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Fire Safety Journal 43 (2008) 7779 www.elsevier.com/locate/resaf

Book Reviews
Fire Safety EngineeringDesign of Structures, J.A. Purkiss. 2nd Edition. Butterworth-Heinemenn-Elsevier, Oxford (2006). ISBN-13: 978-0-7506-6443-1, ISBN-10: 0-75066443-6 (xxxiv, 424pp., 85.00, Hardbound). This is the second edition of Purkiss work and a welcome addition to the rather limited choice of books covering the structural re safety engineering. After a introduction to the eld and a discussion of re safety design philosophy Purkiss discusses the prescriptive approach to re safety design (chapter 3); how re behaviour is characterised in engineering design (chapter 4); the properties of materials at elevated temperatures (chapter 5); the calculations based approach to re safety design (chapter 6); design of individual structural elements (chapters 711) and the behaviour of complete structures in re (chapter 12) before closing with an overview of structural assessment after a re in chapter 13. The choice of topics thus covers the entire range needed for an engineering approach to structural re engineering. In general the order of presentation is logical, although the reason for placing chapter 6 after the discussion of methods of calculating re temperatures is unclear. Given the material covered, the most obvious alternative to Purkiss work is Buchanan [1]. Although covering very similar ground, the strengths of the two books are somewhat different. Firstly, it is noticeable that both authors emphasise their own research areasconcrete structures for Purkiss and timber structures in the case of Buchanan. In this respect the books are complementary rather than in competition. Another obvious difference is that of style. Throughout, Purkiss gives fairly detailed discussions of various research threadssome only of historic interestand also gives many examples based on the recently nalised Eurocode design codes. Buchanan, while still making reference to much research work, chooses to highlight the underlying concepts. This results in a less academic style than Purkiss. Buchanan also has a more international outlook and does not focus to the same extent as Purkiss on the Eurocodes but gives examples based on a range of design approaches (this may in part be due to the Eurocodes not having being nalised when Buchanan was writing). Thus, again the two books are complementary rather than in competition. Chapters 1 and 2 give a general background to re engineering design philosophy before prescriptive based re engineering is presented in chapter 3. Prescriptive design is a well-established method that can be applied with little understanding of structural mechanics in re. Rather than give examples of its use (the process is detailed clearly in most design codes) the author chooses to highlight some of the shortcomings and assumptions in the method that are frequently overlooked. Although much of the material in this chapter will be familiar to practising re engineers, those new to the eld will nd the discussion helpful. Chapter 4 introduces the behaviour of compartment res and the various simplied methods that are used to characterise them for the purpose of structural engineering. The development of a compartment re from a localised re to a fully developed re to a decaying re is briey discussed in conceptual terms. A summary of the energy balance approach to calculating temperatures in fully developed compartment res is then given. This material has all been presented in detail elsewhere; Purkiss aim is clearly to present the key ideas for use by a structural designer without getting bogged down in too much detail, and in this he is successful. The parametric curves that are incorporated in the Eurocode 2 are treated next. This section is useful as it gives some commentary on the parametric curves; something that is not included in the design code itself. As Eurocode 2, Parts 12 were only published in a nalised version in 2002, published examples of using its parametric temperaturetime curves are rare. Consequently, the one given in this chapter will be of use to designers, particularly as the results are compared with various other methods for calculating gas temperatures. The behaviour of materials at high temperatures is the subject of chapter 5. This chapter is quite detailed and draws on research from a wide variety of sources. Of particular interest is the discussion of concrete behaviour at high temperature. This is a complex subject that has not previously been discussed in such detail other than in research papers. Although Purkiss states that the discussion is far from comprehensive, it is unique in providing in one place a summary of the behaviour of heated selfcompacting, bre reinforced and high strength concretes. The wide range of references will be of value to those who desire a more detailed view of research on the material behaviour on concrete. Chapter 6 is contributed by Long-Yuan Li and has the aim of describing how the calculation techniques used to determine the re resistance of structures can be determined by calculation. The rst part of the chapter discusses heat transfer with the emphasis being on conduction within structural elements. This is presented in a formal manner using tensor notation with a further section giving an equally formal presentation of the nite element formulation for solving heat transfer problems. Later parts of the

