Design for fire quiz

Please answer the following 10 multiple choice questions, then click 'submit' to check the result. The pass mark for a CPD certificate is 8 out of 10, and you may retake the quiz as many times as you wish, but the questions will vary! Please note that one, two, three or all of the possible answers presented for each question may be right, and to gain a mark for that question all correct answers must be identified.

Good luck

Design for fire

Structural steel in single storey buildings does not generally require fire protection. Which of these situations is not an exception to that rule?

The steel is in an external wall which must retain stability to prevent fire spread to adjacent buildings
The steel forms part of a compartment wall or the enclosing structure of a protected zone
The building contains a valuable cargo which must be protected and so the building must be protected against collapse
The steel forms part of a separating wall

Which is the most common form of structural fire protection used in the UK?

Boards
Sprays
Thin film intumescent coatings
Flexible blankets

What is the meaning of time equivalent in fire engineering?

It is the severity of a fire in a compartment in terms of exposure to a standard fire test
It is the time in minutes at which the fire in a compartment will burn above 600°C
It is the period for which a fire will burn based on times measured in other, equivalent, compartments
It is the period of time which is required for the fire brigade to attend and extinguish a compartment fire.

What is the word or phrase used to describe the moment when simultaneous ignition of the contents of a fire compartment takes place?

Super ignition
Flashover
Auto ignition
Pyrolysis

Where a single storey building must retain stability to prevent fire spread to adjacent buildings (i.e. a boundary condition), the most efficient method of designing is usually to?

Fire protect the whole building
Fire protect the stanchions along the affected wall(s) and design the bases to resist the overturning moment from collapse of the unprotected rafters
Fire protect selected frames of the building
Rely on the owner of the adjacent building to install cladding capable of resisting the fire spread

Which of the following is not a correct conclusion following the Cardington fire tests?

That composite steel deck construction has significantly greater reserves of strength than is indicated by tests of individual members
That columns are critical stabilising elements and must be protected
That all beams supporting composite steel deck floors do not need to be protected in order to prevent structural collapse in fire
That the results are applicable to forms of construction other than steel frames with composite steel deck floors.

Which of the following is/are not considered a major risk factor in fire in BS9999, the new British Standard published to provide an alternative approach to the design of fire precautions in buildings to those in Government published documents?

Whether the occupants of the building are familiar with their surroundings.
Whether the occupants of the building are likely to be asleep
Where there is not a fire station nearby
The height of the building

A new British Standard, BS 9999, has been published to provide an alternative approach to the design of fire precautions in buildings to those in Government published documents. Does BSI describe it as being?

Based on structured risk based design
Based on conservative experience
Based on European approaches to the design of fire precautions in buildings
Based on an averaged approach from across the regions of the UK

Which of the following describes the building at Cardington in which the major fire test programme was carried out between 1994 and 2003?

Non-composite steel frame with precast planks
Steel frame with Slimdek beams
Steel frame with composite steel deck floors
Post tensioned flat slab

The dominant mechanism which enables a composite steel deck floor to enhance its load carrying capacity at large deflections is based on what?

Tensile membrane action in the slab
Catenary action in the beams
Robust connections
Thermal gradients in the slab