Performance-Based Design Tops Research Wish List 2/16/2004
Dismissing the exemplary performance record of high-rise steel structures in "pure" fires, attendees of a government-sponsored workshop on fire safety voted for a blue-ribbon committee to develop an integrated methodology for performance-based design of fire protection of steel frames. The recommendation topped a wish list that included an interest in developing models for structural performance under fuel loads, with a multihazard design approach.
Action on the list might be slow. "What you do here will help us focus on issues critical to the construction industry," said Arden L. Bement Jr., director of the National Institute of Standards & Technology, which sponsored the Feb. 5-6 workshop in Gaithersburg, Md. Bement is seeking ways to cut staff and delay research to absorb budget cuts.