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78 Book Reviews / Fire Safety Journal 43 (2008) 7779

chapter treat structural behaviour in a similarly mathematical fashion. This chapter is the least practically orientated and it sits rather uneasily with the rest of the text. The level of detail is not sufcient to, for example, develop computer code for heat transfer analysis, yet the presentation is too abstract to be used directly in calculations. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of including various non-linear effects in computer-based structural calculations if reliable results are to be obtained from analyses. Chapters 711 discuss the design against re of isolated elements made of, respectively, concrete, steel, composite steelconcrete, timber and other materials. In each case, a discussion is given of the thinking behind the design approach and several, detailed, examples are presented. This is the strongest section of the book and provides a valuable bank of examples which will be of use to designers and others unfamiliar to re engineering design calculations. Throughout, the emphasis is on the methods included in the Eurocodes and in some respects these chapters form an example manual of Eurocode re design calculations. However, there is a considerable amount of detail given in other areas such as the development of methods used in the calculations, the behaviour of concrete members in re and the practicalities of various re protection measures. Chapter 12 is entitled Frames and discusses the behaviour of entire structures rather than the isolated elements considered in chapters 68. This chapter is the weakest of the book and has a feeling of being rushed. The amount of progress that has been made in understanding the behaviour of framed structures over the last decade has been huge and is having a profound effect on the way many large structures are designed to resist re. Despite this progress, chapter 12 contains a mere 20 pages to cover framed structures of all types and materials (this can be compared to the 50 pages devoted to the design of steel elements). Despite comments in the preface and postscript emphasising the success and importance of the Cardington frame tests in the 1990s, the results are given only a brief qualitative discussion. Given that others [2] have found sufcient material to publish an entire book on composite frames in re, this is disappointing. Chapter 12 would also have been the natural point to expand upon the role
doi:10.1016/j.resaf.2007.04.005

computer analysis now plays in all aspects of structural re engineering. This subject is covered conceptually in Chapter 6 but only very limited guidance on how to apply it in practical cases is given. This is a signicant omission given the increasing use of computer analyses by both researchers and designers for the prediction of re behaviour, heat transfer and structural behaviour. The nal chapter discusses the assessment and possible repair of re damaged structures. This is an interesting summary and is another area where the book brings together research ndings only previously published in academic papers. The layout and editing of the book is a little inconsistent and this sometimes affects the clarity with which data are presented. For example, most of the gures and artwork are of high quality but periodically what are clearly unedited Excel plots appear. These are at best clunky and sometimes confusing such as when the data points are so closely spaced that they overlap making it difcult to differentiate between several curves on the same plot. At the very least, the background of these plots should have been made white, in line with the other graphs in the book, rather than left as the default grey. Other minor editorial slips are present such as subscripts occasionally being in full-size font and even interchanged, but these are rare. In summary, the book will be a valuable resource for practising designers and university teachersthis reviewer made frequent use of it when preparing a lecture course on Structural Fire Engineering. It may also be of interest to students studying Fire Engineering at a post-graduate level. References
[1] Buchanan AH. Structural design for re safety. Chichester, UK: Wiley; 2002. [2] Wang YC. Steel and composite structures behaviour and design for re safety. Routledge; 2002.

Martin Gillie BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, William Rankine Building, Kings Buildings, Mayeld Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK E-mail address: m.gillie@ed.ac.uk

ASTM Fire Standards and Related Technical Material, 7th ed., 2 Vols. American Society for Standards and Materials, West Conshohocken, USA (2007). 3080pp., $365, total, softbound. Printed edition, ISBN:978-0-8031-5684-5. CDROM edition (priced and sold separately), $365, ISBN:9780-8031-5685-2 One of the most massive books to be found in the entire re safety eld, the seventh edition of this compilation has

gotten so large that the two, very thick volumes are now required. As in the previous editions, the compilation provides the complete text of ASTM standards dealing with re safety, containing a total of ASTM 247 standards. These include all of the standards produced by Committee E-05 along with standards from many other committees that have relevance to re safety. The latter, of course, is somewhat subjective, but ASTM has generally erred on the side of completeness. Apart from the standards included,