Project Description:
In this project a performance based design analysis was conducted on the Maryland Hillel New Center for Jewish Life. This building contains an obstructed two story opening and the proposed change was to install smoke detectors in that area to uphold life safety despite not being code compliant. The second proposed change was to remove the fire resistance ratings on the structural elements while still keeping the structural integrity of the building. The goal of the evaluation was to determine if life safety goals such as oxygen concentration and carbon dioxide concentration, and property protection goals such as temperature of the structural elements were met even with these changes. Two design fires were modeled in FDS, the first a polyurethane couch fire, and the second a polypropylene trash can fire, in order to study the growth of the fire and its behaviors. This model gave the available safe egress time (ASET). This model was coupled with a Pathfinder model which represented the people movement out of the building and gave the required safe egress time (RSET). By ensuring that the RSET was less than the ASET, the life safety goals were met, the property protection goals were met, the communicating space upheld life safety goals, and the structural elements did not reach critical temperatures, it can be concluded that the performance based design passed all design criteria.
