The Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute is an institution of hospitalization and care that includes health care and research. The hospital facility embraces both the orthopaedic-trauma area and the rehabilitation one in a complex of historical and artistic importance.
The activity carried out involved both the fire-safety design and the study of escape flows, specifically the activity for which the fire-safety design has been performed relates to the Hospital complex in question developed in two main buildings: the Hospital - Modern Wing mainly used as a hospital and the Monumental Building used as Day Services Health Centre.
The activity carried out aimed to study the escape flows of people in complex and strategic buildings, through the use of software dedicated to the evacuation modelling according to Fire Safety Engineering principles. This is how the problems related to the lengths of escape routes were resolved guaranteeing an evacuation of people as provided for in the legislative timeframe.

The project concerns the analysis of fire safety of the industrial complex owned by Zanichelli Editore S.p.A. The complex is made up of two buildings, with a total surface area of approximately 15.000 m², for the storage and transport of library material.
Since the separation distance between the buildings is lower than that imposed by legislation and wishing to justify a reduction of the fire-resistance requirement, always in compliance with fire safety, it was necessary to demonstrate that the building can be considered isolated. For this purpose, by means of using finite element software, structures subjected to the action of the natural fire curve, evaluated considering the most severe scenario, resulted to be affected by a favourable collapse mechanism (no sway), which typically provides the confinement of the collapse mechanism and the implosion of the structure, without thereby undermining the stability of adjacent structures.
In addition, the activity has also carried out the identification of flexible and economic design solutions through the principles of Fire Safety Engineering where it was possible to guarantee, operating in the field of fire resistance and disposal of smoke and heat, a high level of global security.

ELT Extremely Large Telescope will be world's largest optical telescope, consisting of a primary mirror with a 39 m diameter. The optical system will be supported by a 62 m high metallic structure with 71 m diameter, placed on reinforced concrete foundation, and protected by a rotating metal dome 80 m high and with 92 m diameter. Two sets of laterally-opening doors form the observing slit, providing needed protection to the telescope in inclement weather and during the day. ELT is currently under construction in Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, at 3000 msl.
IDF was the appointed consultant for all aspects of fire engineering, for this extraordinary project in all its complexity: from Fire Strategy Design in compliance with international and Chilean regulations of reference, performance-based analysis of people and smoke evacuation models, passive fire protection solutions in synergy with Cimolai, to active fire protection systems design.
ELT – Extremely Large Telescope
Cile – ESO/L.Calçada

Fire safety design relating to a Primary Cabin consisting of 5 fixed electrical machines with the presence of combustible liquid.

The building owned by N.C.V. Soc.Coop. S.r.l. is used as a deposit of forklifts of the Toyota group and of materials, various accessories and spare /maintenance parts used in support of storage activities. It is extended over a single floor above the ground for a total area of approximately 8400 m² and its maximum internal height is approximately 8.09 m.
In the context of large-scale distribution and logistics, through the development of an accurate study of organizational and operational mode according to the principles of Fire Safety Engineering, actions have been undertaken in order to provide high operational flexibility.

The aforementioned activities have got a productive complex a portion of which is represented by two warehouses (constituting a single fire safety compartment), characterized by a map surface of about 1171.6 m² and a maximum height of 16.7 m for the automated warehouse and 11.9 m for the traditional warehouse.
The solutions provided in the field of bulk logistics and for the largest manufacturers of automated deposits are based on heat transfer models and collapse modes capable of determining the effects of fire, the constructive measures and mechanisms for the definition of the specific mode of collapse.

Nuova Ompi s.r.l. is a major leading company in the pharmaceutical sector. The company is established in two buildings where productive, administrative and commercial activities take place. The two buildings communicate with each other at the first floor level with an overhead walkway. The activity carried out by IDF has been oriented towards systems engineering consulting and Fire Safety Engineering in order to optimize production processes and ensure business continuity.

This company is one of the major European manufacturers of position switches, micro-switches, safety devices, safety modules, foot switches, control and signalling devices, devices for elevators. Two floors of the plant are above the ground and one floor is underground.
For manufacturing companies of the European context, skills and knowledge have been developed by producing engineering solutions in the context of the optimization of plant systems for evacuation and disposal of fumes according to the Fire Safety Engineering principles.

The project consists in checking the preservation of the load-bearing capacity of a warehouse of reels located in a factory owned by Centro Stampa Poligrafici S.r.l., used mainly for printing newspapers and commercial material.
The building in question is extended over a single floor above the ground and has a supporting structure made with pillars and trusses made of steel. The covering trusses are made with very slender angle profiles, thus being subject to instability phenomena, and given the high section factors it appears that they cannot be protected with common passive protection systems.
Therefore in order to demonstrate the achievement of the fire safety objectives a performance approach has been undertaken - FSE, identifying the various fire scenarios related to the activity, the most serious one and checking, through the use of software to the finite elements, that the structure, subjected to the natural curve of fire, maintains its mechanical characteristics of stability under the action of fire for at least 30 minutes. The guarantee should also include the absence of damage to other buildings due to structural collapse, it was verified that the structure, subject to the natural curve of fire, was affected by a favourable collapse (no sway) mechanism that typically involves confinement of the collapse mechanism and structure implosion. The analyses carried out have managed to minimize passive protection interventions, restricting them to only a few elements, with a consequent reduction of costs related to fire safety adjustment and considerable economic savings.

The area, where the buildings subjected to fire safety design are located being used by Trenitalia S.p.A. for the repair of traction units and locomotives, includes buildings and accessories used as offices for relevant services.

IDF was appointed to evaluate the loadbearing capacity in fire conditions of reinforced concrete members, located in "TWIN SET" industrial warehouse situated in Carpi (province of Modena, Italy).
Verifications that were carried out were considering thermal actions induced by ISO 834 curve (nominal fire). Therefore, indirect stresses from structural elements adjacent to those taken into consideration could be deemed negligible, as specified in Eurocode 1-1-2.