Evaluation the Degree of Compatibility with Fire Safety international codes in the Islamic University Buildings

Abstract

Purpose: The assessment of existing structures is becoming more and more important for social and economic reasons, while most codes deal explicitly only with design situations of new structures. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the current status of Islamic University buildings with degree of compatibility to international fire protection codes. In order to reach the main objective, a lot of secondary objectives were taken in consideration. The secondary objectives include identification of the international fire codes used in risk indexes and selection of three codes for fire safety. Then, they have been compared with each other and merged to choose the best fire safety factors. Design/methodology/approach: A fire safety ranking system is presented to quantify the level of fire safety in new and existing buildings. This risk assessment methodology is used to determine the relative importance ranking of the fire safety factors. Basically, this methodology can be classified into two sequential phases. The first phase consists of selection of most important factors or attributes affecting the fire safety, followed by arrangement of these factors and determination of their relative importance. Nineteen factors that affect fire safety in educational facilities were selected based on the literature review. They were represented in evaluation framework used to assessment some educational buildings at the Islamic University. Three buildings have been chosen. First, Scientific Laboratory Building , Second Information Technology building in addition to the Educational staff and administration building. Findings: the degree of computability of the building. 83% for Scientific Laboratory Building, 82.46% for Educational staff and administration building and 82.46% for Information technology building. Recommendation: Concentrating on making evaluation to construction, vertical opening, automatic sprinkled, travel distance, corridor separation, and fire alarm because they represent 65% of the total effects besides separating the building floors into compartment or zones.