Fire Safety of Buildings

Specialization / Direction

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

Upon successful completion of the course students are expected to: • acknowledge the fundamental principles with respect to fire (fire development and spread), • recognise the complexity of problems involving fire safety in building enclosures, • understand the leading approaches that define strategies and tactics of fire safety regulations (passive and active design), • suggest measures that restrcit the initiation/development (fire prevention) of fires in buildings, as well as their spread/evolution (fire extinguishing), • realise fire safety design studies of buildings, on the basis of the prevailing national regulatory framework in Greece, • focus on fire safety design of buildings through the lens of Eurocode 1 (Part 1-2).

In recent years, the demand on fire safety of building structures and fire protection of natural and built environments is shown to be profound. Within this unclear and vicious framework, it is necessary to take into account the impact of fire risk and, at the same time, receive measures capable to restrict or mitigate its severe effects and consequences. As it is clear, for existing and new buildings a rational procedure should be conceived to protect structures, as well as to avoid the loss of human lives. In this light, the role and contribution of the civil engineer to solve key issues in building design under a fire attack is essential; therefore, there is an inseparable interaction and correlation of all design decisions with the behaviour of the structure in relation to the action of fire. In the context of this course, emphasis is placed on the interpretation and examination of the following thematic axes: • Fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer. - Conduction. - Convection. - Radiation. - Thermal inertia. - Stack effect or chimney effect. • Basic principles of fire behaviour. - Fire triangle elements. - Fire control - Fire types - Fire stages • Response of building materials subjected to elevated temperatures. - Thermophysical properties. - Mechanical properties. - Resistance to fire. - Reaction to Fire and Euroclasses. - Fire tests. • National regulation framework on fire safety of buildings. - Terminology. - Passive design of building materials/elements/systems/surfaces. - Passive design of building envelopes. - Active design. • Eurocode 1: Actions on structures - Part 1-2 (EN1991-1-2). - Design procedure with respect to fire. - Fire actions. - Mechanical actions. • Performance based design of buildings against fire action. - Scenarios. - Objectives. - Modelling/Simulations. • Buildings evacuation in the event of a fire. - Human behaviour in fire. - Visibility in fire smoke. - Toxicity of fire smoke. • Fire safety statistics. - Leading causes. - Main results. • Wildfires. - Wildfires and approaches to protect natural and built environments. - Wildfires and evacuation procedures.

25-06-2025