Compartmentalization in structures, such as land-based

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fun ...

s, traffic

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

s, aerospace vehicles, or

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s, is the fundamental basis and aim of

passive fire protection Passive fire protection (PFP) is components or systems of a building or structure that slows or impedes the spread of the effects of fire or smoke without system activation, and usually without movement. Examples of passive systems include floo ...

. The idea is to divide a structure into "fire compartments", which may contain single or multiple rooms, for the purpose of limiting the spread of fire, smoke and

flue gases Flue gas is the gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue, which is a pipe or channel for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler or steam generator. Quite often, the flue gas refers to the combustion exhaust gas produced ...

, in order to enable the three goals of

fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies, as we ...

: *life safety *property protection *continuity of operations The construction of such compartments and all their components is a matter of systems within systems, which use

bounding Bounding may refer to: * Establishing limits on the behavior of a process or device, see Listing and approval use and compliance * Bounding overwatch, a variety of military maneuver * A cyclical type of jumping motion See also

* Bound (dis ...

to achieve

fire-resistance rating A fire-resistance rating typically means the duration for which a passive fire protection system can withstand a standard fire resistance test. This can be quantified simply as a measure of time, or it may entail other criteria, involving eviden ...

s, all interdependent, forming part of an overall

fire safety plan Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the development and eff ...

. All components forming part of such a compartment are subject to stringent bounding in countries, where

product certification Product certification or product qualification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests, and meets qualification criteria stipulated in contracts, regulations, or specifications ...

is mandatory.

External links

Wisegeek.com article on fire compartmentsProvince of Alberta Code Interpretation Concerning Fire Compartments
* ttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3737/is_200105/ai_n8950022/ Article by William E. Koffel entitled ''Fire compartments and building height'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Compartmentalization (Fire Protection) Passive fire protection