Engineering Judgments
Fire rated expansion joint Engineering Judgments are available to certify the use of EMSEAL’s fire rated expansion joints not covered by UL Listings.
Not all Engineering Judgments are created equal. Nor are all fire-rated expansion joints. Yet Engineering Judgments are widely used in the field of passive fire-protection to address conditions not covered explicitly by UL or other fire and heat resistance testing. This has critical life safety implications. At Sika Emseal we take seriously the consideration of applications requiring an Engineering Judgment. So seriously in fact, that we subject each and every unique condition to a full FEA (Finite Element Analysis) using COMSOL, Inc. Multiphysics Simulation software. The data for the models comes from decades of multiple actual full-scale UL 2079, ASTM, EN-1366-4, RWS, and other applicable tests. The FEA-validated performance in our Engineering Judgments is then reviewed by a 3rd-party, NFPA-Certified Fire Protection Specialist. This has been our practice for over a decade and seems a reasonable standard to expect of Engineering Judgments.
By way of example, the following are some of the engineered judgments secured by Sika Emseal for specific projects. Contact Sika Emseal for preparation or adaptation of a judgment for your project.
IMPORTANT:
All fire rated expansion joint engineered judgments are project specific. They are provided here for reference as to what is possible in extrapolating actual UL 2079 test data to other non-UL-tested applications. Please contact Sika Emseal if you have a condition that deviates from one of our numerous UL/ULC Listings. We will be happy to secure a project-specific engineered judgment for your project conditions if feasible.
Notwithstanding the opinion offered in an engineering judgment by the issuing engineer, it is incumbent on the design professional for the project to incorporate fire-resistive joint system details into an overall system for the application.
The acceptance of the equivalent fire-resistive joint system inferred by any Engineering Judgment is the prerogative of the Authority Having Jurisdiction.
Authorities Having Jurisdiction should be consulted in all cases as to the particular requirements covering the installation and use of products or materials and should be further consulted before and during construction to ensure that specific adjacent substrates and assemblies are detailed and constructed to meet local fire-resistance requirements. Any reuse or adaptation of any project-specific judgment for a project for which is was not compiled will be at the user’s sole risk and without liability to EMSEAL or the engineering firm that produced the original.