American Wood Council releases new fire design specifications

The American Wood Council (AWC) has released a new publication for fire design of wood members, assemblies, and connections to meet code requirements. 

The 2021 Fire Design Specification for Wood Construction (FDS) is available for free download on the AWC website: awc.org/codes-standards/publications/fds-2021.

Since 2001, the National Design Specification for Wood Construction (NDS) has contained provisions for the structural design of unprotected wood members exposed to a standardized ASTM E119 fire exposure. 

The FDS contains these existing provisions and also provides calculation procedures to address the added fire resistance and thermal benefits of protection provided by use of additional wood cover, gypsum panel products, and insulation. 

The additional calculation provisions have been developed to provide standardized methods of calculating thermal separation and burn-through requirements as required in ASTM E119 and as provided in AWC’s Technical Report 10: Calculating the Fire Resistance of Exposed and Protected Wood Members (TR10).

“The FDS pulls everything you need to know about fire design of wood members, assemblies, and connections into one document,” said AWC Vice President of Engineering Bradford Douglas. “The most reliable data available from laboratory tests and experience with wood structures in service have been carefully analyzed and evaluated to provide, in a convenient form, a comprehensive standard of practice. We invite and welcome comments, inquiries, suggestions, and new data relative to the provisions of this document.”