The safety of a building against fire is determined by functions and standards such as evacuation safety performance, fire resistance performance, and resistibility of fire spread to adjacent buildings. In addition, it is necessary to establish the methodology of performance evaluation in order to verify that fire safety measures are properly in effect. These performance evaluations can be implemented by developing an engineering-based methodology for estimation and repeatability based on the fundamental research pertaining to fire physics, chemical reactions and human behavior. However, fire behavior is subject to uncertainty and contingency, and thus in actual practice, it is necessary to determine the optimal allocation of the safety factors that can be assured by each characteristic value and prediction formula of an evaluation method, as well as to establish probabilistic evaluation methodology with risk being understood.

In addition, researchers in East Asia, including Japan, will need to cooperate in education and research on a global scale in order to develop new space and materials that are more effective in controlling the potential fire risks. risks which have risen along with the use of new space (high-rise and underground) in metropolitan areas and the increased use of new materials developed according to the demands of industrialization and energy conservation. To respond to such a challenge, the Center runs several specialty research groups under each program leader, and these groups are associated with “Fire Safety Engineering with Respect to Changing Space and Materials.”

These research activities are divided into four groups:

• Fire physics/chemical reactions,

• Human behavior in fire (psychology, mentality and action),

• Research, integration and implementation of performance-based fire safety design, and

• Research to establish a fire-safety performance evaluation and design system in response to the changing use of space and materials.

The research objective of each group aims at covering subjects starting from the level of materials in use to the level of buildings comprising a city, and the research promotion committee will administer the arrangement for collaborative research between the groups in order to produce effective and meaningful outcomes in collaboration with nationally and internationally well-known guest members and with the BRI as a main partner of the Center.