The Construction Plan for the Building - Assignment Example

Name Course title Title Task Date Part 1: Design strategies The construction plan for the building requires maximum energy efficiency and minimum energy consumption. This can be accomplished through sustainable building designs which include the layout, orientation, utilizing natural day light, ventilation and solar heating. Sustainable construction techniques and construction materials are also used. This is done at the earliest design stages in order to increase the possibilities for reducing the running costs and environmental impact of the construction in the long run. There should be successful proven records in design and construction stages that integrate sustainable design techniques (Kibert, 2008). The main elements in the design include: Thermal mass – sufficient thermal mass should be provided to store the sun’s heat during winter and provide cooling effect during summer. The walls, the floor coverings and the ceilings should not be too thick. Natural ventilation - there should robust air flows throughout the building for cooling all day. Insulation – specific good insulation to minimize excess heat gain or heat loss through the floor, walls, roofs, and ceilings. Glazing – choosing the best position and size for the windows to optimize the use of the sun without excess heat loss in winter and overheating in summer. A fire detection and alarm systems must be provide to provide early warning. Fire suppression systems such as sprinklers must also be installed. Such systems will have a positive input to the building sustainability in case of fire occurrence (Kibert, 2008). Materials The materials to be used in the building should either be sourced locally or reclaimed, whichever possible. The main buildings parts such as the external wall, the floor slab, the windows and the roof must achieve an ‘A’ rating as described in the guide to requirements for ‘A’ (Anderson & Shiers, 2007). The structural timber, joinery, cladding and panels materials should be certified by Forestry Stewardship Council unless an overriding consideration is made. The materials used for insulation purposes should be free from ozone depleting substances. Hydrofluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons should not be used. The wall coverings such as paints should have lees or no volatile organic compounds. Fire suppression systems should be free from halons (Kubba, 2012). Conclusion The BREEAM requirements discussed above are increasingly being used to deliver sustainable buildings. BREEAM is the main technique used to assess the environmental impact of the building. In order to achieve environmental and economic performance, all the issues and participants should come together as early as possible. The members of the team from all the design and construction sections bring together relevant information so as to analyze them and identify opportunities for improvement. Recommendation The building design should focus on fire safety management including provision of fire safety to the occupants as a way of prevention or protection against fire. A building can be made to be sustainable by minimizing the environmental impact of fire and minimizing the social and economic impacts of fire. The economic impact of fire in a building relates to the loss of the building and its content or the loss of business due to associated with business interruption. The environmental impact comes as a result of production of smoke and other toxic gases that can have effect on human health. The pollutants come from burning the materials used in the building structure. Part 2: Case studies Clandon Park House A devastating fire destroyed Clandon Park House, near Guildford, UK, on 29th April 2015. The fire was started by electric fault in the distribution board. The fire appliances arrived later and started fighting the fire but they were not able to save the building interior. The fire damaged the building which resulted in the collapse of the roof. The members of staff were evacuated safely out of the building and nobody was injured (BBC, 2015) The fire spread to into the room above the electrical distribution board because there were not fire compartments above it that could have stopped the fire from spreading to adjacent rooms. Addition of amenities produced concealed voids which aided in uncontrolled fire spread. This occurred because there was no building plan. Kiss club in Santa Maria A fire broke out at a night club in Kiss club in Santa Maria, Southern Brazil, at 2.30 am in 27th January 2013, which lead to the death of 230 people and hundreds others were injured. The fire began during the performance by Gurizada music band’s during pyrotechnics display. Sparks ignited fire on acoustic tiles lining the ceiling, and the flame spread quickly followed by a thick smoke that filled the building. The factors that caused this fire