Fire propagation test of multi-planar facades with fire safety engineering methods

Abstract

Preventing the façade fire propagation is an important element of both Hungarian and international fire safety legislation but there is no unified European test standard. The Hungarian façade fire propagation test standard applies only to vertical facades, but in the case of real buildings non-planar facades are also typical. In order to remedy the shortcomings of the regulations, the use of CFD simulations may serve as a solution, supported by the fact that several international studies, independent of each other, have relied on this technology. By applying the Hungarian standards in the virtual environment of the simulation, a new “testing method” presents itself, which allows for the effective and fairly accurate examination of façade geometries with unknown fire behaviour. In our article features influencing the fire propagation of non-planar facades are introduced.