Performance Based Design

3 Credits

The development of fire protection solutions can involve methods to comply with prescriptive requirements in codes or may incorporate some aspects which follow a performance-based approach. Following a description of the codes and standards process in the U.S., a review of the requirements for structural fire protection are discussed as an example, beginning with prescriptive approaches and ending with performance-based alternatives. The latter half of the course describes the methodology and motivation for performance-based design solutions. Case studies are presented to illustrate the design solutions achieved following the two approaches.