Estimation of Magnitude and Heat Release Rate of Fires Occurring in Historic Buildings-Taking Churches as an Example

Wen-Yao Chang, Chieh-Hsin Tang and Ching-Yuan Lin
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Wen-Yao Chang: Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Chieh-Hsin Tang: Department of Architecture, China University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Ching-Yuan Lin: Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: Historical buildings often fail to meet today’s building and fire protection regulations due to their structure and space restrictions. For this reason, if such buildings encounter fire, serious damage will be resulted. The fire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (Notre-Dame de Paris) in April 2019 highlights the seriousness of this problem. In this study, the historical building of “Tamsui Church” was selected as an example. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was adopted to analyze the scale of damage and possible hazards when the wooden seats in the church are on fire, and improvement measures were proposed to ensure that such buildings can be used under safer conditions. It was found that the existing seat arrangement will cause the spreading of fire, and the maximum heat release rate is 2609.88 kW. The wooden roof frame above the fire source will also start to burn at 402.88 s (6.6 min) after the fire, which will lead to a full-scale fire. To maintain the safety of the historical building, it is necessary to add active firefighting equipment (smoke detector and water mist system).

Keywords: simulation; historic buildings; fire magnitude; sustainable buildings; heat release rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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