State of the Art of NFPA 285

The increasing demand for high-performance, energy-efficient buildings over the last 20 yrs has led to the evolution of building-enclosure designs that incorporate multiple layers of materials, sized and sequenced to control condensation, water leakage and heat loss. While higher performing, this evolution of building-enclosure design has also introduced more combustible components into the exterior wall of the building. For many noncombustible building types, the International Building Code (IBC) requires testing to NFPA 285 – Standard Fire Test Method for Evaluation of Fire Propagation Characteristics of Exterior Non-Load-Bearing Wall Assemblies Containing Combustible Components – to justify the inclusion of such combustible materials.

(This entry contains a conference paper and presentation in PDF. For optimal viewing, open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.)