Advanced Engineering Solutions
See performance before you build.
The Challenge
Most buildings need more than a standard answer.
Prescriptive guidance provides an important foundation for building design, but it cannot anticipate every combination of scale, geometry, use, occupancy, and architectural ambition.
Complex spaces, extended travel distances, unusual escape arrangements, large occupant populations, innovative structures, and constrained sites can all require a more detailed understanding of fire and human behaviour.
Without appropriate analysis, project teams may be left with uncertainty or forced to adopt measures that restrict functionality, increase construction costs, or compromise the original design.
Advanced fire engineering allows specific scenarios to be tested and assessed, helping the design team understand risk, compare possible solutions, and demonstrate why a proposed approach is appropriate.
How Tenos Helps
Evidence for the decisions that matter.
Computational Fluid Dynamics.
CFD modelling simulates the movement of smoke, heat, and gases through a building, assessing smoke layer development, visibility along escape routes, and smoke-control performance.
Evacuation Modelling.
Assessing how people may move through a building during an emergency — crowd flow, congestion, evacuation times, and exit capacity — particularly for complex or highly populated buildings.
Heat Radiation Analysis.
Assessing the potential for fire to spread between buildings, across boundaries, or from exposed facades, using Tenos' own three-dimensional tool, TenRAD.
Structural Fire Analysis.
Helping structural engineers understand how structural elements may respond when exposed to fire, including fire severity, thermal response, and required protection.
Scenario and Sensitivity Testing.
Comparing scenarios to understand how design changes may affect performance, helping refine layouts, systems, and construction strategies before committing to a final approach.
Why choose Tenos?
Better evidence means more confidence.
Understand how the design may perform.
Advanced modelling makes complex and sometimes invisible interactions easier to assess, communicate, and compare.
Support ambitious architecture.
Detailed analysis can help project teams explore solutions that standard guidance alone may not accommodate.
Make informed design decisions.
Testing scenarios before construction allows the wider team to understand the implications of possible changes.
Avoid unnecessary over-design.
A building-specific assessment can determine where measures are genuinely required and where a more proportionate solution may be appropriate.
Support the approval process.
Clearly defined assumptions, methods, results, and conclusions provide technical evidence for engagement with approving authorities.
Connect modelling to the wider strategy.
Our work is developed as part of the wider design and strategy, rather than as an isolated modelling exercise.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is advanced fire engineering?
Advanced fire engineering uses specialist calculations, modelling, and analysis to assess fire-safety questions that cannot be adequately addressed through standard guidance or simplified methods alone.
What is CFD modelling?
Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling uses numerical methods to simulate fluid flow. In fire engineering, it can be used to assess the movement of smoke, heat, and gases through a building or space.
Does every complex building need CFD modelling?
No — CFD should only be used where it is an appropriate and proportionate way to answer a defined technical question. Simpler calculations or established guidance may be sufficient for some projects.
What is evacuation modelling?
Evacuation modelling simulates the movement of people through a building. It can help identify potential congestion, assess escape times, and compare different arrangements for exits and circulation.
What information is needed to build a model?
The required information depends on the analysis, but may include architectural drawings, building geometry, occupancy data, fire scenarios, system information, material properties, and assumptions from the developing fire safety strategy.
Can modelling guarantee how a real fire will behave?
No. A model is a representation based on defined inputs, assumptions, and scenarios. Its value lies in helping qualified engineers assess likely performance and compare potential outcomes.
When should Tenos become involved?
Early involvement is usually beneficial because the analysis can inform the design before key decisions become fixed. Tenos can also support later-stage projects where a specific compliance or performance issue has arisen.
Will advanced modelling secure statutory approval?
No consultant can guarantee approval. Tenos can provide robust, clearly reasoned technical evidence and support discussions with approving authorities, but formal decisions remain with the relevant authority.
Related Services
Explore our fire engineering expertise.
Talk to Tenos
Bring us your difficult questions.
Whether you need to assess smoke movement, test an evacuation strategy, understand heat radiation, or provide evidence for a non-standard design, our engineers can help define the right analysis and find a practical way forward.