Draft Guidelines for Substantiating a Fire Model for a Given Application Available for Public Review and Comment

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) has completed draft guidelines for substantiating a fire modal for a given application. These draft guidelines are now available for public review and comments.

Whenever an engineer uses a computer fire model, it is necessary for him or her to ensure that the model is appropriate for the situation modeled. In some cases, the modeler is fortunate in that they can refer to a published evaluation report that is sufficient. However, in most cases, it is up to the modeler to demonstrate that the model is appropriate.

This guide will provide a framework that can be used to determine if a fire model is suitable for use for a specific fire protection application. Currently, there is no formal process by which fire models are approved. It is therefore incumbent upon the user of the fire model to determine the suitability of a fire model and, if required, upon the authority having jurisdiction to evaluate the acceptability of that determination. This guide serves both the user of the fire model and the consumer of the results of the fire modeling.

"These guidelines address definition problem for which modeling will be used, selection of a candidate model, verification and validation of the model for the application of interest, and consideration of uncertainty on the model results,” said SFPE Technical Director Morgan Hurley, P.E. “Extensive appendices provide descriptions of fire phenomena that are commonly modeled and techniques that are typically employed by fire models to predict those phenomena."

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers began developing these guidelines in June, 2007. The draft guidelines and a comment form can be downloaded from www.sfpe.org. Comments are due on March 31, 2010.