Exterior Wall Fires – On a Global Scale

Exterior Wall Fires – On a Global Scale

It has been a little over a year since the notable exterior wall fire at The Address Downtown Dubai hotel. This hotel is located in the area of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, where thousands came to enjoy the 2016 New Year’s celebration and fireworks display. While the challenge of exterior wall fires was already a global concern, this event garnered even greater worldwide attention to these frightening events. Since that time, other building fire events, along with plans for new tall wood building construction, have continued to drive discussion and debate over the issue of rapid fire progression on exterior wall construction materials.

To better understand the exterior wall flammability issue, and move towards solutions, this article will: 1) discuss the factors that influence building construction related to these types of fires, 2) provide an understanding of certain fire tests that are sometimes misconstrued as suitable for the evaluation of exterior walls, and 3) examine the importance of selecting tests for specific regions, Codes, and regulations. We will also discuss a third party certification approach used by UL, and some upcoming research activities in this area.

Building Construction Factors

There are several factors that are influencing building construction today as it relates to these types of exterior wall fires. First of all, new materials are constantly being introduced into the marketplace. The combination of new and existing products creates an expansive list of exterior wall components options for the designers and builders. Most exterior wall fire test methods involve testing of a complete wall assembly. So, we must consider the compounding effect of combining product types, such as drywall, various types of insulation, weather barriers, and veneers and cladding, as we address exterior wall fire performance. These material combinations and their means of installation must be evaluated appropriately to determine whether they are suitable for use as a complete assembly. However, the sheer volume of combinations of building components that might comprise an exterior wall proves to be a real challenge for the fire evaluation of these assemblies.

Another challenge is the growing attention to building envelope performance, such as thermal performance, air leakage, permeability, water infiltration, etc. In some areas, this is even driven by adopted local Codes and regulation. This has led to insulation products with higher thermal properties, and the increased use of air barriers and vapour barriers. Consequently, these new wall constructions also need to be evaluated and tested for their conformance to the appropriate exterior wall fire requirements as a complete unit.

Another building construction factor is the increased use of exterior veneer materials that are aesthetically pleasing, but lack evidence of compliance with Codes or regulations. In some areas, such as the UAE, there has been a focus on the challenges associated with non-fire retardant metal composite panel constructions that possess good versatility and aesthetics, but do not always perform well when subjected to certain exterior wall fire tests.

Lastly, some countries are considering changes in Code and regulation that would permit taller wood building construction. There is concern and discussions over the performance of these new building types if they were to be involved in an exterior wall fire scenario.

Not All Fire Tests Are Suitable

Many building professionals, fire protection experts, design professionals, etc. are aware that there should be a holistic approach to fire protection within buildings. This encompasses the selection of materials that have been assessed for their reaction-to-fire properties (to slow the spread of fire), detection and alarm, fire suppression, and compartmentalization. However, there is not always a clear understanding of which fire tests or protection approaches should be used for exterior wall fires.

For example, there have been discussions in some areas about relaxing requirements for exterior wall testing if the interior of the building is protected by sprinklers. For an exterior wall fire originating external to the building, it should be understood that the interior sprinkler system is not designed to protect the building’s exterior surface, so significant fire and smoke damage could still occur to the structure. In some cases, the sprinkler may not activate at all. If sprinklers are activated, there are a finite number of sprinklers that are assumed to operate in a sprinkler system design. So there is the potential for more sprinklers to operate than included in the hydraulic calculation for the sprinkler system if the fire burns uncontrollably on or through the wall assembly. If this occurs, the ability of the sprinkler system to provide the desired level of protection to the interior of the building could be adversely impacted.

Another misconception is that compartmentalization methods, such as UL263 or ASTM E119 should be challenging enough to examine fire growth for an exterior wall assembly. (These are relatively large scale furnace tests based on a standardized time-temperature fire exposure to represent a flashover fire condition). While these methods are proven fire resistance tests, these traditional methods evaluate containing the fire and do not assess vertical or horizontal flame travel over or within the wall assembly. Therefore, these methods are not intended to predict nor measure the behaviour of the fire as it progresses along the exterior wall assembly and are not located within a compartment.

There are other reaction-to-fire methods that examine the surface burning characteristics of materials, such as UL723 and ASTM E84 (Steiner Tunnel), EN13501 (fire classification), and EN 13823 (single burning item). While these methods provide data on singular components that are used within walls, they do not give data on the fire growth performance of the complete wall assembly, as the combustion of individual wall components may influence one another in a complete assembly.

Which Tests Are Suitable For Your Region?

