BS 476 Building Materials and Fire Tests on Structures

The BS 476 set of standards designed by the British Standards Institute (BSI) defines appropriate fire tests for structures and building material elements and rates fire resistance levels. The most important issue when designing a building is to determine how the building will behave in a fire and to ensure that the building elements do not collapse, stand or hold the fire for the foreseen time. The legal regulations regarding the building determine the rules and fire resistance levels of the building elements. However, this set of standards also describes test methods for determining these properties of relevant building materials and structures in terms of fire protection of buildings.

The BS 476 standard consists of the following sections under the main title of "Fire tests on building materials and structures":

• BS 476-3 Classification and test method for external fire exposure on roofs
• BS 476-4 Flammability test for materials
• BS 476-6 Test method for fire propagation for products
• BS 476-7 Test method for determining the classification of the surface spread of flame of products
• BS 476-10 Guidelines for the principles, selection, role and practice of fire testing and their output
• BS 476-11 Method for assessing heat emission from building materials
• BS 476-12 Test method for flammability of products by direct flame strike
• BS 476-13 Method for measuring the flammability of products exposed to thermal radiation (ISO 5657)
• BS 476-15 Method of measuring heat release rate of products (ISO 5660-1)
• BS 476-20 Method for determining the fire resistance of building elements (general principles)
• BS 476-21 Methods for determining the fire resistance of the load-bearing elements of the structure
• BS 476-22 Methods for determining the fire resistance of non-load-bearing elements of the structure
• BS 476-23 Methods for determining the contribution of components to the fire resistance of a structure
• BS 476-24 Method for determining fire resistance of ventilation ducts (ISO 6944)
• BS 476-31 Methods for measuring smoke entry from door sets and shutter assemblies - Measurement method under ambient temperature conditions
• BS 476-32 Guide to full scale fire testing in buildings
• BS 476-33 Full scale chamber testing for surface products (ISO 9705)

Our organization also provides fire testing services within the scope of BS 476 standard, with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment, among the numerous test, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies it provides for businesses in various sectors.