occurrence include: The venue which was 615 m2 was packed with approximately 1200 people. This shows that the venue was overcrowded as the building could comfortably accommodate less than 700 people. This resulted in many people being trampled upon and the time that could have been used to escape was wasted. Many people died by inhaling toxic smoke gases following the generation of a thick smoke (BBC, 2013). Investigation showed that the club’s ceiling was made of insulating foam made from materials which are combustible. The materials were ignited by the spark from spark lit during the show. The fire extinguishers were malfunctioned and the fire spread throughout the club rapidly, producing a thick smoke. The club also had no alarm or sprinklers system, and only one exit, thus the occupants were left to search desperately for their way out. Most people who died could not locate the exit. Conclusion Although the development of a good fire safety plan is essential in buildings, it can be seen that some buildings does not have a plan or disregard the safety issues. The common issue that came out of the two cases has to do with the level of implementation of fire safety requirements depending on the fire safety regulations. There was either poor or no installation of fire safety systems and poor maintenance of the safety systems. The case of Kiss Club reflects on the level of implementation of fire safety issues in developing countries. Building designers, engineers and the owners should ensure that fire safety plan is incorporate at an early stage of the construction of the building. Clandon Park House fire incident is an example of old buildings that require audit in terms of their fire safety systems. Recommendations There should be professional qualification for the design of the fire protection systems and their installation in the buildings. There should also be constant maintenance of the protection systems. It is possible to notice that there was a problem with fire safety management in the two buildings under focus. There was lack of knowledge and preparedness by the building occupants in the Kiss club to respond to fire incident. The building occupants should be made of aware of fire occurrences and how they can respond to a situation. It is clear that there a very poor fire management systems in the Kiss club, as many people were allowed to occupy a small space, with disregard to the safety issues. There were signs to guard the occupants to the exit. In addition, fire protection systems were not working. Old buildings are vulnerable to fire incidents, even after retrofitting. There should be thorough inspection and fixing of the fire safety issues including installation of fire protection systems. A very important issue that needs to be given much attention is the implementation of fire safety regulations through appropriate planning, installation and continuous maintenance of fire protection systems. Part3: 1. Explain nomenclature of halon and freon systems. Discuss environmental impacts of halons and reasons for halon replacement in fire protection engineering industry under the Montreal Protocol. What are exceptional cases when halon can be used? Give your views whether halon replacement was right decision on the international level. [25 marks] Halons are obtained by combining hydrocarbons and halogens which can be used to put off fire. They are fluorocarbons which has at least a bromine atom without hydrogen atoms. The nomenclature for halons is not complex. Each halon is represented by four numbers which include abcd, where: a is the number of carbon atoms, b is the no. of fluorine atoms, c is the number of chlorine atoms, and d is the number of bromine atoms. For example, halon 1211 represents CF2ClBr and halon 2402 represents C2F4Br2 The use of halons in extinguishing fire has been phased out because it destroys the ozone layer. The use of chlorofluorocarbons leads to the destruction of the ozone layer which results in global warming. This led to its ban in Montreal. The existing halons are used in exceptional case such as when it is critical to use and there is no alternative. In such cases, the gas is supplied stored halon gas produced in the past. Halon 2040 has been used in aviation, armoured vehicles and submarines as they have small spaces where other types of extinguishers are not suitable because they can be too large or too heavy or too harmful for the people (Moore, Stanitski & Jurs, 2011). 2. A compartment is fully involved in fire. The flame inside the room is cherry red. Considering the gray body model (ε = 0.85) calculate thermal radiation emission from the compartment and compare it with maximum radiant heat flux for indefinite skin exposure.[5 marks] The temperature associated with cherry red = 8150C or 1088K Thus, thermal radiation emission, q is calculated as: 3. Explain what different and common issues between the Fahrenheit/Rankine and the Celsius/Kelvin temperature scales.