Passive protection

Durasteel can be used to build protective barriers around essential equipment. The barriers can be moved or altered to allow easier access if maintena

Durasteel is made from fibre reinforced cement sandwiched between two punched steel sheets. The product has been in the market in Dubai for about a year and a half and like other organisations introducing something new, the company is doing the contracting work itself.

Over the last 18 months it has completed around 10 projects, including installations for Dow Chemicals and at the Jebel Ali Power and Desalination Plant ‘Project M’.

There the company prepared underground tunnels and cable routes to connect buildings. In order to isolate these tunnels from fire hazards, and limit the spread and damage caused in the event of a fire occurring, the client decided fire walls were needed within the tunnels, to provide effective compartmentation.

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On the same site, the company also designed and is installing four generator fire walls. The generators are located adjacent to each other and each one is surrounded on three sides by concrete walls.

However, due to the fact the generators need to be moved outside of the building for periodic maintenance, one side around each generator had to be left open.

With a road set to run along the unprotected open side of the generators, an explosion occurring would have a devastating effect on the facility located opposite.

To prevent this, the company designed removable Durasteel fire walls for the open side of each generator, to contain any explosion from spreading out of the building.

“Our people are coming from the UK to do the installations and our main job now is to promote it to consultants,” said Raghavan. “We see huge potential in the region.”

As regulations continue to develop, testers and manufacturers of high-specification products will be hoping the rules get tougher. This will encourage greater application of effective passive measures and improve the long-term safety of buildings.