ELEMENTS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

UNIT 4
Fire and earthquake protection in building
Objectives:
To familiarize the students with fire and earthquake protection in buildings.

Syllabus: Introduction, fire protection in building, structural and architectural safety requirements
of resistive structures, fire resistive properties of building materials, fire exit requirements, force
and acceleration on building due to earthquake, building response characteristics, building drift.

Learning Outcomes: Student will be able to

To understand the safety requirements of structures against fire and effect of earthquake
on buildings.

INTRODUCTION: Fire protection is defined as the protection of the occupants, contents and
structures of the building and adjacent building from the risks of fire. In other words, fire
protection is to protect life, goods and the structures. In planning, designing and constructing a
building, architects and engineers should ensure the maximum possible safety of the occupants
from fire hazard although absolute safety from fire is not possible. Building safety and
earthquakes describe the causes of earthquakes and resulting ground motions. It also explains
how earthquake ground motions create various forces acting on a building, and describes how
those forces result in building drift.

FIRE PROTECTION IN BUILDING: For safety against fire hazard, the building should be
provided with some structural and architectural requirements like fire tower, fire escape stairs, spiral
stairs, etc. Apart from that, the materials of construction should be fire resistive as far as possible.
Building should be designed and located in such a way that fire is localized and do not spread to the
nearby building or houses. Fire protection measures described further are essential to limit the total
damage to a minimum.

Structural and architectural safety requirements of fire resistive structures

(a) The walls, beams, columns, etc., should function for sufficient duration which is sufficient for the
occupants to clear out the building in the event of fire hazards. (b) Fire resistant surface finishes should
be provided to minimize the spread of fire on walls and ceilings. (c) All external walls should be provided
with exhaust fans. (d) Fire resisting doors or roller shutters should be provided at suitable places along
the escape routes to prevent spread of fire specially at lifts and stairs (e) Exits from basement should be
direct on the ground in open space. (f) Exits should be clearly visible and routes to reach the exits must
be clearly marked. (g) Fire-fighting equipments should be suitably located and clearly marked. (h) Fire
escape stairs should be of straight flight type. (i) Spiral stairs should be made of non-combustible
material although its use is for limited occupants. (j) Fire towers are the safest type of escape for
multistoried buildings. (k) Ramp with slope not more than 1 in 10 may be provided as escape. (l) Exhaust
fans are provided in outside walls for safety against smoke, fume, etc., in case fire. (m) Roof exit, if
provided, should have access direct to the ground. (n) Fire hydrants should be provided unsuitable
locations of high rise building so that water can be used in case fire hazard. (o) Fire alarm systems are
essential for the occupant of tall building to provide sufficient time to the occupants to come down to
the ground. (p) Road width leading to the building should be as per constructional bye-laws for easy
entry of fire brigades in case of emergency.

Fire resistive properties of building materials

Steel: Steels are very good conductors and tend to be used in thin sections. They are, therefore, liable
to heat up very quickly in fires if not insulated. Due to these reasons most main structural steel
members are required to be insulated in current design codes.

Brick: bricks are very good fire resistive material, because during their course of manufacture these are
subjected to heating and burning.

Stone: stone is not a suitable material for fire resisting. Lime stone disintegrates in fire. Slates
expand,crack and brake.

Timber: timber is vulnerable to fire. For making timber fire resistive chemicals such as ammonium
phosphate and sulphate, borax, boric acid, zncl are commonly employed.

Glass: it is bad conductor of heat and has low coefficient to thermal expansion, due to which it can be
used in buildings.

Concrete: Concrete has excellent fire resistance properties and maintains its integrity and strength in
very high temperatures.
Terra-cotta: terra cotta is a clay product and hence it has better fire resistance like bricks.

Wrought iron or cast iron: it behaves with fire almost similar to steel.

Aluminum: it is used as building material in some countries where it is plenty but has poor resistance
to fire.

Asbestos cement: asbestos cement made with fibrous and Portland cement has good resistance to
fire.

Earth quakes

The crust of the earth consists of seven major and many smaller tectonic plates. These plates
move in different directions at variable speeds from those of neighboring plates. Due to these
different movements, some plates collide forming convergent boundary in the shape of
mountains. Sometimes, the two plates move away from each other creating the rifts. And
sometimes, two plates move in the same direction side by side along the same direction or in
opposite direction. These three types of inter plate interactions are the convergent, divergent and
transform boundaries of earth surface. These plates are made us of rock which has the property
of elasticity, and hence, elastic strain is stored in them during deformations that occur due to
tremendous tectonic plate actions. The material contained in rock is also brittle. When the rocks
along the weak region in the earths crust reach their strength, a sudden movement takes place in
this region. Due to this movement, a crack develops and it slips suddenly releasing the
tremendous strain energy stored in it. Sudden slip at the fault causes the earthquake. Violent
shaking of earth surface takes place due to spreading of elastic strain energy that produces
seismic waves which travels through the body and surface of the earth. After the earthquake, the
process of building up the strain energy at the modified interface between the rocks starts again.
Earth scientists call this phenomenon as Elastic Rebound Theory. The instrument used to
measure earthquake intensity is called seismograph. It has three components they are sensor,
recorder and timer.

