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Validation of the SAFR-BE Tool: A Fire Index Assessment Method in Multi-storey Residential Buildings

Soraya, Farah LU (2025) VBRM05 20252
Division of Fire Safety Engineering
Abstract
Nowadays, modern building design increasingly prioritized sustainability with Green Buildings concept is highly adopted. However, the potential increase of fire hazard in sustainable design remains a significant concern. To answer this challenge of the need for a method that integrate sustainable features with fire safety, the Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment (SAFR-BE) tool was developed as a semi-quantitative index method that combines both fire safety and sustainable attributes.
To ensure the consistency of SAFR-BE final index with another similar method, a validation study was performed using Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) through Event Tree Analysis (ETA). This validation study was also conducted to check whether... (More)
Nowadays, modern building design increasingly prioritized sustainability with Green Buildings concept is highly adopted. However, the potential increase of fire hazard in sustainable design remains a significant concern. To answer this challenge of the need for a method that integrate sustainable features with fire safety, the Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment (SAFR-BE) tool was developed as a semi-quantitative index method that combines both fire safety and sustainable attributes.
To ensure the consistency of SAFR-BE final index with another similar method, a validation study was performed using Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) through Event Tree Analysis (ETA). This validation study was also conducted to check whether SAFR-BE index is reliable to capture variations in results with the change to building layout scenarios. A fictitious building of multi-storey residential floor plan was used as a baseline, and a systematic parameters adjustment applied in both methods.
The comparative study was carried out using six cases of the building layout, both open-plan and closed-plan floor plan with controlled adjustment of the parameter set both in QRA and SAFR-BE. The adjustment enables a direct comparison of how SAFR-BE final index changes with the QRA output under similar building conditions. From the comparative study, the study shows a strong alignment between the SAFR-BE and QRA results. The results show a consistent pattern, where the cases with the higher SAFR-BE index scores correspond to the lowest Individual Risk (IR) and Potential Loss of Life (PLL) values in QRA. This inverted pattern shows that when the SAFR-BE scores high, the building meets more favorable fire safety attributes. At the same cases, the QRA predicts reduced consequences and lower overall risk to occupants. These findings confirm that the SAFR-BE tool can reflect the risk identified through the quantitative analysis carried out because this is building as a study case. (Less)
Popular Abstract
The popularity of modern residential buildings has increased with the adoption of green building concepts, using material and technologies are selected to improve energy efficiency. Despite of going towards to a positive development, this green building concept faces new challenges for fire safety. Sustainable design choices can affect how fire growth and evacuation time for the occupant in the building. As a result, decision-maker and designer face a difficult challenge: how to ensure the green buildings are not compromising fire safety. To support this decision, engineering commonly use fire risk assessment tools. To combine key building features such as detection systems, fire extinguishment system, evacuation routes, other tools like... (More)
The popularity of modern residential buildings has increased with the adoption of green building concepts, using material and technologies are selected to improve energy efficiency. Despite of going towards to a positive development, this green building concept faces new challenges for fire safety. Sustainable design choices can affect how fire growth and evacuation time for the occupant in the building. As a result, decision-maker and designer face a difficult challenge: how to ensure the green buildings are not compromising fire safety. To support this decision, engineering commonly use fire risk assessment tools. To combine key building features such as detection systems, fire extinguishment system, evacuation routes, other tools like fire risk indices are also performed to combine some key building features into a safety index.
This thesis focuses on developed tool called SAFR-BE (Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built-Environment). SAFR-BE tool is designed to assess both sustainability and fire safety aspect and applied for the application in the residential building. Before it can be confidently used in practice, this tool must be validated to ensure its results are consistent with the established fire risk analysis methods.
The validation process compares SAFR-BE with a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) approach using an Event Tree Analysis (ETA). A fictitious multi-storey residential building was used as a case study, with six different scenarios that adjusted the fire protection systems. SAFR-BE was performed to each scenario, and the results were compared with the event tree analysis, which models possible fire development, individual risks (IR) and potential loss of life (PLL). (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Soraya, Farah LU
supervisor
organization
course
VBRM05 20252
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Fire index, Fire Assessment, Quantitative Risk Analysis, QRA, Validation Study, Semi-quantitative analysis
report number
5750
other publication id
LUTVDG/TVBB—5750--SE
language
English
id
9218319
date added to LUP
2026-01-14 08:00:14
date last changed
2026-01-14 08:00:14
@misc{9218319,
  abstract     = {{Nowadays, modern building design increasingly prioritized sustainability with Green Buildings concept is highly adopted. However, the potential increase of fire hazard in sustainable design remains a significant concern. To answer this challenge of the need for a method that integrate sustainable features with fire safety, the Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment (SAFR-BE) tool was developed as a semi-quantitative index method that combines both fire safety and sustainable attributes.
To ensure the consistency of SAFR-BE final index with another similar method, a validation study was performed using Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) through Event Tree Analysis (ETA). This validation study was also conducted to check whether SAFR-BE index is reliable to capture variations in results with the change to building layout scenarios. A fictitious building of multi-storey residential floor plan was used as a baseline, and a systematic parameters adjustment applied in both methods.
The comparative study was carried out using six cases of the building layout, both open-plan and closed-plan floor plan with controlled adjustment of the parameter set both in QRA and SAFR-BE. The adjustment enables a direct comparison of how SAFR-BE final index changes with the QRA output under similar building conditions. From the comparative study, the study shows a strong alignment between the SAFR-BE and QRA results. The results show a consistent pattern, where the cases with the higher SAFR-BE index scores correspond to the lowest Individual Risk (IR) and Potential Loss of Life (PLL) values in QRA. This inverted pattern shows that when the SAFR-BE scores high, the building meets more favorable fire safety attributes. At the same cases, the QRA predicts reduced consequences and lower overall risk to occupants. These findings confirm that the SAFR-BE tool can reflect the risk identified through the quantitative analysis carried out because this is building as a study case.}},
  author       = {{Soraya, Farah}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Validation of the SAFR-BE Tool: A Fire Index Assessment Method in Multi-storey Residential Buildings}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}