Fire Load in Iran's Residential Buildings

Document Type : Short Communications

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Fars Science and Research Branch, Shiraz, Iran

2 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

The most fundamental subject in applicable studies of fire in civil engineering is to evaluate fire load, which is affected by life style and consumable objects of the users. This subject has been considered more in countries like India, New Zealand, Canada and Finland, due to usage of structures sensitive to fire, like wooden structures. In this article, while defining the criteria for fire load evaluation and sampling from a number of residential buildings in Shiraz, the results of the researches done in other countries on fire load is compared with the results achieved in our country, Iran. Meanwhile various approaches of counting burning calories of different places and different household materials are explained. The results of this research are presented in different categories like the area of the residency, story number, sexuality of the users, application of the room and etc. plus a formula for evaluation of fire load in Iranian residential buildings is provided. This Formula, named after main writer of this article, Haji Beig Tehrani, is provided based on statistical studies, using different coefficients and the average fire load of a residential building in Iran. Concluding from this research, fire load in Iranian residential buildings is 541.8 Mega joules per square meter in average which is a high value, compared to other countries.

Keywords