Optimising airport structural fire design with fire spread models: A case study on integrating GoZone with SAFIR

This paper marks a significant milestone in the GoZone (Gamba and Franssen, 2021) [1] design tool development by presenting its first real-world implementation in a major airport expansion project, transitioning the tool from theoretical development to practical application. One of the main challenges in a structural fire engineering project has been the lack of straightforward, computationally efficient methods to model travelling fires in the space of interest over time. The newly developed GoZone program addresses this need by providing an accessible yet robust solution for modelling fire spread. Airports are the ideal projects for integrating fire spread models into the structural fire design considering the large compartments, defined use, and specific fuel loads in different areas within the building. This paper presents a case study and discusses the application of structural fire engineering analysis for an airport expansion project, specifically adopting GoZone in estimating fire spread in large compartments, in combination with the thermal-mechanical software SAFIR (Franssen and Gernay, 2017) [2] to examine potential structural behaviour during fires. The case study completes the development cycle for GoZone by applying it in a complex, high-stakes commercial project.