ARCHITECTURAL CAD-BASED TOPOLOGICAL MODELS FOR FIRE HAZARD ANALYSES

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL RESULT IN A LOGICAL DESIGN OF A CAD-BASED TOPOLOGICAL BUILDING MODELING SYSTEM TO FACILITATE THE ORGANIZATION OF, AND ACCESS TO, BUILDING GRAPHIC AND ALPHA-NUMERIC DATA REQUIRED FOR FIRE HAZARD ANALYSES USING NIST AND OTHER FIRE EFFECTS CODES. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM PROVIDES (1) A MEANS OF CONVERTING CAD FLOOR PLANS TO A TOPOLOGICAL (AND ANALYTIC) BUILDING MODEL; (2) AN EXTENSIVE BUILDING ALPHA-NUMERIC DATA BASE LINKED TO ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES; (3) A MEANS OF INTEGRATING THE BUILDING MODEL WITH THE FIRE HAZARD ANALYSIS RESULTS. IN ADDITION, THE TOPOLOGICAL MAP AND AVAILABLE NETWORK ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OFFER THE POSSIBILITY OF EXTENDING FIRE HAZARD ANALYSIS RESULTS BEYOND THAT PORTION OF THE STRUCTURE ANALYZED BY THE FIRE MODELS AND TO MAKE MEANINGFUL INFERENCES ABOUT FIRE-RELATED PARAMETERS WHICH WERE NOT SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED BY THE FIRE ANALYSIS CODES. THE BASIC TECHNICAL APPROACH IS SIMILAR TO THAT TAKEN IN THE RECENT BOMBCAD BLAST EFFECTS ANALYSIS CODE DEVELOPMENT AND BORROWS SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE BOMBCAD BUILDING MODELING TECHNOLOGY.