The Equivalent Protection Schemes for Fire Sprinkler Systems Full-Scale Fire Testing for Performance-Based Fire Protection case study will focus on the need to consider performance-based, full-scale fire testing as an alternate and equivalent to prescriptive-based fire sprinkler design criteria. We will review operational compliance issues; evaluating and identifying actual hazards, advantages, challenges, and opportunities that can arise in performance-based, full-scale fire testing. We will explore examples of prescriptive requirements and compare that to real world actual conditions.
We will review the opportunities and pitfalls of using a performance-based approach in lieu of application of prescriptive criteria. Performance-based criteria provides the opportunity for superior fire protection while allowing operational flexibility.