Building V: Fire and Life Safety Analysis

A fire and life safety analysis was completed for Building V as part of a culminating project in the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Fire Protection Engineering Master’s Degree Program. This report will detail both a prescriptive design based on the 2013 California Building Code and applicable standards as well as a performance based analysis based on a design fire scenario. The prescriptive design will discuss four main components of compliance: 1) Structural Fire Protection, 2) Fire Alarm, 3) Fire Sprinkler, and 4) Means of Egress. Structural fire protection analysis is separated into four parts: type of construction, structural fire resistance, fire resistance separations, and flammability are reviewed. Building V was constructed as a Type IB structure and met all requirements for area and height. Protecting the structural members with 1-and 2-hour fire ratings were also compliant for Type IB construction. The required separations for shafts and uses were also properly designed with 1-and 2-hour fire protected separations. Lastly, flammability of interior finish materials was limited by using Class A products only. The fire alarm system analysis is broken up into six areas: fire alarm types, initiating devices, notification devices, fire alarm system design, smoke control, and inspection, testing, and maintenance. Building V was properly provided with a manual fire alarm with automatic smoke detection and an emergency voice/alarm communication system as required by code. The initiating and notification devices were provided in proper locations with compliant spacing. The fire alarm system was also designed properly for operating in an emergency condition without building power. Required compartmentation for smoke control was met with the use of automatic closing doors and fire/smoke dampers. Lastly, proper inspection, testing, and maintenance will ensure that the building maintains a functional fire alarm system. The fire sprinkler system analysis is also divided into six areas: fire sprinkler type, standpipe type, fire sprinkler design criteria, hydraulic calculations, sprinkler components, and inspection, testing, and maintenance. A wet automatic sprinkler system was installed per NFPA-13 as required by code. Class I standpipes were installed within all interior exit stairs as well. Each area was analyzed for their occupancy group hazard and was found to provide enough water for the demand of the sprinkler system. Lastly, proper inspection, testing, and maintenance will ensure that the building maintains a functional fire sprinkler system. The last portion of the prescriptive design analyzed the means of egress of the building. An occupant load calculation was used to determine the required number of exit access doorways, the required exit access and stair widths, travel distances, common paths of egress, and dead ends. Once the exit access was analyzed, the required number of exits and required exit width was found. The building was found to be fully compliant with means of egress as required by Chapter 10 of the California Building Code. Occupants would be able to safely egress to the public way. The performance based design analyzed a design fire scenario of a couch within the corridor. The couch was assumed to be a composite of flexible polyurethane and cellulose material. An analysis of required safe egress time (RSET) and available safe egress time (ASET) was completed to determine if occupants would be able to safely evacuate the building in the case of a fire. The ASET was calculated based on three tenability criteria of visibility, temperature, and carbon monoxide concentration. All conditions were analyzed at six feet above the walking surface. In order to maintain tenable conditions, visibility could not be reduced to less than 33 feet, temperature needed to be less than 176o F, and carbon monoxide concentrations had to be less than 1,000 ppm. The design fire scenario was modeled using Pyrosim and time to reach untenable conditions were found. Based on the results, visibility was reduced to less than 33 feet within 120 seconds of the start of the fire. Temperature exceeded 176o F within 180 seconds of the start of the fire. Lastly, toxicity was able to be maintained at less than 1,000 ppm CO during the duration of the simulation. The RSET was calculated based on three movement time frames: detection time, pre-evacuation time, and travel time. Detection time was calculated using a Detact model and found that sprinkler activation occurred within 117 seconds of the fire being started. The pre-evacuation time was based on data collected in research in which an average of 186 seconds was found for a mid-rise apartment with good alarm performance. Lastly, the travel time was modeled using Pathfinder to determine the required time to safely egress the building. The travel time was found to be 213 seconds. The occupants would need 516 seconds to safely evacuate the building before the effects of the fire would have made conditions untenable for evacuation. Based on the design report, two recommendations would be made to help maintain a safe environment for the occupants of the building. The first recommendation would be to remove the furniture within the rated corridor and limit the use to circulation only. A second alternative recommendation would be to create an enclosed room for the alcove and provide a rated separation between the lounge area and the rated corridor

