CH-06-03-3 - Experiments for the Characterization of Design Fires for Commercial Buildings PDF

This paper presents a study to characterize design fires for commercial buildings. The study includes a survey of different stores, which was conducted to determine fire load and type of combustibles and to design representative fuel packages, medium- and full-scale testing using the fuel packages, and computer modeling. The experiments were conducted in collaboration with the Fire Research Program of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) using NRC’s full-scale facilities. In total, 168 different stores were surveyed and the data collected were analyzed to determine the total fire load in each of the stores, the fire load density, and the contribution of different combustible materials to the total fire load. The survey was conducted in 2003 in the Canadian cities of Ottawa and Gatineau.

Units: SI