Verification and Validation: How to Determine the Accuracy of Fire Models.
Verification and Validation: How to Determine the
Accuracy of Fire Models.
(6235 K)
Salley, M. H.; Dreisbach, J.; Hill, K.; Kassawara, R.;
Najafi, B.; Joglar, F.; Hamins, A.; McGrattan, K. B.;
Peacock, R. D.; Gautier, B.
Fire Protection Engineering, No. 34, 34,36,38,40,42,44,
Spring 2007.
Keywords:
fire models; verification; validation; fire protection;
nuclear power plants; ASTM E 1355; NFPA 805
Abstract:
Worldwide, risk-informed and performance-based analyses
are being introduced into fire protection engineering
practice, and the commercial nuclear power industry is
no exception. In the last 15 years, the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) directed a change in its
policy to use risk-informed methods, where practical, to
make regulatory decisions. As a result of this change,
in the area of fire protection, the National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) completed development of
the 2001 edition of NFPA 805, "Performance-Based
Standard for Fire Protection for Light-Water Reactor
Electric Generating Plants." The NRC amended its fire
protection requirements in July 2004 to allow existing
reactor licensees to voluntarily adopt the fire
protection requirements contained in NFPA 805 as an
alternative to the existing prescriptive fire protection
requirements. This allows plant operators and the NRC to
use fire modeling and fire risk information, along with
prescriptive requirements, to ensure that nuclear power
plants can be safely shut down in the event of a fire.
This article provides a brief description of the work
performed to assess the relative accuracy of fire models
for nuclear power plant applications.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899