Rule ID: SUK/1012/v1.0
This article describes the Fire Stopping Support Rule that has been developed by Solibri UK Ltd as part of the BIM Coordination + Library.
The rule is available for Solibri Office 9.13.1 or later via a Solibri Extension, which can be downloaded from the Solibri Solution Center.
The article covers the following topics:
Important
The parameters in this rule must be defined by the user to give meaningful results.
Important
This rule requires connection to an external spreadsheet and the Wall Support sheet and where necessary the Service Types sheet. A copy of this default template for all Fire Stopping rules FireStoppingRequirements.xlsx can be downloaded at the end of the Introduction article or through the description in the checking view for the highlighted rule.
Tip
To learn more about the Fire Stopping Solution, please see Introduction to Fire Stopping of Service Penetration Checks.
This rule is used to check the fire seal manufacturer’s data contained within the third-party certification against the modelled geometry and property information of the fire seals and the corresponding compartmentation walls and service penetrations they protect.
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Figure – Fire seal type is defined as a double sided installation, a failed result is due to the inaccessible space identified on one side indicated in Magenta
The rule first checks that all components filtered as Services have their service types classified by the Services Classification, and all components filtered as Fire Seals have their fire seal types classified by the Fire Seal Classification. The rule then finds all penetrations of service components with compartmentation walls and fire seals through their corresponding filters, while ignoring any partial penetrations where the service doesn’t run completely through one side of the fire seal and out the other. Any empty fire seals on compartmentation walls that without services are returned as issues.
A Wall Support sheet within a spreadsheet (.xlsx) file defines the wall support requirements based on the Fire Seal and Service Types. Any fire seals and services to be checked with types from the Fire Seal and Services Classification that are unspecified within the requirements file are returned as issues to be addressed. The rule then checks the following wall support requirements of its corresponding compartmentation wall:
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The wall is within a minimum and maximum width
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The wall is within a minimum and maximum fire rating
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The wall is within a minimum and maximum acoustic rating
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The walls minimum and maximum deflection movement
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The fire seal is accessible on one or both sides of the wall
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For regular (non-drop head detail conditions), the compartmentation wall extends a minimum and maximum distance above the fire seal and is free of obstructions.
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If there are multiple services where the fire seal is designed to be a single service fire seal
Service Types Sheet
Penetrations that contain only one classified service require no further configuration before checking. Where a penetrating service is made up of multiple classified service components, for example, ducts that support fire/smoke dampers, these need to be merged to act as one service using the Services Types Sheet as shown below.
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Example of merging Ducts with a Damper
Specify the classified service for the the main service type and then in the mergeable service types column specify the classified services that will be merged. Separate multiple mergeable services using semi colons. Then simply specify using an x which rules this configuration needs to apply to. This also supports the use of wildcards.
Important
Although only the services and fire seals filters of these rules require users to set up classifications, it is good practice to also use classifications for the compartmentation. The benefits are as follows:
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Helps to structure the model geometry allowing easy identification and visualization in the classification providing a clear indication of what will be checked
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Where present, Services and Fire Penetration Seals will require classification values to interact with the FireStoppingRequirements.xlsx
Tip
The screenshots shown here have been taken from the FireStoppingRequirement_EXAMPLE.xlsx spreadsheet which is available for download from the end of the Introduction article.
In the Parameters view, you can define the compartmentation walls, services, fire seals, inaccessible spaces, obstructions, and requirements file containing the Wall Support requirements sheets.
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Walls filter: Defines the compartmentation walls to have fire support checked for its seals.
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Wall width Property Reference: Specifies the property of the compartmentation wall to check against the minimum and maximum width requirements from the Wall Support sheet in the Requirements File.
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Fire rate Property Reference: Specifies the property of the compartmentation wall to check against the minimum and maximum Fire Rate requirements from the Wall Support sheet in the Requirements File.
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Acoustic rate Property Reference: Specifies the property of the compartmentation wall to check against the minimum and maximum Acoustic Rate requirements from the Wall Support sheet in the Requirements File.
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Deflection movement Property Reference: Specifies the property of the compartmentation wall to check against the minimum and maximum Deflection Movement requirements from the Wall Support sheet in the Requirements File.
