TABLE OF CONTENTS In this example, for compliance with existing regulations, a stakeholder must provide complete automatic sprinkler coverage or an alternate design that results in an equivalent level of safety. In order to develop a design that provides an equivalent level of safety, one must first understand the context of the requirement (i.e., establish boundary conditions), then quantify the safety level provided by the regulatory requirement (in a means acceptable to the stakeholders), develop an alternate design, quantify the safety level provided by the alternate design, and compare the safety level provided by the alternate design and the regulation-specified design.
To establish the context of the requirement, one can apply the approach of establishing goals (see Chapter 5).
In this example, assume that the requirement for complete automatic sprinkler protection primarily addresses life safety concerns and secondarily addresses property protection concerns.
The goal, therefore, might be to minimize fire-related injuries and to prevent undue loss of life. In meeting this goal, it might be assumed that the sprinkler cannot activate fast enough to prevent injury to, or even death of, person(s) in direct contact with the first materials burning. In this case, the objective might be to provide adequate time for those people outside of the room of fire origin to reach a place of safety without being overcome by the effects of fire and fire effluents. (For the purpose of this example, property protection goals and objectives will be ignored. However, in an actual analysis, property protection might...
