Please join us April 14th-15th for the
2022 NCN-SFPE FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING SYMPOSIUM
The Northern California-Nevada Chapter of SFPE is hosting the Fire Protection Engineering Symposium. Proceeds benefit the Chapter Scholarship Fund for fire protection engineering students.
Agenda
Session I: Thursday April 14th, 2022 8:30am-12:00pm PST
8:30 Welcome Remarks
8:40 Significant Changes in Chapter 30 of the CBC-2019 Supplement (effective in Calif. on 07/01/21) and Fire Detection for Emergency Storage Systems in Private Garages, Sagiv Weiss-Ishai (SFFD)
10:40 Break (10-minutes)
10:50 NFPA 13-2022, The Loss of the Density/Area Curves - What Have We Lost? What Have We Gained?, Kenneth Isman
11:50 Closing Thoughts
Session II: Friday April 15th, 2022 8:30am-12:00pm PST
8:30 Welcome Remarks
8:40 Taking the Ambiguity out of Structural Fire Safety Design, Kevin LaMalva
9:40 Break (10-minutes)
9:50 Smoke Control Design: Recent Changes in NFPA 92 and How to Determine Design Fires, James Milke, PhD, PE, FSFPE
11:50 Closing Thoughts
PRESENTATION DESCRIPTIONS AND PRESENTERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Significant Changes in Chapter 30 of the CBC-2019 Supplement (effective in Calif. on 07/01/21) and Fire Detection for Emergency Storage Systems in Private Garages- Sagiv Weiss-Ishai (SFFD)
Mr. Weiss-Ishai will speak about the changes from his perspective as an AHJ Member on the CSFM Elevator Task Force, a Fire Protection Engineer for SFFD, and a Technical Committee member on the NFPA 72 SIG-PRO committee and ASME A17.1/B44 Elevator Safety Code Emergency Operations and Hoistways committees. He will focus his presentation on specific issues and code changes related to the SFPE and Fire Alarm industry to make it an engaging educational session for all attendees.
Sagiv Weiss-Ishai
(Fire Protection Engineer, San Francisco Fire Department)
Sagiv is a California licensed Fire Protection Engineer with over 20 years of extensive experience. Sagiv presently works for SFFD. Sagiv serves in various roles within the industry, such as:
- · Principal AHJ member on NFPA 72 Technical Committee SIG‐PRO –Responsible for elevator controls,
- · AHJ Member ASME A17.1 –Emergency Operation and Hoistway Technical committees. Responsible for Elevator and FA systems interface
- · NFPA 72 and ASME A17.1 Task Group member on Fire Service Access Elevators (FSAEs) and Occupant Evacuation Elevators (OEEs) with Occupant Evacuation Operation (OEO)
- · AHJ Member ‐ California State Fire Alarm Code Advisory Committee
- · Fire Code Official on the California State ‐ Building Fire and Other (BFO) Code Advisory
- · Committee to the California Building Standards Commission.
Taking the Ambiguity out of Structural Fire Safety Design- Kevin J. LaMalva, F.ASCE, P.E.
Traditionally, structural fire safety is contemplated after the structural engineering is complete for a given building. Specifically, structural systems that have been optimized for ambient design loads are then blanketed with fireproofing. This century-old approach endeavors to reduce the heating of individual structural members with the intent of mitigating the risk of structural collapse under fire conditions. However, project stakeholders may be left wondering if the intended structural fire safety is provided and if a rational use of resources was employed. This differs from almost all other aspects of building design in which these aspects are taken extremely seriously.
As a refreshing alternative to the traditional approach, performance-based structural fire design is beginning to establish a foothold around the world. Notably, guidance contained within ASCE/SEI 7, SFPE International Handbook of Structural Fire Engineering, ASCE/SEI Manual of Practice No. 138, and the freely available ASCE/SEI Structural Fire Design Guide provide designers the framework to legitimately practice structural fire design, as well as provide building officials a potent set of tools to properly evaluate such designs. The envisioned endgame of this movement is a gradual transition toward intrinsically fire safe structures that are rationalized optimized. Since structural fire design has the potential to produce buildings that are safer, cost less, and are optimized for stakeholder design objectives such as aesthetics, carbon footprint, and allowance for innovation, the future is certainly bright for this movement.
Kevin J. LaMalva, F.ASCE, P.E.
