories of timber frame (Figure 2) Each category Is determined by the materials used (Figure 9). The tables presented in the guidance, give the safe separation distance for each type of category of timber frame. Figure 4 provides ‘an example of the diferent separation distances for diferent = Lito ro categories of timber frame. ‘combustible tegores of timber fra aa | Category Key changes trom category A: From the guide, a designer can select an emitter lenath (1) which Is suitable forthe category of timber frame being considered (Figure 5). For a Category A frame thsi the length ofthe timber frame construction which faces the neighbouring building (receiver) Technical background to the UKTFA guidance on separating distances ‘The science of the development and behaviour of fireis extremelywuthestructuralengineer.ora a7 bat | Example 4 storey with 15m emitter face © _ (building greater than 600m2) | Category A -18.5m | Category B2 - 12,75m | Category C - 7.00m OiseaSatordecsionsrocoss ecewver BUILDING Design review Site review = constuction review ee 1 2 3 NEW FRAME 1 RS npr fe | ie ie NEW FRAME ecras ee. ., = | 48 ‘TheStructuralEngineer Technical | August 2013 Timber Engineering Notebook - - Energy QOQe Conduction Convection — Sano | ea ye jn Ignition if \ FIRE Transter of heat via ‘Transfer of heat by hot gasses or air: another material Energy Thermal Flame impingement Radiation Ignition ‘Thermal energy transfer through particle motion reactions in the air te @ ORs iadredvndty avn vera fre comparmentaton FC) FLOOR FLOOR FLOOR - : i, | | FLOOR Time (ti) Diagrammatic view of fire spread in time (tl) for diferent vertical compartmentation (VFC) ‘STARTrestructuralengineerorg 49 | vet _ complicated and the subject of much mathematical debate and a development. There ae so many varaes hat stone essential produce guidance that can b Jeu efit by Sesion teams Fortinately ter is are trgecrng code eset 3 euteo supporing document which prone a rane om woh guidance on the behavou otter ame stead the construction process was developed (Figure 6). ° is a function ofthe available fire source, which is ref load per mv During the construction of a timber framed building, the most vulnerable stage with regard to fire is when the structural shell is complete but with no secondary components to provide fire protection, for which the calorific value for combustion (the fire | oad) is at a maximum value. The UKTFA guidance provides the user Indeteminng the ely scenario ofthe impacto fre, twas witha chee of length of buicig (emitter length) based on the important to consider the four mechanisms by which fie can spread {as-built vertical fre barriers which are referred to in the guidance across al po ing on a construction site and out beyond the site | as vertical fire compartmentation (VFC); for which the ‘smaller the a Fewer) | length between VFCs, the smaller the fire load available and hence a ‘The principle cause of fire spread from timber frame to buildings aaeiemmebee (both beyond and within a site boundary) is radiation. Radiation can | The VFC must not to be confused with the fire resistance causehealeery te antened cross signer tances, _conparmentaon se he Bing Regia for ceed ‘eter ant het fox RHF wanda themes to ualy | bulangs A bln rogdation wal request comarientaton tormich eat radon sented roma tee source (ha cnt) | lobe catinsus rm va to wal ard cling to fits ron and how much ofthat RHFs transferred to the building other |The purpose of VEC during the construction procoss isto doay the ‘outside or inside the site boundary (the receiver). The RHF unit of fire spread and reduce the emitter length. For Category A frames measurement is W/m. Te eeeat VEC cannot be relied upon to provide a reduction of ke | spread, as the fire may simply spread round the sides of a single wall Reference 6 provides an expression forte emitter radiated heat (Figure). nCategory Band Cte tre intensity is reduced, together fra &,0T A | ON rcry may srendseind ave (aes A tame) Whore: Anais the radiant heat at the emitter of area A, is the emissity ofthe fre G's the Stetan-Boltzmann constant Ts the flame temperature Itcan be seen from this equation that emitted radiant heat is significantly influenced by temperature which is raised to the power 4, Data on frame temperatures for timber frame buildings was nit available, so the UKTFA had to undertake research and tests on different constructions to determine the range of temperatures arising from different frame assemblies and material types, It was from this research that three categories of timber, frame were derived. ‘The amount of radiant heat that is calculated to be at a receiver is given by Goo $4 where is the view factor (an expresion to deterime how much of — the the radiated heat erezetved at the dstance being considered). OETA Esobanse The view factors used in the UKTFA guidance were based on known | FIRE design formula used across both the PD 7974 documents and other fire engineering texts. A review of each method was undertaken ‘and results were both compared to tests and peer reviewed by fre ‘engineering experts Within the UK Building Regulations, to derive space separation in service, designers refer to BRE Report 187". The accepted lovel of RHF on a receiver building, from a fre in the emitter building gwven in the report, is 12.6kW/m? over a ten minute period. It was logical therefore to adopt the same value for the UKTFA guidance on acceptable separation distances between a timber frame building Under construction, and that of an adjacent building which may be either completed or also under construction. The duration of the fre