Fire Risk Analysis on Buildings Considering Fire Spread and Total Floor Area

Fire risk analysis models utilized for the fire risk assessment of domestic structures do not usually take into account flame spread and building size. Therefore, in this study, the effect of the building size on flame spread was investigated. Results showed that the frequency of occurrence of fires increased when the building has 11 or more floors. Additionally, the rate of occurrence of small-scale fires also increased when the total floor area was greater than or equal to 1,000 m2. From the risk analysis, the fire risk of health care, medical, and recreational facilities were calculated to be 25.7 × 10-3, 4.29 × 10-3, and 0.91 × 10-3 persons per year, respectively. As such, these were classified as high-risk facilities.

The funeral cave of Laang Spean | ល្អា ងបញច្ុះសពនៃស្ថា ៃីយល្អា ងស្ពា ៃ

Discovered in 1965 by Cécile and Roland Mourer in the limestone massifs of the Battambang region in Cambodia, the Lang Spean cave is a karstic cavity with three main chambers with a floor area of about 1000 m2 and a vault height of thirty metres. The archaeological sequence of Laang Spean now includes several meters thick level of ancient activity dated between 71,000 and 26,000 years ago surmounted by a Hoabinhian occupation (11,000-5,000 BP), with a third summit level characterized by Neolithic tombs. Cemeteries and funeral spaces are major sites in Southeast Asia still used to reconstruct the chrono-cultural sequence of the region. However, their studies present a failure to take into account the funerary nature of the studied sites. Archeothanatology, although partly known by colleagues working in Southeast Asian has not been developed sufficiently leading to numerous problems linked to the real nature of the sites. A burial site where individuals chosen by a community have been placed presents an altered vision of the population, whereas a study of funerary gestures and recruitment makes possible to understand these choices. Thus, the discovery of Neolithic burials at Laang Spean was the opportunity to implement an excavation protocol that follows the principles of archeothantology including to determine the positioning of the defunct at the time of burial in order to illustrate the funerary practice carried out by its original population. Despite the fragility of the bones we carried out observations and measurements useful for determining the biological characteristics, including sex, age, stature or pathologies of the individuals uncovered and, direct dating were successful. Finally, the Laang Spean cave appears to be a Neolithic funerary cave according to its dating but showing some characteristics found in the Metal age on the nearby Khorat plateau.

Inside a Microapartment: Design Solutions to Support Future Sustainable Lifestyles

The purpose of this study wass to assess the interior design solutions of residential microflats built in large European cities in countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A sample consisting of thirty representative microflats with a floor area below 35 m2 was selected for the study. The flats were intended for either permanent or temporary occupancy and were built over the past fifteen years. The research field covered several large European cities, where demand for such units is high. Comparative analyses of different microflat interior design models were performed. The objective of the study was to determine which contemporary microflat interior design solutions (such as space layout, furniture layout, and design, color, and material design) are optimal and the most commonly used. Sets of design solutions applied in microflats were collected and documented. The study used a range of research methods, including a review of the literature, websites, field research, and comparative analysis. The set of presented interior design solutions and the conclusions drawn from the analyses can be useful to architects and interior designers who design microflats and residential units with greater floor areas, or flats where effective use of floor area is crucial (e.g., student housing). It is also worth mentioning that the existing literature on microflats focuses primarily on the United States and Australia and not Europe, and discusses the economics and ecology of inhabiting microflats.

Extracting Influential Factors for Building Energy Consumption via Data Mining Approaches

To effectively analyze building energy, it is important to utilize the environmental data that influence building energy consumption. This study analyzed outdoor and indoor data collected from buildings to find out the conditions of rooms that had a significant effect on heating and cooling energy consumption. To examine the conditions of the rooms in each building, the energy consumption importance priority was derived using the Gini importance of the random forest algorithm on external and internal environmental data. The conditions that had a significant effect on energy consumption were analyzed to be: (i) conditions related to the building design—wall, floor, and window area ratio, the window-to-wall ratio (WWR), the window-to-floor area ratio (WFR), and the azimuth, and (ii) the internal conditions of the building—the illuminance, occupancy density, plug load, and frequency of room utilization. The room conditions derived through analysis were considered in each sample, and the final influential building energy consumption factors were derived by using them in a decision tree as being the WFR, window area ratio, floor area ratio, wall area ratio, and frequency of use. Furthermore, four room types were classified by combining the room conditions obtained from the key factor classifications derived in this study.

