Fire Modelling in Fire Investigation

ABN 27 063 535 919

In recent years various types of fire modelling software has been developed and validated for use in the design of fire safety for new building and building upgrading.

Fire modelling has been accepted by the performance Building Code of Australia (BCA) as a suitable method of assessing fire growth and development in compartments. Fire modelling and the discipline of fire engineering are now, by virtue of the BCA, written into state building statues and consequently accepted in Australian law.

In some fire investigations there is a timeline gap in the investigators ability to reconstruct the fire scene and equate it with the level of damage which resulted.

Perhaps some suspicious pre-fire activity was observed but using fire investigation methods, the gap between the observed activity and fire cannot be established. Reconstruction of fire growth using computer modelling techniques allows the assessment of consequent damage levels in a fire compartment for consistency with the fire impact on a space.

Various types of software are now available to provide the fire engineering tools for the assessment of various effects of fire growth, temperatures and spread within building compartments during fire.

By understanding, in depth, the behaviour of materials in fire, fire modelling and impact of fire gas temperatures and fire spread in a building, the fire investigator and fire engineer can come together to provide a comprehensive picture of the fire growth in the compartment, after the event.

Fire investigators, fire engineers and fire modelling can now come together to reconstruct fire in a building compartment and provide a gap free timeline from ignition to extinguishment. In difficult cases combining of the above can provide the link between a crime scene, insurance claims and the court.

Engineered Fire & Safety Solutions have had experience in the modelling of suspicious fire scenes and are able to assist in fire scene reconstruction for fire investigations.

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