Fire safety has always been a priority for BRANZ. We have carried out fire research, testing and modelling for over 50 years. With the move to increased housing densification, there is an increasing need for ensuring medium-density and high-density housing is safe from fire. The BRANZ fire team are supporting this with a targeted research programme and testing activities. This includes the fire performance of façade systems and solutions to limit the external spread of fire, safe use of engineered wood products and solutions for egress in high-density housing.
Resources
Outputs from BRANZ fire team research include fire modelling software, study reports and resources such as Build articles, fact sheets and publications.
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B-RISK: Design fire tool
B-RISK fire risk modelling software allows fire simulation results to be presented in a probabilistic form and allows the variability and uncertainty associated with the predictions of the fire environment to be quantified.
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BRANZ TR8 Concrete floor systems
TR8 software is a model to predict the fire resistance of concrete slabs and floor systems and can be used for the design of reinforced or prestressed concrete floor systems when required to have fire resistance.
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BRANZ TR9 Timber-framed wall or floor/ceiling systems
TR9 software is a model extrapolating results of a fire resistance test on a light timber-framed wall or floor/ceiling to a greater height or span and/or loading.
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Guide to passive fire protection in buildings
This guide identifies the requirements of the New Zealand Building Code, explains the terminology commonly used and identifies the main building components that have a passive fire protection role.
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BRANZ Facts: Medium-density housing #7: Fire safety
Moving to medium-density housing has several implications for fire safety design. This fact sheet looks at Building Code clauses C1-C6 Protection from fire and the minimum fire safety requirements.
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SR440 Escape route pressurisation systems: A pilot study of NZ data
Improving design, installation and commissioning practices is highly recommended to improve confidence in potential escape path pressurisation system benefits in building fire safety strategies.
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SR430 Preparing the foundation for risk-informed fire safety design
Summary of a research project that aimed to identify uncertainties in the current parameters used to validate fire safety designs using the Verification Method C/VM2.
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SR417 Fire resistance requirements in single-storey industrial and warehouses
An investigation into fire resistance requirements applied to external walls located near a property boundary in single-storey industrial and warehouse buildings in New Zealand.
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SR410 Assessing the risk of non-compliant firestopping and smokestopping in NZ
This report describes the problem, development of the proposed process, one potential risk analysis tool that has been developed by industry and made available by BRANZ and the results of the testing programme.
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SR364 B-Risk 2016 user guide and technical manual
Provides B-RISK users with guidance on the use and application of the fire modelling software as well as describing the assumptions and underlying physics upon which the computer fire model is based.
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