Methodology for fire hazard indexing and ranking of materials with particular reference to needs of architects and construction engineers

Fire safety considerations for a building dictate use of those materials/products that have low fire hazard. In addition to functional suitability, fire hazard potential of a material/product too needs to be considered by architects and construction engineers. In this context, assessment of fire behaviour of building material/products is becoming increasingly important. To assess fire behaviour (or fire hazard potential), various fire tests are conducted. On the basis of fire test results/data, materials/products of lower fire hazard are identified. However, test results of different fire tests are expressed differently. This implies that there is ‘lack of uniformity’ in expression of test results/data. This non-uniformity in itself presents difficulty in understanding and application of test results. When two or more fire properties are to be simultaneously considered in hazard assessment, selection of relatively safer materials becomes quite difficult. In such a situation, architects/construction engineers face problem in rational selection of the least hazardous material. This paper highlights different forms of expressing results of fire tests and resultant difficulty. lt seeks to introduce uniformity in expression of test results and also attempts to develop an overall fire hazard index for the purpose of ranking of materials. Once hazard ranking is available, selection of leased hazardous material becomes easy for a given application.