Method for the justification of fire partitioning in water cooled nuclear power plants (NPP)

The document provides:

— guidelines for determining the thermal effects to consider on fire barriers inside a given room;

— guidelines for determining the global performance of the fire barriers based on standard test characterization;

— guidelines for assessing the need for additional tests to verify the robustness of the solution.

Requirements of applicable standards, numerical tools validation and verification (V&V), and the expected qualification of fire resistance laboratories are detailed.

The limitations of the method's applicability and scope are discussed.

The purpose and justification of this document is to describe a new methodology for the verification of the efficiency of fire barriers, which is initially based on a standardized fire resistance test.

The significance of this work relates to the fact that the present methodology will enhance the level of safety by providing more realism to hazards analysis in combination with standardized test data. It completes the standard ISO-fire rating required for justifying the performance.

The most relevant benefit of this method concerns the determination of the global performance of a barrier in a fire of extended dura