Comparison of Environmental Performance of Single-Family House and Multi-Storey Apartment in Turkey using Life Cycle Assessment

In recent years, there has been a significant transition from multi-storey buildings to single-family houses especially due to COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, people prefer to live in single-family houses or detached houses where they have more free space in outside of the house. The aim of this study is to quantify and compare the environmental performance of a single-family house and multi-storey apartment building in Turkey throughout their life cycle with cradle-to-grave approach. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 was used to analyse the environmental impacts of the single-family house and multi-storey apartment buildings. The functional unit was chosen as 1m2 of floor area of a house over their lifespan (50 years). With cradle-to-grave approach of the LCA, the system boundaries for the environmental assessment covers the pre-operation, operation and post-operation stages. The results of this LCA study revealed that majority of the environmental impacts occurs at operation phase for both single-family house and multi-storey apartment. The operation stage has the highest impact with 79% and 78% share of the global warming potential (GWP) for single-family house and the multi-storey apartment, respectively. In comparison of environmental impact results, GWP of the multi-storey apartment per m2 of floor area is 30% lower than single-family house. The environmental impacts of the operation phase have significant importance on the overall environmental performance of both single-family house and multi-storey apartment. The results showed that electricity consumption and steel usage are the main contributors of the environmental impacts coming from the operation and pre-operation phases, respectively. To pave the way to a sustainable future, the building industry must strive to use of renewable energy sources and sustainable construction materials in order to reduce their environmental impacts with a sustainable approach.

The Ventilation Efficiency of Urban Built Intensity and Ventilation Path Identification: A Case Study of Wuhan

Urban ventilation is being hampered by rough surfaces in dense urban areas, and the microclimate and air quality of the urban built environment are not ideal. Identifying urban ventilation paths is helpful to save energy, reduce emissions, and improve the urban ecological environment. Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei, and it has a high urban built intensity and hot summers. Taking Wuhan city, with a size of 35 km ×50 km, as an example, the built environment was divided into grids of 100 m × 100 m and included the building density, floor area ratio, and average building height. The ventilation mechanism of the urban built intensity index has previously been explained. The decrease in building density is not the sole factor causing an increase in wind speed; the enclosure and width of the ventilation path and the height of the front building are also influential. Twelve urban built units were selected for CFD numerical simulation. The ventilation efficiency of each grid was evaluated by calculating the wind speed ratio, maximum wind speed, average wind speed, and area ratio of strong wind. The relationship between the urban built intensity index and ventilation efficiency index was established using the factor analysis method and the Pearson correlation coefficient; building density and average building height are the most critical indexes of ventilation potential. In addition, the layout of the building also has an important impact on ventilation. A suitable built environment is that in which the building density is less than 30%, the average building height is greater than 15 m, and the floor area ratio is greater than 1.5. The urban built intensity map was weighted to identify urban ventilation paths. The paper provides a quantitative reference for scientific planning and design of the urban spatial form to improve ventilation.

