The European Commission (DG GROW) has published a report proposing a European approach to assessing the fire performance of building facades. The report by RISE, BAM, BRE, Efectis and EMI, is the result of ten years of work, aiming to develop a common assessment method across the EU, taking into account Member States’ existing classification systems and enabling them to maintain their current safety level requirements. It follows the EOTA Draft Technical Report and the 2014 NFPA report which concluded that large-scale fire tests are needed. The new report includes a summary of current regulations and test methods in 31 European countries. It proposes the existing BS8414 and DIN4102-20 test methods, plus an alternative test based on these but modified, and suggests performance classification criteria for each method. Classifications would only be valid for the whole façade system, classification of materials or single units would not be possible. Further research needs identified include validation for new types of façade systems, investigation of effects of exterior factors (wind, external fires), clarification of test fire sources, of mounting of thermocouples and of measurement of heat exposure.
“Development of a European approach to assess the fire performance of facades, 370 pages, RISE, BAM, BRE, Efectis and EMI for the European Commission (DG GROW, Unit C1, ISBN 978-92-79-88000-1 http://dx.doi.org/10.2873/954759
NFPA 2014 “Fire Hazards of Exterior Wall Assemblies Containing Combustible Components” https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/Research-reports/Building-and-life-safety/Fire-Hazards-of-Exterior-Wall-Assemblues-Containing-Combustible-Components
EOTA Draft Technical Report (not published) “Large-scale fire performance testing of external wall cladding systems” see Kotthoff & Riemesch-Speer 2013 https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20130902010