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O7 IITGN-UL/Façade O8 IITGN-UL/Façade
ABSTRACT Use of external façade systems in buildings is increasing day was constructed as part of this project to study fire behavior at
full-scale in different scenarios. Both external and internal fire
by day primarily due to their significant role in enhancing the
spread mechanisms were investigated in a series of four full-scale
energy efficiency and appearance of the building. There is,
however, a downside of using a façade system – its
tests performed in the months of December 2016 and January
susceptibility to fire hazards. Recent building fires have shown
how a façade system can cause damage to an entire building 2017.
in the event of a fire. For instance, fire in a textile showroom at The experiments provided several interesting insights into the
Chennai on June 1 caused the entire façade system to collapse behavior of different façade materials: glass, aluminium
during fire and inflicted serious irreparable damage to the composite panels, medium density fiberboards, structural
structural system. Consequently, the entire building is being sealants and aluminium frames as well as structural fire
demolished now. More recently, the June 14 fire in the Grenfell protection systems involving plaster of paris boards, cement
building, London was entirely a consequence of the façade boards and masonry walls. The experiments demonstrated how
system. The fire reportedly started due to malfunction of a quickly fire can reach from one floor to the other (through the
refrigerator in one of the rooms and engulfed the entire so-called leap-frog effect as well as through internal spreading
building within no time due to the fire spread aided by its due to failure of fire stop material) and showed the importance of
newly installed façade system. One can go on finding such proper workmanship in installation of fire protection materials.
incidents in the past and it can be said that fire safety The experiments unearthed several new phenomena that need
requirements of green building materials are not understood further investigation such as uncracked bending of constrained
properly. glass panels during fire, intact falling out of glass panels during
fire from aluminium frame, better performance of MDF over ACP,
This provided motivation for taking up the present project potential of the insulating material of ACP to initiate secondary
dedicated towards studying fire spread mechanisms in façade fires at ground level, and rapid increase in the ventilation factor of
buildings. As has been observed in previous fire incidents, a compartment in the event of façade failure that further
knowing the behavior of individual components of a façade intensifies compartment fire. Each one of these warrant further
system is not sufficient to reliably predict its fate in a real fire. in-depth investigations both at the small and the large scales.
Hence, a three-storey three-compartment full-scale building