Kevin has 14 years of experience as a consultant with dual registration in both fire protection engineering and civil engineering and licensure in 12 states. Kevin's primary passion is structural fire safety to which he has lectured at 4 universities, and his application of engineering extends to expert witness services, structural and fire forensics, structural design, fire/life safety design/code consulting, and fire protection systems design. Kevin has consulted on major construction projects including the Wilshire Grand Tower, LaGuardia Airport Redevelopment, SoFi Stadium, Kennedy Space Vehicle Assembly Building, Facebook MPK22, Virgin Hyperloop One, Kuwait International Airport, Lusail Towers, and many others.
Aside from faithfully serving clients, Kevin is a member of numerous industry committees (ASCE/SEI, SFPE, ICC, NIST, ACI, CTBUH, NFPA, and others) that conduct research and develop standards for structural fire safety. Notably, Kevin led a group of over 40 engineers to develop a first-of-its kind ASCE/SEI Structural Fire Design Guide which was sponsored by the Charles Pankow Foundation (https://ascelibrary.org/doi/book/10.1061/9780784482698 ). Additionally, Kevin served as Editor of the recently released ASCE/SEI Manual of Practice No. 138 (Structural Fire Engineering) and Co-Editor of the soon-to-be released SFPE International Handbook of Structural Fire Engineering.
For his passionate efforts to advance structural fire safety in the U.S., Kevin was awarded the SFPE D. Peter Lund Award and distinction of ENR Newsmaker for serving the "best interests of the construction industry and the public."
Kevin’s current focus is to introduce provisions for structural fire engineering into the International Building Code (IBC). Encouragingly, structural fire engineering per the ASCE/SEI 7 Appendix E standard (which Kevin co-authored) has already been acknowledged in the 2021 editions of NFPA 5000 and NFPA 101. Big picture, Kevin hopes for structural engineers and fire protection engineers to transition from general onlookers to integral participants in structural fire protection design, a paradigm that has not appreciably changed in a century. Kevin believes that such a transition to structural design for “earth, wind, and fire” could produce better buildings that are intrinsically safer and more efficient to construct.
Kevin can be reached at kevin.lamalva@warringtonfire.com .
NFPA 13-2022, The Loss of the Density/Area Curves - What Have We Lost? What Have We Gained? - Kenneth E. Isman, PE, FSFPE
In the 2022 edition of NFPA 13, the density/area curves have been eliminated for the design of new fire sprinkler systems for all hazards from Light Hazard to Storage. The impact of this decision will be discussed as well as the consequences. The new density/area tables will be presented with the built-in adjustments. There will also be a discussion of the use of the old density/area curves for existing systems. Examples will be presented to illustrate the discussion.
Kenneth E. Isman, PE, FSFPE
Kenneth E. Isman, PE, FSFPE graduated from the University of Maryland in 1986 with a BS in Fire Protection Engineering and later received an MS in Business Management, also from the University of Maryland. He worked for the National Fire Sprinkler Association for 28 years, the last eight of which as the Vice President of Engineering. Ken left the NFSA in 2014 to take a position as a Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering where he teaches classes in fire protection systems design, performance-based analysis, and life safety analysis. A noted author and lecturer, Ken has been a speaker at hundreds of seminars, workshops and conferences and has written a number of books on the design of fire protection systems including co-authoring the first edition of the NFPA Fire Pump Handbook. He has also authored chapters of a number of industry texts for the SFPE and NFPA. His latest book, Standpipe Systems for Fire Protection, was recently published by Springer Press. Ken has been a member of more than 20 different committees of the SFPE, NFPA and AWWA including the committees responsible for producing NFPA 13 and NFPA 101 since 1987.
Smoke Control Design: Recent Changes in NFPA 92 and How to Determine Design Fires-James Milke, PhD, PE, FSFPE Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland
This presentation will provide an overview of changes in recent editions of NFPA 92, including topics such as the number of open doors to consider for stairwell pressurization systems, make-up air requirements for atrium smoke exhaust and tenability calculations. The presentation will also describe a recent research effort conducted for the SFPE Foundation that describes methods to identify the characteristics of design fires, such as are needed for analyses associated with atrium smoke control designs.
James Milke, PhD, PE, FSFPE
Dr. Jim Milke, P.E., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering, MS degree in Mechanical Engineering and BS degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. In addition, he has a BS degree in Physics from Ursinus College. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering for 40 years and has been chair for the last 10 years. Jim Milke has served as the Fire Protection Engineer for Fairfax County, Virginia and as a Research Fire Prevention Engineer at NIST. Dr. Milke is a Fellow and past president of SFPE. He is a member and past chair of the NFPA committee on Smoke Management Systems. He has received awards for teaching, communications and service from the University of Maryland, NFPA, SFPE, Automatic Fire Alarm Association and Siemens Building Technology Division.
