On equivalent fire exposure

A B S T R A C T The ability to accurately determine fire resistance requirements is one of the most important aspects of fire safety science. Since fire resistance depends on fire severity, which is a rather ambiguous term, there have been continuous efforts to develop a method for quantifying the term fire severity itself as well as converting it into fire resistance requirements. This paper evaluates two approaches – equivalent temperature and normalised heat load methods, by employing computer fire simulation. It is shown that the latter is a more appropriate quantifier, as it does not rely on an arbitrarily selected reference point and allows for a comparison in an unlike enclosures.