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Services (will exclude Fire seals) filter: Defines the service components that will have fire seal wall support requirements checked where service penetrations and fire seals exist.
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Services Classification: Defines the name of the Classification of service types. The Wall Support sheet in the Requirements file references the classifications names from this Services Classification to check fire seal wall support requirements.
Tip
Copy and paste the Classification name directly from the Settings tab of the Classification used to define your services to ensure there are no errors
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Fire Seals filter: Defines the fire seal components that will have their wall support requirements checked.
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Fire seals Classification: Defines the name of the Classification for Fire Seal types that will have wall support requirements checked. The Wall Support sheet in the Requirements file references the classifications names from this Fire seals Classification.
Tip
Copy and paste the Classification name directly from the Settings tab of the Classification used to define your services to ensure there are no errors
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Fire seal ID Property Reference: Specifies the property of the fire seal to categorize results by in the results view.
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Inaccessible spaces filter: Defines spaces that the fire seal cannot be accessed from.
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Inaccessible space range: Defines the distance from the fire seal to check for an intersecting space.
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Space ID Property Reference: Specifies the property of the inaccessible space to report the value of in results for fire seals that are inaccessible on one or both sides.
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Obstructions filter: Defines components that are considered obstructions in the check of the distance with top compartmentation of the fire seal.
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Requirements File Path: Defines the full file path to the xlsx that contains the “Wall Support” sheet used to define required distances between fire seal types.
Tip
Requirements File Path – Copy the location from the path in Windows Explorer or from a macOS command window to ensure there are no errors
Wall Support sheet parameters:
Important
Where multiple conditions apply to certain Fire Seals and Services, additional rows can be added with the variations. In order for the Fire Seal to pass it must only comply to the conditions in one single row.
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Fire Seal Type (separated by semicolons, can contain wildcards): This cell contains the name(s) to match from the Fire seals classification for the corresponding fire seal requirements. If multiple names are listed, those fire seal type names must be separated by semicolons (;). The use of the Asterisks (*) and Question Mark (?) and double hyphen (--) wildcard characters can be used to match names as below...
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* Matches 0 or more characters
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? Matches exactly 1 character
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-- Matches anything but what comes after the double dash
Notice
The File Seal Types entered in column A of either the Wall or Floor Proximity sheets will need to be classified within Solibri. The classification name should relate to the type of Fire Seal not each individual instance as this is covered by the Fire Seal ID Property Reference value within the rule parameters. As the project progresses these may go from generic to specific manufacture ID’s for their approved test conditions.
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Service Type (separated by semicolons, can contain wildcards): This cell contains the name(s) to match from the Services classification of service types that are allowed for that rows Fire seal type(s). If multiple names are listed, those Service type names must be separated by semicolons (;). The use of the Asterisks (*) and Question Mark (?) and double hyphen (--) wildcard characters can be used to match names as below...
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* Matches 0 or more characters
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? Matches exactly 1 character
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-- Matches anything but what comes after the double dash
Tip
Classify your services to the level of granularity that you require in the Service Distance Tab. This could be as granular as individual service sizes, i.e. Copper Pipes 22 mm, Copper Pipes 15 mm, or could be grouped, i.e. all plastic pipes less than 150 mm. Utilising a different classification so that early checks do not require the same level of granularity required in some of the other Fire Stopping rules will provide flexibility. The services example above is defined to give an indication of how the rule functions.
Each rule that references the FireStoppingRequirements.xlsx may reference singular or multiple tabs as such you can separate these workbooks if it provides greater flexibility.
To ensure that there are no typo’s you can create a list of values from the classification Settings page by exporting to Excel as long as all values are present and have been added.
Where multiple conditions can occur with the same fire seals and service types, the rule checks for the same conditions for Fire seals and Services and if one of the conditions passes then those components are then passed.
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Width (empty for unbounded) Minimum (mm): This cell contains the minimum width in millimeters the wall supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Wall Width Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a minimum width. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number.
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Width (empty for unbounded) Maximum (mm): This cell contains the maximum width in millimeters the wall supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Wall Width Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a maximum width. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number.
