Effects of External Architectural Features on the Performance of Buildings Under Wildfire Exposure Conditions

Recent research on the buildings in bushfire (wildfire)-prone areas of Australia showed that 90% of buildings are not constructed to the current bushfire standards. Considering the significant annual costs related to property losses caused by bushfires, it is important to investigate the bushfire performance of these buildings by including the influence of architectural features. Therefore, in this study, computational fire dynamics modelling was used to investigate the performance of a full-scale building with near-accurate architectural features under bushfire exposures based on regulatory standards. The models were developed for a building in a bushfire-prone area in Queensland, Australia. The study focused on conducting a comparative study to understand the important architectural features of the building and their impact with respect to the building’s bushfire survival. The results of this numerical study emphasize the role of architectural features and their compliance with bushfire standards in protecting the buildings. Furthermore, the use of advanced modelling techniques in this study can be used in many other applications in predicting the performance of buildings under bushfires and building fires.