International developments in fire engineering of steel structures

The international trend towards performance based building regulations and fire engineering is creating new opportunities in building design. Performance based regulations have been introduced into countries including UK, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia and others such as USA and Canada will shortly follow. The benefits of the performance approach are believed to include greater flexibility in design, increased opportunities for innovation, equal or better levels of safety and greater cost effectiveness in construction. For steel structures, major research programs have been undertaken or are in progress that are providing the technical basis for advanced fire safety design. The research by BHP and others in Australia on the 140 William Street building has been extended by the major project at Cardington, UK to look at the performance of an eight story steel framed building under fire conditions. The findings of the research into the performance of buildings of steel construction show that traditional design codes for fire safety are very conservative. In many sprinkler protected, multi-storey buildings, floor beams can probably be left as bare steel, provided steel columns are protected. The benefits of the recent research are already starting to flow into building design. There are a number of examples internationally where the unprotected steel and other innovative designs are taking advantage of this fire research into steel construction. Further benefits will follow as researchers and fire engineers interpret the data from the UK Cardington tests and upgrade national and international design codes for steel framed buildings.