Building technology and design

Building technology and design

This work package focuses on how to prevent initiation, development and spread of fire in buildings with focus on new construction materials and products, and new fields of application of existing products. The activities will increase the knowledge on the risks imposed by these components and enhance the knowledge on how to reduce the risks. Necessary methods and tools will be established based on the new knowledge, and innovative solutions and products for fire safe building design realized.

At the time we have three projects running or planned:

Project 3.1 - Novel construction materials

In this project novel construction materials' and products' impact on the fire safety of buildings, and how experimental and theoretical methods can be used to assess the impact, are studied. Insulation materials behave differently in fires and a system to differentiate between the fire behaviour is necessary to enable fire safe application of various materials. The project will also develop documented detail solutions where combustible materials and products are incorporated into the building design while maintaining the required fire safety level. Combining timber structures with combustible wood or cellulose fibre insulation is of great interest to achieve more environmentally friendly buildings. The fire safety aspect of this will be investigated and detail solutions with the necessary fire safety level will be developed. Research on other materials, products, and associated design solutions may be included in the centre at a later stage. Smoke toxicity is also important and will be subject to research.

Project 3.2 - Timber structures

The fire safety challenges of buildings with cross laminated timber, massive glued laminated timber and light timber frame structures, including detail solutions, will be studied. Utilization of such timber structures in mid- and high-rise buildings will be given extra focus. Large scale testing will be performed, and modelling of fire development in compartments will be investigated for development of computer modelling setup recommendation and improvements. The charring rate and delamination of timber structures during natural fire exposure will be studied, and solutions and methods to design large and tall timber buildings will be investigated. Probabilistic analytical approaches for documentation of fire safety levels in the relevant timber building designs will be studied and further developed. One PhD-candidate will be engaged in this project.

Project 3.3 - Building Information Models (BIM)

Possibilities and benefit potential of incorporating building information modelling into the verification and documentation processes of fire safety in the building industry are topics of this project. The aim is to develop a framework and recommendations for the implementation of BIM in the fire safety community, and ultimately establish a basis and support for software functionality innovation which enables effective and improved use. The long-term goal is to enable quality improvement, increase data handling and analysis capacity, and also reduce design and construction mistakes. 

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