Computer Fire Modeling

Fire Modeling Services
Mechanical smoke control for large spaces, such as an atrium, can be one of the most expensive fire protection features a building owner must provide under the prescriptive requirements of the building code. Such systems can easily cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars for design, materials, and installation. The Sullivan Code Group’s fire modeling team routinely collaborates with the building owners’ architects and engineers to conduct performance based designs of atriums that consider alternative approaches to achieve the equivalent degree of life safety prescribed by the building code. Such alternative strategies have involved evaluating the impact of quick response sprinklers, deluge sprinklers, smoke detection, and passive ventilation. Alternative protection strategies developed by the Sullivan Code Group often result in significant cost savings to the building owner while meeting the degree of life safety prescribed by the building code.

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Figure 1. The Sullivan Code Group uses computer fire modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of candidate fire protection strategies for unique situations. This example of a slot floor opening in a university building demonstrates the Sullivan Code Group’s ability to model complex spaces from architectural plans (left) and evaluate smoke transport to connected floors for multiple fire scenarios (right).