‘A Gentle Whisper in Your Ear’

Fire-Induced Progressive Collapse

… the sequential growth and intensification of structural distortion and displacement, beyond fire engineering design parameters, and the eventual failure of elements of construction in a building – during a fire and the ‘cooling phase’ afterwards – which, if unchecked, will result in disproportionate damage, and may lead to total building collapse …

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CIB Working Commission 14 : FIRE SAFETY  (Revised Title agreed in Zurich, 2010-08-30)

A Working Commission of CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building & Construction) … CIB W14 is an international, multi-stakeholder, trans-disciplinary, pre-normalization forum for discussion, and action, on research and innovation in Fire Science and Engineering for the design, construction and operation of a Safe and Sustainable Built Environment.  (Revised Text agreed in Zurich, 2010-08-30) 

CIB W14′s Aims & Objectives

a)   To create an ongoing research and innovation focus for the development of a sound, modern, rational and empirical basis for the Fire Science and Engineering Practices, Procedures and Design Methodologies necessary in a Safe and Sustainable Built Environment ;

b)   To promote the acceptance of Fire Science and Engineering Practices, Procedures and Design Methodologies worldwide … and their use in international/regional/national/local Building and Fire Safety Legislation, Codes, Regulations and Standards ;

c)   To provide technical input, from a Fire Science and Engineering Perspective, to other relevant CIB Working Commissions and Task Groups ;

d)   To facilitate the transfer of state-of-the-art Fire Science and Engineering Technology at international level, particularly to developing countries in the earlier stages of economic development ;

e)   To encourage capacity building for Fire Science and Engineering in developing countries ;   and

f)   To liaise and co-operate/collaborate with other Organizations having similar or related aims and objectives.

To Meet These Aims & Objectives …

• Research and Innovation Projects with a specific task, a well-defined scope and a limited timeframe may be initiated and directly/indirectly undertaken by the Membership of CIB W14 ;
• Output from these projects and the other work of W14 may be placed in the public domain, in hardcopy and/or electronic formats … as CIB Publications, as papers/articles in international journals, conference/seminar/workshop proceedings, and discussion documents ;
• Conferences/Seminars/Workshops and other events which further W14′s Aims & Objectives may be organised by the Membership of W14 ;
• Conferences/Seminars/Workshops and other events planned by Organizations having similar or related aims and objectives to W14 may be co-sponsored by CIB ;
• W14 may circulate its Publications and information on its Research and Innovation Projects to the Membership of other CIB Working Commissions and Task Groups.

CIB W14′s Co-Ordinator

Prof. Dr. George Hadjisophocleous, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

CIB W14 Membership

Members of this Working Commission have to be either a Representative of a CIB Member Organisation or an Individual CIB Member.

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CIB W14 – Research Working Group IV

Pre-Normative Innovation Project 2010-2013

Project Leader: C.J. Walsh

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See the FireOx International WebPage …

Structural Fire Engineering, World Trade Center Incident (9-11) & Fire Serviceability Limit States

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‘Structural Reliability & Fire-Induced Progressive Collapse’

Project Description & Timetable

Click the Link Above to read and/or download PDF File (117 kb)

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Tuesday 31 August 2010

CIB W14 Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland

Presentation of Project Initial Discussion Document (PDF File, 2.29 Mb) 

Contact CJ Walsh to receive a copy of This Presentation !

A lively and very interesting discussion followed.

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Monday 11 April 2011

CIB W14 Meeting in Paris, France

Presentation of Project Phase II  (PDF File, 1.70 Mb)

In August 2008 … the National Institute of Standards & Technology (USA) issued NIST NCSTAR 1A: ‘Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7′ …

‘ Had WTC 7 been expressly designed for prevention of fire-induced progressive collapse, it would have been sufficiently robust to withstand local failure due to the fires without suffering total collapse.’  [Page 58, NIST NCSTAR 1A]

2008 NIST NCSTAR 1A Recommendation A  (a re-statement and confirmation of the earlier 2005 NIST Recommendation 1):

NIST recommends that: (1) progressive collapse be prevented in buildings through the development and widespread adoption of consensus standards and code provisions, along with the decision support tools and design guidelines needed for their use in practice ;

Phase II of this Innovation & Research Project is examining …

• Gaps in our understanding of Structural Fire Engineering ;
• Institutional Barriers delaying our response to NIST Recommendation A above ;
• A Rational Route Forward to meet that complex Technical Challenge.

Contact CJ Walsh to receive a copy of This Presentation !

Another lively, very interesting … and, this time, humorous … discussion followed.  Many thanks to all of the participants !

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Update December 2011

CIB W14 Research WG IV

‘Structural Reliability & Fire-Induced Progressive Collapse’

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Further to the recently completed Series of Posts …

NIST’s Recommendations on the 9-11 WTC Building Collapses

An International Reflection Document is now being developed for discussion.

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Organizations Now Involved in this Project:

BRANZ – New Zealand

CTICM – France

Faculty of Architecture, Budapest University of Technology & Economics – Hungary

FireOx International – Ireland, Italy & Turkey

NIST – USA

NRC – Canada

TFRI – China

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END