Barriers to Successful End-User Programming

In my research and my personal life, I have come to know numerous people that our research community might call end-user programmers. Some of them are scientists, some are artists, others are educators and other types of professionals. One thing that all of these people have in common is that their goals are entirely unrelated to producing code. In some cases, programming may be a necessary part of accomplishing their goals, such as a physicist writing a simulation in C or an interaction designer creating an interactive prototype. In other cases, programming may simply be the more efficient alternative to manually solving a problem: one might find duplicate entries in an address book by visual search or by writing a short Perl script

Probing the equation of state of neutron-rich matter with intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions

Nuclear reactions induced by stable and/or radioactive neutron-rich nuclei provide the opportunity to pin down the equation of state of neutron-rich matter, especially the density ($\rho$) dependence of its isospin-dependent part, i.e., the nuclear symmetry energy $E_{\rm sym}$. A conservative constraint, $32(\rho /\rho_{0})^{0.7} < E_{\rm sym}(\rho ) < 32(\rho /\rho _{0})^{1.1}$, around the nuclear matter saturation density $\rho_0$ has recently been obtained from the isospin diffusion data in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions. We review this exciting result and discuss its consequences and implications on nuclear effective interactions, radii and cooling mechanisms of neutron stars.Comment: 10 pages. Invited talks at (1) International Workshop on Nuclear Multifragmentation, Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 2005, Catania, Italy and (2) XXIX Symposium on Nuclear Physics, Jan. 3-6, 2006, Cocoyoc, Morelos, Mexic

Organization and repair of the trigeminal system in the lamprey using fluorescent double labeling [abstract]

Abstract only availableFaculty Mentor: Andrew McClellan, Biological ScienceIn the CNS, many sensory and motor systems are topologically organized relative to various body structures.  For example, in humans, sensory inputs from the lower, middle, and upper parts of the body are received by the anterior, middle, and posterior somatosensory cortex, respectively.  Following injury in the CNS of higher vertebrates, such as birds and mammals, there is very little regeneration and recovery of function.  In contrast, in lower vertebrates, including lamprey, fish, and certain amphibians, substantial axonal regeneration occurs following CNS injuries, and there is virtually complete recovery of functions.  However, it is not known whether axonal regeneration restores the topological organization that may have existed prior to injury.  The trigeminal system is responsible for transmitting sensory and motor information from the head via axons in the trigeminal cranial nerve.  In the lamprey following injury of the trigeminal nerve, sensory and motor axons regenerate.  The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the trigeminal system of normal lamprey is topologically organized and whether regeneration of axons in injured trigeminal nerve restores this organization.  In normal larval lamprey, Alexa 488 dextran amine (Alexa) and Texas red dextran amine (TRDA), two different anatomical fluorescent tracers, were applied to the medial and lateral parts of the head, respectively.  This resulted in clear labeling of the medial and lateral parts of the trigeminal system in the brain with Alexa and TRDA, respectively.  Thus, in normal lamprey, the trigeminal system appears to be topologically organized.  If following injury of the trigeminal nerve, axonal regeneration restores this topological organization, this will indicate that regeneration in the lamprey is relatively precise and possibly controlled by specific guidance factors.  Identification of these guidance factors would greatly improve our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate axonal regeneration following CNS injury in vertebrate animals, including humans.

Ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography using a superluminescent light source

A superluminescent Ti:Al2O3 crystal is demonstrated as a light source for ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT). Single spatial mode, fiber coupled output powers of ~40 μW can be generated with 138 nm bandwidth using a 5 W frequency doubled, diode pumped laser, pumping a thin Ti:Al2O3 crystal. Ultrahigh resolution OCT imaging is demonstrated with 2.2 μm axial resolution in air, or 1.7 μm in tissue, with >86 dB sensitivity. This light source provides a simple and robust alternative to femtosecond lasers for ultrahigh resolution OCT imaging