Earthquake measuring instrument

The instrument used to measure earthquake intensity is called seismograph. It has three
components they are sensor, recorder and timer. Earthquake recording instrument, seismograph
has a base that sets firmly in the ground, and a heavy weight that hangs free. When an earthquake
causes the ground to shake, the base of the seismograph shakes too, but the hanging weight does
not. Instead the spring or string that it is hanging from absorbs all the movement. The difference
in position between the shaking part of the seismograph and the motionless part is what is
recorded.

Focus and epicenter of earthquake

Magnitude of earthquake

The magnitude is a number that characterizes the relative size of an earthquake. Magnitude is
based on measurement of the maximum motion recorded by a seismograph. Several scales have
been defined, but the most commonly used are (1) local magnitude (ML), commonly referred to
as "Richter magnitude," (2) surface-wave magnitude (Ms), (3) body-wave magnitude (Mb), and
(4) moment magnitude (Mw). Scales 1-3 have limited range and applicability and do not
satisfactorily measure the size of the largest earthquakes. The moment magnitude (Mw) scale,
based on the concept of seismic moment, is uniformly applicable to all sizes of earthquakes but
is more difficult to compute than the other types. All magnitude scales should yield
approximately the same value for any given earthquake.

Force and acceleration on building due to earth quake

Designing buildings to resist earthquakes requires that ground motion be translated into forces
acting upon a building. Earthquake forces are called lateral forces because their predominant
effect is to apply horizontal loads to a building. Although earthquake waves do impart a vertical
component of force to building normally provides sufficient resistance. Therefore, vertical
earthquake forces are usually only accounted for in special cases. The general method for
determining the total lateral earthquake force to be applied to building is based on a simple
equation force = mass * acceleration. The acceleration of the building is the horizontal
acceleration imparted from the ground shaking. The building mass consists of the sum of the
weights of all its structural and non structural components. The acceleration is expressed as a
fraction of the acceleration g due to the gravity. Earthquake forces are called lateral forces
because their predominant effect is to apply horizontal loads to building.

Building response characteristics

Different individual buildings shaken by the same earthquake respond differently. The effects of
earthquake ground shaking depend on the specific response characteristics of the type of
structural system used. In regularly shaped buildings are subjected to special design rules
because otherwise they can suffer greater damage than regularly shaped buildings. Earthquake
shaking of a simple rectangular building results in a fairly uniform distribution of the forces
throughout the building. In a more complex T- or L- shaped building, forces concentrate at the
inside corners created by those shapes. Similar problems arise when a building has floor or roof
at split levels. Irregularly shaped buildings are subjected to special design rules because
otherwise they can suffer greater damage than regularly shaped buildings.

Building drift

Lateral forces on building induced due to earthquake cause the drift of the building. When a
horizontal force is applied to an object, it tends to push sideways. If it is unstrained at its base, it
slides in the direction of applied force. With buildings, sliding is counteracted by the frictional
sliding resistance between the bottom of the foundation and the soil, and by the lateral bearing
resistance of the soil against the vertical faces of the foundation piles. Lateral forces acting above
the foundation push the superstructure sideways until resistance of the structure reaches
equilibrium with that force. The amount of horizontal displacement that occurs is called drift.
Drift causes stress in structural seismic elements and non-structural elements because it forces
them into deformed shapes. Maximum drift usually occurs at the top of a building. Maximum
drift limits and individual story drift limits are specified in building codes to control the
horizontal displacement a building experiences during an earth quake. As drift and associated
accelerations increase towards the top of a building, it requires roof mounted equipment to resist
forces four times larger than equipment located on the ground floor. Building drift is also an
important consideration for determination of minimum space between two buildings. Drift
considerations are particularly important for columns and for connections of heavy precast
cladding components whose failure could lead to injuries or loss of life. All the structural seismic
elements and their connections must be designed to accommodate the expected drift, regardless
of their role in resisting lateral forces. Some older buildings with drift sensitive brittle finishes
have been retrofitted using a technique known as seismic isolation. Seismic isolation typically
uses viscous bearings or sliding friction bearings to support and isolate the building from
horizontal earth quake ground motion similar to the suspension system provided in automobiles.