[5 marks] Fahrenheit/Rankine the boiling point and the freezing point of water are 1800 apart. One degree of the Rankine/ Fahrenheit scale is 180th apart between freezing and boiling point of water. On the Celsius/Kelvin temperature scales, the ice and boiling point are 1000 apart, the temperature interval for one degree Celsius/Kelvin is equivalent to an interval of 9/5 degrees of Fahrenheit/Rankine. Celsius scale and Fahrenheit scale coincides at -400. In other words, -40°C is equivalent to -40°F. 4. Mixed fuel is composed by methane (volume percent is 0.25), carbon monoxide (0.45) and hydrogen (0.30). Calculate the lower flammable limit concentration for the mixture and the concentration of each component in the mixture with air.[5 marks] Lower flammable limit concentration for the mixture Lower flammability limit for methane (CH4) = 5, hydrogen (H) = 4 and carbon monoxide (CO) = 12.5. Thus, LFL for the mixture = 7.78 5. Consider a 1.1 m diameter pan fire of petrol with heat release intensity of about 500 kW/m2 of surface area. Calculate the flame height under the normal atmospheric conditions.[5 marks] Heat release intensity = 500 kW/m2 Diameter of the pan fire = 1.1m The emissive power, E = 58(10-0.00823D) = E = 58(10-0.00823 x 1.1) = 56.8 kW/m2 The value of 6. Compare the chemical reaction rates at three temperatures – 300, 400 and 500 K. The activation energy is 120kJ/mole. Make your conclusion how temperature affects chemical reaction rate.[5 marks Where k is the rate coefficient, A is the pre-exponential factor, Ea is the activation energy, R is the universal gas constant which is equal to 8.314 X 10-3 kJ/mole.K, and T is the temperature (in kelvin). At 300K At 400K At 500K As shown from these calculations, the reaction rate increases as the temperature increase. The reaction rate for the three temperatures is highest at 500K. 7. Calculate the wavelength for infrared thermal radiation with frequency 1014Hz. Compare the result with the wavelengths for Smooth Radio 100.4 FM and visible radiation for to the human eye.[5 marks] V=f c = f, Where c is the speed of the wave f is the frequency λ is the wavelength = The wavelength is larger than the wavelength for visible radiation. The wavelength for smooth radio 100.4 fm is = The wavelength is larger than the wavelength for the visible light and smaller than the infrared thermal radiation (Moore, Stanitski & Jurs, 2011) 8. A person with initial speed of 1.2 m/s is moving to fire exit as described on the Fig. 1. His travel consists of two parts (AB and BC). In the first part (AB) he is moving with constant speed of 1.2 m/s. When he has achieved the point B, he will start to move with constant deceleration of 0.01 m/s2 due to the crowd in the second part of his trip. What time is needed for the person to achieve the fire exit? Assume that AD is 5 m, BC is 10 m and α = 30o. [15 marks Cos 30 = AD/AB AB = AD/Cos 30 = 5/Cos 30 = 5.77 m Time = distance/speed = AB/1.2 = 5.77/1.2 = 4.81 sec Distance = Vit + 1/2at2 10 = 1.2t + (0.5*-0.01)t2 0.005t2 -1.2t + 10 = 0 5t2 – 1200t + 10000 = 0 The total time taken = 4.81 + 8.6 = 13.41s 9. A person is moving to a fire exit through a corridor (Fig. 2). His speed is 1.25 m/s and constant during his travel. In the corridor there is a strong air movement. Speed of air movement is 0.5 m/s and width of the corridor is 15 m. Find the minimum time needed to reach the fire exit. Explain your answer and indicate the right direction for his evacuation? c2 = a2 +b2 -2a*b*Cos C 1.252 = 0.52 + b2 – (2*0.5 *b*cos60) 1.56 - 0.25 = b2 – 0.5b 1.31 = b2 -0.5b b2 – 0.5b – 1.31 = 0 Cos 300 = AB/AC AC = AB/Cos 300 = 15/Cos 300 = 17.32 m Time taken = 17.32/1.42 = 12.19 s 10. How different is the result for the previous question, if air movement changes its direction on opposite (U = - 0.5 m/s). b2 = a2 +c2 -2a*c*Cos B 1.252 = (-0.5)2 + c2 – (2*-0.5 *c*cos60) 1.56 = 0.25 + c2 + 0.5c c2 + 0.5c – 1.31 = 0 AC = 17.32 m Time taken = 17.32/0.92 = 18.82 s References Anderson, J., & Shiers, D. (2007). The green guide to specification. Oxford: Blackwell. BBC News, 28th January 2013, Brazil nightclub fire in Santa Maria kills 233, obtained from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-21220308 BBC news, 26th November 2015, Clandon Park House fire 'caused by electrical fault', from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-34935181 Moore, J. W., Stanitski, C. L., & Jurs, P. C. (2011). Chemistry: The molecular science. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning. Kibert, C. J. (2008). Sustainable construction: Green building design and delivery. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Krutmann, J., Hönigsmann, H., & Elmets, C. A. (2009). Dermatological phototherapy and photodiagnostic methods. Berlin: Springer. Kubba, S. (2012). Handbook of green building design and construction: LEED, BREEAM, and Green Globes. Read More