Kajian Kualitas Permukiman Kawasan Pesisir Kecamatan Marobo Kabupaten Muna

Abstrak: Penataan ruang kawasan pesisir harus dipandang sebagai upaya dalam peningkatan kualitas kawasan fisik dan kesejahteraan masyarakat.Permasalahan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu tidak berfungsinya drainase secara optimal belum terdapatnya sarana mandi, cuci, kakus (MCK) dan kondisi faktor fisik rumah yang masih berstruktur kayu dan semi permanan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini, yaitu: (1) menganalisis kondisi fisik permukiman kawasan pesisir; (2) menganalisis kualitas permukiman kawasan pesisir dan merumuskan strategi pemecahan masalah permukiman kawasan pesisir Kecamatan Marobo Kabupaten Muna. Metode penelitian ini, yaitu: (1) kondisi fisik permukiman diketahui dengan melakukan interpertasi citra satelit Google Earth:(2)kualitas permukimandiketahui denganpendekatan keruangan dengan menggunakan Sistem Informasi Geografi pada aplikasi ArcGIS dengan melakukan teknik analisis scoring. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa: (1)nilai kelayakan bangunan rumah hunian Desa Marobo, yaitu 70% dengan luas lantai >7,2, skor 5 bisa di kategorikan cukup luas, kemudian kelurahan Paroha 50 %, dengan luas lantai >7,2 skor 3, Kelurahan Wadolau nilai kelayakan bangunan rumah hunian, yaitu 30% dengan luas lantai >7,2 skor 2 dan terakhir Kelurahan Tapi-Tapi nilai kelayakan bangunan rumah hunian, yaitu <10% dengan luas lantai>7,2 skor 1, sehingga bisa di kategorikan cukup kecil/sempit; (2) permukiman penduduk di Pesisir Desa Tapi-Tapi, Desa Wadolau, dan Desa Marobo didominasi oleh rumah nelayan, dengan luas pekarangan dan luas rumah tinggal cukup kecil/sempit. Kondisi fisik rumah tinggal penduduk di Kecamatan Marobo termasuk kategori semipermanen yang tercermin dari jenis bahan dinding rumah yang mayoritas terbuat dari papan kayu berkualitas sedang.Kata kunci: kondisi fisik, kualitas permukiman, kawasan pesisirAbstract: Coastal spatial planning must be seen as an effort to improve the quality of physical areas and the welfare of the community. The problem in this study are the drainage does not function optimally, among others there are no facilities for bathing, washing, latrines and the physical condition of the house which is still structured in wood and semi-permanent. The purpose of this study are: (1) to analyze the physical condition of the coastal area settlement in Marobo District Muna Regency; (2) to analyze the quality of coastal area settlements and formulate strategies for solving the problem of coastal area settlements in Marobo District Muna Regency. The research methods are: (1) the physical condition of the settlement is known by interpreting Google Earth satellite imagery; (2) settlement quality is known by spatial approach using Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS by conducting a scoring analysis technique. The results of this study are: (1)the feasibility value of Marobo Village residential building is 70% with a floor area >7,2 score 5 can be categorized quite broadly, Paroha Village 50%, with a floor area >7,2 score 3 Wadolau Village the feasibility value of residential building is 30% with a floor area >7,2, score 2 and lastly the Tapi-Tapi Village feasibility value of residential buildings is <10% with a floor area >7,2 score 1 so that it can be categorized quite small/narrow; (2) the residential settlements in the Tapi-Tapi Village, Wadolau Village and Marobo Village are dominated by fishermen's houses, with a large yard area and a small/narrow residential area. The physical condition of resident houses in Marobo District belongs to the semi-permanent category, which is reflected in the type of wall material of the house which is mostly made of medium quality wood plasterKeywords: physical condition, quality of settlements, coastal area

Fire Experiment Inside a Very Large and Open-Plan Compartment: x-ONE

The traditional design fires commonly considered in structural fire engineering, like the standard fire and Eurocode parametric fires, were developed several decades ago based on experimental compartments smaller than 100 m2 in floor area. These experiments led to the inherent assumption of flashover in design fires and that the temperatures and burning conditions are uniform in the whole of the compartment, regardless of its size. However, modern office buildings often have much larger open-plan floor areas (e.g. the Shard in London has a floor area of 1600 m2) where non-uniform fire conditions are likely to occur. This paper presents observations from a large-scale fire experiment x-ONE conducted inside a concrete farm building in Poland. The objective of x-ONE was to capture experimentally a natural fire inside a large and open plan compartment. With an open-plan floor area of 380 m2, x-ONE is the largest compartment fire experiment carried out to date. The fire was ignited at one end of the compartment and allowed to spread across a continuous wood crib (fuel load ~ 370 MJ/m2). A travelling fire with clear leading and trailing edges was observed spreading along 29 m of the compartment length. The flame spread rate was not constant but accelerated with time from 3 mm/s to 167 mm/s resulting in a gradually changing fire size. The fire travelled across the compartment and burned out at the far end 25 min after ignition. Flashover was not observed. The thermocouples and cameras installed along the fire path show clear near-field and far-field regions, indicating highly non-uniform spatial temperatures and burning within the compartment. The fire dynamics observed during this experiment are completely different to the fire dynamics reported in small scale compartments in previous literature and to the assumptions made in traditional design fires for structural design. This highlights the need for further research and experiments in large compartments to understand the fire dynamics and continue improving the safe design of modern buildings.