●Research Trends and Results

Full scale Fire Experiment using a Three-story Wooden
School Building (Preliminary Experiment)
NARUSE Tomohiro(Dr. (Eng.)), HeadNII Daisaku(Dr. (Eng.)), Senior Researcher
Building Department, Fire Standards Division
FUKAI Atsuo, HeadHARAGUCHI Osamu, Researcher
Building Department, Standards and Accreditation System Division(Key words) Three-story wooden school building, full-scale fire experiment, fire safety
1. Introduction
Because wood absorbs CO2, as trees grow, theyeffectively prevent global warming, using wood toconstruct buildings stimulates the forest industry, andby encouraging forest growth, prevents disasters suchas landslides. Wood’s superior capacity to adjust
humidity contributes to greater interior comfort, andby taking advantage of the technical skills of local
craftsmen, its use can be counted on to traintechnologists and stimulate regional industries.
Japan’s Building Standard Law stipulates thatthree-story school buildings must be fire-resistive
buildings to ensure fire safety, but the Act for
Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings Etc.
enacted in October 2010 requires a review of building
standards guided by necessary research.
In response to this need, the Building Department
began to collect data necessary to provide technicalstandards for three-story wooden school buildings in2011 and started research to prepare proposed
standards in order to review the Building Standards topermit the construction of quasi-fire resistive
three-story school buildings which would use woodenmaterial more easily when certain specifications aresatisfied.
2. Aim of the full-scale fire experiment
At this time, members such as columns, walls etc.
of a three-story school building must ensure fire
resistance performance such that they are neither
broken, transfer heat, nor crack even after 1 hour of
exposure to heat, but specifications limit the quantityof wooden materials which can be used. To encourage
the use of wood, in addition to quasi-fire resistive
performance which requires performance during
heating that is easily achievable even using
combustible wood, full-scale experiments etc. will
clarify the requirements necessary for fire safety(stipulated specifications, etc.). It is now hypothesized
that, for example, surrounding open space which
reduces the impact of toppling etc. will be ensured.
First, specifications for wooden interior finishingmaterial etc. will be hypothesized based on a survey ofschools, next, based on specifications which clarify

the performance based on member experiments andclass-room scale fire tests, an actual building will beconstructed on the NILIM site and used for the fireexperiment (Photo 1).
This experiment is positioned as a preliminary
experiment because it is an experiment of
unprecedented scale, then with specifications andexperiment method adjusted based on its results, thefull scale fire experiment will be carried out based on
specifications which hypothesize standardization in
fiscal 2012.
The aim of the full-scale fire experiment is to gain
knowledge concerning the process of spread of fireand smoke flow in an entire building, degree of impact
of flying sparks and radiant heat on the building’s
surroundings, whether or not the building collapses,
and if so, the extent it collapses, all knowledge which
could not be confirmed without performing a fire
experiment using a full-scale building.
3. Conclusions
The results of the two full-scale fire experiments
described above will be used to prepare proposed
standards which ensure the fire safety that will be
required of a three-story wooden school building.

Photo 1. The Experimental Three-story Wooden
School Building