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This paper describes fire safety experiments on Australian native timber samples with a special focus on their use in bushfire-prone areas. Nine species were assessed through testing in a cone calorimeter, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The effects of density, moisture content and chemical extractives content were evaluated. Marked differences in ignition times were found, possibly due to variations in density across species, as well as the chemical extractives content. Analysis of the heat flow through DSC indicated that the type of extractives can influence the fire safety performance and that this aspect of wood properties merits further study. One additional species was identified as a suitable candidate for bushfire-resisting species in the Australian bushfire context. • Determination of flammability of northern Australia timber species. • Multiscale testing of varied density and extractive content. • Assessment for timber use in bushfire attack level 29 zones. • Extractives content and ignition have linear correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to determine the reliability of sprinkler systems in shopping centres by utilising the fault tree analysis (FTA) method and the collection of data through a physical survey. As such, a comprehensive review of sprinkler systems in the low rise shopping centre buildings with less than four levels was conducted in two Australian cities: Melbourne and Adelaide. Data from eighteen buildings were collected and are presented in this paper. This study only includes wet pipe systems, as these are the most commonly found sprinkler system installations throughout Australia and New Zealand. Although Australian Standards and building regulations are taken as references, the methodology can be used in any other jurisdictions. The data related to the failure frequency, time required for repair and sprinkler downtime due to tenancy changes were collected during site surveys. This data has been used to carry out FTA to derive the likelihood of the failure of the sprinkler system. It is observed that the failure probability of a sprinkler system in Australian shopping centre buildings lies in a range of 1.4% and 9.8% (i.e. reliability range of 90.2% and 98.6%). Compared to a previous study on high-rise office buildings (Moinuddin & Thomas, Fir Saf J. vol 63 pp 52–68, 2014), the reliability of shopping centres is found to be 3%–4% higher. Similar to high-rise office buildings, sprinkler head's failure and isolation of the main stop valve during tenancy upgrades have significant effects on the reliability of the sprinkler system. However, more regulated sprinkler isolation and better maintenance of other components in the shopping centres result in better reliability. • Development a comprehensive fault tree analysis (FTA) for wet pipe sprinkler systems typically used in shopping centres in Australia • Conducting survey to collect data for determining the reliability of FTA's basic events (i.e. various components of a sprinkler system). • Collection of data from eighteen shopping centres from two Australian cities • Use of developed FTA to estimate the overall reliability of these sprinkler systems primarily based on the survey data (wherever survey data is not available literature data is used). • A number of suggestions to improve the reliability of sprinkler systems in shopping centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently unclassified boards with varying composition and more notably with ambiguous thermal properties are being used in buildings. The fire performance of Light gauge Steel Frame (LSF) wall systems mainly depends on the protective plasterboard linings used and thus fire safety concerns are being raised. Therefore this study was aimed at setting minimum standards for fire-resistant grade plasterboards used in LSF wall applications based on material characterization, thermo-physical properties and finite element heat transfer modelling. The most commonly used fire protective board, gypsum plasterboard was used to address this critical issue. Thermo-physical properties of three gypsum plasterboards manufactured in Australia were measured and compared in relation to their chemical composition in the first phase of the study. Fire resistance levels (FRLs) of LSF wall systems lined with these three plasterboards were determined using 3-D FE heat transfer models of LSF wall systems developed and validated in this study. The paper proposes a "k-factor" based on thermo-physical properties and thickness of plasterboard, capable of giving an overall measure of the fire performance of plasterboard lined LSF walls. Standard k-factor profiles were established for non-load bearing LSF wall systems with FRLs of 60, 120, 180 and 240 min by considering the correlation between the time-temperature profiles from numerical analyses and calculated k-factors. These proposed standard k-factor profiles give an overall measure of the fire performance of plasterboards. This paper presents the details of this study and the results. • Measured thermo-physical properties and chemical composition of three gypsum plasterboards manufactured in Australia. • 3D FE heat transfer models of LSF walls were developed and validated. • FRLs of LSF wall systems lined with the three plasterboards were determined using 3-D FE modelling. • Proposed a "k-factor" based on plasterboard thermo-physical properties and thickness for the fire performance of LSF walls. • Verified the accuracy of the k-factor approach by using the fire test and thermal property results of two other boards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a dataset that includes all vehicle fire incidents in major Australian road tunnels. The major tunnels are defined by physical characteristics (i.e. unidirectional, length greater than 1 km), their high traffic volume, urban location, restrictions to dangerous goods vehicles, as well as their being monitored and controlled through a dedicated control centre that is continuously staffed. The result is an dataset of 78 fire incidents. The period covered by the study is from the opening date of each of the tunnels, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel being the first opened in August 1992, up to and including June 2016. The work presents a hitherto unavailable dataset demonstrating the fire safety performance of these tunnels. Of particular interest is data related to the use and performance of fixed fire-fighting systems (deluge) as these systems have been installed in all major road tunnels in Australia since 1992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]