| Abstract | As Canada and other countries move from prescriptive-based building codes to performance/objective-based codes, new design tools are needed to demonstrate that compliance with these new codes has been achieved. One such tool is the computer model FiRECAM, which has been developed over the past decade by the Fire Risk Management Program of the Institute for Research in Construction at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). FiRECAM is a computer model for evaluating fire protection systems in residential and office buildings that can be used to compare the expected safety and cost of candidate fire protection options. To evaluate fire protection systems in light industrial buildings, a new computer model is being developed. This model, whose current focus is aircraft hangars and warehouses, is based on a framework that allows designers to establish objectives, select fire scenarios that may occur in the building and evaluate the impact of each of the selected scenarios on life safety, property protection and business interruption. The new computer model is called FIERAsystem, which stands for Fire Evaluation and Risk Assessment system. FIERAsystem uses time-dependent deterministic and probabilistic models to evaluate the impact of selected fire scenarios on life, property and business interruption. The mainFIERAsystem submodels calculate fire development, smoke movement through a building, time of failure of building elements and occupant response and evacuation. In addition, there are submodels dealing with the effectiveness of fire suppression systems and the response of fire departments. The Occupant Response Model (OCRM) is used to estimate the probabilities of occupants starting to evacuate a building at different times in the event of a fire. The probabilities to commence evacuation and the delay times computed by OCRM are then used by the Occupant Evacuation Model (OEVM) which calculates occupant movementfrom their location to the exterior of the building. This information is used by the Expected Number of Deaths Model to estimate how many occupants in the building would perish during the fire. OCRM also calculates the probability of fire department notification and the expected notification time. In this report, the theory basis of OCRM and OEVM is described, as well as the various factors used in the models. |
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