Performance-based fire safety design

According to fire safety regulations, performance-based fire safety design (or fire safety design based on expected fire development) has been an alternative to regular fire safety planning since 1997.

What is performance-based fire safety design?

Method of design that is based on modelling the building and expected fire events.

Method of design that can accurately help us foresee how a fire will develop and how to best evacuate the people in the building.

Tool that optimises the level of fire safety especially in large or complex premises.

Performance-based fire safety design

Performance-based fire safety design considers individual features of the building such as the height and geometry of its rooms as well as active and passive methods of fire prevention. As a result, it will help you accomplish the best and most cost-efficient level of fire safety available as well as significant savings in building costs.

The method utilises fire simulation software to model the behaviour of fires, fire safety equipment and risks caused by fires.

Performance-based fire safety design has been possible in Finland since 1997 when new fire regulations determined that fire safety design by calculation was an equally appropriate design method as the traditional use of tables. Markku Kauriala Oy has helped promote the method in Finland and was one of the first companies in the country to utilise it.

According to the Decree of the Ministry of the Environment on the Fire safety of Buildings 848/2017 chapter 3:

‘The fire safety requirements will also be met if the building is designed and constructed based on a design fire scenario that covers the situations that are likely to occur in the building. The meeting of the requirement shall be attested on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the properties and use of the building. In a design that is based on a design fire scenario, methods that are of demonstrated validity must be used. The basis for the design, the models used and the obtained results shall be presented in connection with the building permit procedure.’

Benefits of performance-based fire safety design

What does performance-based fire safety design include?

The most essential element of performance-based fire safety design is a quantitative risk analysis and additional fire, temperature, smoke ventilation and evacuation simulations. Each building will be individually analysed and designed using one or more principles on this list: