Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Fire research has provided engineers with practical models and data that can be used to undertake performance based fire engineering analysis. This form of analysis is demonstrated in the development of a fire safety design strategy for the National Gallery of Victoria which required a significant upgrade of fire safety measures. As part of the development of the fire safety strategy, the analysis undertaken required input on evacuation times as part of an egress study. A full evacuation of the Gallery provided valuable data to compare with EVACNET+ model predictions. Experimental evacuation data and observations of human behavior were consistent with other research in this field and highlighted a number of issues that fire safety designers and regulators need to take into account in the design and operation of buildings. In particular, the evacuation raised serious issues about the use of fire rated stairs in public buildings.