In recognition of the importance of establishing the most representative test for this purpose, there are various Standards groups around the world focusing on exterior wall test methodologies. The good news is that countries appear to be addressing the issue of flammability of exterior walls seriously, and many areas are creating new, or updating existing, Codes and performance Standards. The challenge is that there are several different methods being implemented in different countries and regions that may not have the exact same scope or deliverable. Of course this means manufacturers who sell to different areas may have to demonstrate conformity to various test methods. It is important to understand what method(s) has been used to qualify a product or system to ensure it is fit for purpose.

NFPA 285 Test

Many of these prominent full scale exterior wall fire test methods are already embedded into Codes and regulations. Table 1 below shows some of the test methods and the countries that are typically associated with enforcing them. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as there are other methods under development.

TABLE 1 – Exterior Wall Test Methods

New Certification Approach in the US

Historically, the acceptance of wall systems involve a fairly complex review of building code interpretation, individual component manufacturer’s test reports, engineering analysis, and application of the manufacturer’s installation instructions. For compliance with NFPA 285, primarily in the US, UL has developed a certification approach to simplify the review process by providing a public database that shows complete wall system designs, and detailing how individual components are evaluated as part of the systems. This approach meets the dire needs of manufacturers, architects, specifiers, and code officials for an available, no cost, accessible, up-to-date method of determining compliance with code. The illustrated designs within the UL certification reflect the precise details of the assembly that has been found to comply with the requirements of the fire test.

A UL certified wall system must be tested in the presence of a UL engineer and must be constructed to the reviewed specifications within the illustrated design and the details included in the associated text to achieve the desired performance. Critical components used in the system are named specifically and will also bear the UL Mark. All certified wall systems and components are now published in UL’s Online Directory and in the Building Materials Directory under the categories Exterior Wall Systems (FWFO) and Exterior Wall System Components (FWFX). Examples of wall system components covered by this program include, but are not limited to, various types of insulation products (including foamed plastic), water resistive barriers, air resistive barriers, laminates, sheathing, and composite panels.

UL Online Example of Compliant NFPA 285 Exterior Wall System

Future Research

While building codes in some countries are prescriptive and detail exactly what material can be included in building facades, building codes in other countries lack this detail. UL has also engaged with the premier education center in India, IIT Gandhinagar, to create a test cell and test façade materials for flammability and resiliency. This research work and its findings will be available in 2017 and will hopefully provide the data required for improving building codes and standards for fire behavior of facades. Testing of designs continue to be review and are scheduled throughout the year.

Test cell at Premier Education Center in India, IIT Grandhinagar for research testing

There’s clearly a continued global focus on the challenges associated with rapid fire spread on exterior walls. As we strive to better understand the impacting factors, and the appropriate tests and certification approaches that can be used to evaluate these assemblies, we can move towards better solutions.

[1] BS 8414-1 Fire performance of external cladding systems-Part1: Test methods for non-loadbearing external cladding systems applied to the face of a building. BSI2015
[2] NFPA 285. Standard Fire Test Method for Evaluation of Fire Propagation Characteristics
of Exterior Non-Load-Bearing Wall Assemblies Containing Combustible Components. NFPA,
2012
[3] LEPIR II Test. Large scale Fire Performance testing of construction systems for façade –
CECMI (French committee for the evaluation and the classification of products and elements of
construction as regards to fire hazard – under the French Ministry of Internal Affairs directives),
2013
[4] SP FIRE 105. Issue 5. Large scale testing of facade systems. SP Boras Sweden, 1994
[5] ISO 13785-2 Reaction-to-fire tests for façades –Part 2: Large-scale test. ISO, 2002
[6] CAN/ULC-S134. Standard Method of Fire Test of Exterior Wall Assemblies. Underwriters
Laboratories of Canada, 2013
[7] FM 4880, Class 1 Fire Rating of Insulated Wall or Wall and Roof/Ceiling Panels, Interior Finish Materials or Coatings, and Exterior Wall Systems FM Approvals, 2010
[8] White, N. and Delichatsios, M. Fire Hazards of Exterior Wall Assemblies Containing Combustible Components. Quincy, MA. The Fire Protection Research Foundation, 2014

About the author:Dwayne Sloan is Director, Principal Engineers & Regulatory Services Building & Life Safety Technologies, Corporate Fellow

UL continues to provide the latest fire research and testing capabilities to the building products industry. With unmatched experience and insight, we help develop many of the industry test standards that are referenced in building codes worldwide. To learn more about UL´s 120 years of fire safety testing, click here to access our educational series of fire safety articles drawing on UL´s history.