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Fire Rate (empty for unbounded) Minimum (min): This cell contains the minimum fire rating in minutes the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Fire Rating Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a minimum fire rating. If specified it must be a positive number that is a multiple of 30 and no greater than 240.
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Fire Rate (empty for unbounded) Maximum (min): This cell contains the maximum fire rating in minutes the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Fire Rating Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a maximum fire rating. If specified it must be a positive number that is a multiple of 30 and no greater than 240.
Example 1
30-120
Range including both the bottom or top values
Example 2
30
Means the value must be this value in the wall.
Example 3
>=30
Means the value must be Greater than or equal to 30
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Acoustic Rate (empty for unbounded) Minimum (db): This cell contains the minimum acoustic rating in decibels the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Acoustic Rating Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a minimum acoustic rating. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number. Values are inclusive of top and bottom values.
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Acoustic Rate (empty for unbounded) Maximum (db): This cell contains the maximum acoustic rating in decibels the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Acoustic Rating Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for a minimum acoustic rating. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number. Values are inclusive of top and bottom values.
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Deflection Movement (empty for unbounded) Minimum (mm): This cell contains the minimum deflection movement in millimeters the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Deflection Movement Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for deflection movement. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number.
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Deflection Movement (empty for unbounded) Maximum (mm): This cell contains the maximum deflection movement in millimeters the wall(s) supporting the fire seal type(s) have for a value defined by the Deflection Movement Property Reference. If left blank the rule ignores a check for deflection movement. If specified it must be 0 or a positive number.
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Single/Double Sided (S/D): This cell contains either an ‘S’ or a ‘D’ depending on whether the fire seal must be accessible one or both sides of the wall respectively.
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Regular/Drop Head Detail (R/D): This cell contains either an ‘R’ or ‘D’ depending on whether the fire seal/wall is a regular or drop head detail condition respectively.
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Distance with Top Compartmentations (if Regular Detail) Minimum (mm): This cell contains the minimum distance in millimeters that the top of the compartmentation wall must be from the fire seal and free from any obstructions.
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Distance with Top Compartmentations (if Regular Detail) Maximum (mm): This cell contains the maximum distance in millimeters that the top of the compartmentation wall must be from the fire seal. If no value is set, the maximum distance will be infinity.
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Distance with Top Compartmentations (if Regular Detail) Offset (mm): This cell contains the distance in millimeters out from the face of the fire seal to check for obstructions.
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Single/Multiple Service (S/M): This cell contains either an ‘S’ or ‘M’ depending on whether the fire seal should contain a single or multiple services respectively. If no value is set, the seal type will support either Single or Multiple services.
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Issue Category (empty for default): This cell contains optional text to be included in the result titles of floor position violations found for the defined fire seal types.
The rule creates categories using the values from the property defined in the Fire Seal ID Property Reference parameter. These categories group wall support violations by their specified Fire Seal ID:
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Critical (
) severity results are listed where:-
Associated wall width is unsatisfactory to support fire seal and service type.
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Associated wall fire rating is unsatisfactory to support fire seal and service type.
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Associated wall acoustic rating is unsatisfactory to support fire seal and service type.
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Associated wall deflection rate is unsatisfactory to support fire seal and service type.
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Associated wall is inaccessible from both sides for double sided requirement.
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Associated wall is inaccessible from either sides single sided requirement.
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Associated wall is inaccessible from either sides single sided requirement.
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Wall regular detail top distance is unsatisfactory to support fire seal and service type.
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Multiple services where single service is required to support fire seal and service type.
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Moderate (
) severity results are listed where:-
Fire seals and Services on compartmentation walls to be checked and classified with types in the Fire Seal and Service classifications but are missing a corresponding row for those types in the Wall Support sheet of the requirements file.
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Associated wall width is undefined or is invalid.
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Associated wall fire rating is undefined or is invalid.
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Associated wall acoustic rating is undefined or is invalid.
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Associated wall deflection rate is undefined or is invalid.
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Low (
) severity results are listed where:-
An empty fire seal does not have any services
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Severity Parameters
In addition, you can specify the severity classes according to your preferences and priorities in the Severity Parameters dialog. For example, you can filter specific fire seal components to have critical or low severity results based on their Fire Seal type.