Fire Load Calculation
Increasing use of engineering solutions needs to identify, characterize and quantify design fires. The ignition, heat release, and flame temperature of design fires depend on the weight and arrangement of combustible materials
Fire Load Calculation Formula provides a basis of fire risk assessment, fire intensity and probable duration. In case of fire incidences, the amount of releasable energy is directly related to the mass of combustible materials. The fire intensity and duration depend on this fire load and on the heat release rate. This is related to the composition of the fire load and its exposed surface, the fresh air supply.
Fire Load Calculation Formula and Fire Load
The fire load of a facility, industrial entity, process plant or building, is the heat energy that could be released per square meter of the floor area of a compartment, by the complete combustion of the contents of the unit area and any combustible parts of the unit.
It is a way of establishing the potential severity of a hypothetical future fire.
The heat output per unit floor area, often in kJ/m2, calculated from the calorific value of the materials present.
The fire load per unit area is defined as Fire Load Density
Fire load or Fire loading is used for evaluating industrial safety risks.
qc =∑ mvHv / Af
Where qc = fire load (MJ/m2)
Af= Floor area (m2)
mv= Total mass of the combustible material (Kg)and
Hv= Calorific value of the combustible material (MJ /Kg)
Why Fire Load Calculation is important?
In order to characterize fires, fire risk analysis, information on fire load is very important. Fire load survey or Calculation of Fire Load is the direct way to collect associated information which can provide a basis for the design fire.
The fire action is defined as the total quantity of heat produced by the complete combustion of all combustible material in the fire compartment, inclusive of stored goods and equipment together with building structures and building materials.
The various loads should, therefore, be combined in accordance with the stipulations in the relevant design codes.
The design fire involves things like heat output, smoke production and toxic gases generation of a fire. Information of toxic gases is of great importance in fire hazard assessment, while due to the complexity of combustion process it is difficult to quantify the type and amount of gaseous products generated in a real fire.
Heat release rate
It gives useful information such as the fire size, rate of smoke production, the possible fire environment, and other relevant data for hazard assessment. The main factors that control the fire development at growth stage and fully developed stage are different.