Survey and Experimental Investigation of Movable Fire Loads in Japanese-Style Wooden Historical Buildings

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the movable fire loads and the characteristics of combustible materials in Japanese-style wooden historical buildings via field surveys and cone calorimeter experiments. Twenty-one historical buildings with 102 rooms and a total floor area of 2235.06 m² were surveyed to determine the movable fire load. Strong correlations among fire load density, compartment floor area, and spatial use are found in this survey. The mean values of the movable fire load density in decreasing order in terms of room use are storeroom (431.38 MJ/m²), study room (298 MJ/m²), bedroom (294.88 MJ/m²), reception room (287.20 MJ/m²), and dining room (217.11 MJ/m²), providing fire engineering design with a reliable fire load setting in various types of rooms in historical buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• Fire
• fire load
• fire reaction
• fire risk
• historical building
• wooden building

Acknowledgments

Support for this study from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan ROC, through grant no. NSC101-2221-E-006-260-MY2 is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding