Due to fire regulations and demands most walls of Off Shore Platforms need to be islolated against fire. The walls should be isolated to a fire of 1000 degree Celsius. This isolation on both sides is done so all walls can carry shear loads so the constructional integrity stays high when there is a fire. For example wind loads should be carried by the walls. The walls take the windload and bring through the construction piles to the ground. With a safety reasoning Practical Solution was able to convince the customer of not isolating all walls both sides. A lot of walls do not need to be isolated and still reaching the same safety level.
The platform consists of 9 seperate spaces. Practical solution asked the manager what would happen if in 2 spaces would be a fire. He said we abort the platform. So constructional safety level should be high if there was a fire in only one space. So no wall or roof should be abel to collapse when there is fire in one space.
The main reason why many walls do not need isolation is the main steel load bearing structure consisting of pipes of big diameter isolated for fire by a layer of special concrete. All these pipes are so well isolated that when their is a fire these pipes still can transfer loads over the platform. So if there is a fire in one place these pipes can transfer the loads to be carried to another space or wall. Asume there is a fire in space A and the walls are not isolated. A windload acting on the left of the platform (see this PDF) cannot be lead to the ground by the unisolated walls in space A because the steel wall gets to hot from the fire. The big pipes can transfer this windload to space B. Because there is no fire at space B this wall can divert a windload to the ground.
With this safetyreasoning it could be possible to deliver 40% less on isolating material. Also huge savings on labor costs and weight could be reached.
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