Fire Engineering, Risk & Compliance

Archer provides robust fire engineering, risk management, and compliance services specifically tailored for high-hazard industries including petrochemicals, oil and gas, aviation, and advanced manufacturing. Our deep specialization in performance-based design (PBD), international codes, and local regulatory standards ensures our clients achieve and maintain demonstrable compliance with confidence.

Archer’s expertise helps you proactively manage fire and safety risks, justify innovative design solutions, and confidently navigate complex approval processes. Through a disciplined engineering approach grounded in performance-based principles, we safeguard your operations and deliver compliance with clarity, precision, and reliability.

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    Code Consulting

    Our experienced consultants specialise in internationally recognised standards and codes, providing authoritative guidance to facilities that demand stringent compliance measures. Our areas of expertise include:

    • NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Standards
    • IMO (International Maritime Organization) Regulations
    • ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Guidelines
    • FM Global and Insurance Standards
    • Singapore Standards and Regulatory Requirements
    Our compliance consulting services encompass detailed audits and assessments to accurately identify compliance gaps and provide clear pathways for achieving regulatory conformance. Our comprehensive compliance services include:

    • Detailed Code Compliance Audits:
      • Review and evaluation of existing systems against current standards
      • Comprehensive site surveys and detailed engineering reviews
    • Gap Analysis and Compliance Planning:
      • Identification of compliance deficiencies and development of actionable improvement strategies
      • Transition feasibility studies, including detailed CAPEX forecasting

    Authority Submissions

    Authority Submissions and Regulatory Coordination

    Effective compliance management requires alignment with diverse regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions. Archer supports clients through every stage of the approval process — from concept to certification — ensuring that all facilities meet the operational, safety, and documentation standards required by local Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).

    Our services include:

    • Regulatory Engagement and Submissions:
      • Coordination of submissions to fire authorities, environmental agencies, and building regulators
      • Preparation, review, and collation of all technical documentation required for approval, including fire and life safety reports, performance-based design assessments, and hazardous materials declarations
    • Waiver and Deviation Applications:
      • Development and negotiation of technically substantiated waiver submissions — a core Archer specialty
      • Achieving compliance equivalence through alternate engineering solutions that often result in significant design and cost savings
    • Performance-Based and Risk-Informed Approaches:
      • Application of performance-based design and quantitative risk analysis to justify innovative solutions while maintaining regulatory and safety integrity
    • Multi-Jurisdictional Coordination:
      • Experience engaging with authorities such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and equivalent bodies across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
      • Facilitating efficient and consistent approvals across multiple jurisdictions
    • Insurance Alignment:
      • Integration of compliance documentation with insurer requirements (FM Global, Lloyd’s, and other underwriters)
      • Supporting insurability, reducing risk exposure, and facilitating favorable insurance terms

    Risk and Reliability Engineering

    Archer provides specialist analytical services that help clients understand, quantify, and manage technical risks across critical safety systems. Through targeted studies in fire risk, equipment reliability, and safety assurance, we support owners and operators in meeting both regulatory and operational objectives with confidence. Our areas of expertise include:

    • Fire and Explosion Risk Assessments (FERA): Evaluation of flammable liquid storage, jetty, and process areas using consequence and dispersion modelling tools such as PHAST and FLACS. These assessments provide quantitative insights into fire and explosion hazards, enabling clients to plan mitigation measures and support regulatory submissions.
    • Reliability and Failure Analysis: Application of OREDA reliability data, statistical failure rate analysis, and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to assess system reliability and performance. These studies identify critical failure contributors, support maintenance optimisation, and improve system availability and lifecycle safety.
    • Safety Case Preparation and Review: Development and review of structured safety cases demonstrating compliance with regulatory and company safety objectives. Archer supports clients in compiling defensible documentation based on hazard studies, reliability data, and operational assurance frameworks.

    Performance-Based Design

    In complex industrial environments, prescriptive fire codes often fall short of addressing the unique hazards, geometries, and operational risks present. Performance-Based Design (PBD) provides a rigorous, engineering-driven framework that enables compliance through technical justification rather than rigid prescriptions — ensuring safety, functionality, and cost efficiency without compromising regulatory integrity.

    Through advanced analysis, simulation, and validation, Archer’s fire engineers demonstrate that each design meets or exceeds the fire and life safety objectives established by the Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) and insurers.

    Our PBD services include:

    • Fire and Life Safety Objective Definition: Development of project-specific fire safety goals and performance criteria in alignment with AHJ and insurer requirements, ensuring that performance targets are clearly defined and measurable.
    • Engineering Analysis and Modelling: Application of deterministic and probabilistic approaches — including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), zone modelling, and egress simulations — to evaluate parameters such as temperature, smoke movement, visibility, and toxic gas exposure (e.g., Fractional Effective Dose ≤ 0.3).
    • Scenario Development and Validation: Formulation of credible, challenging fire and explosion scenarios representative of real operating conditions, verifying that protection systems and passive measures perform as intended under worst-case events.
    • Regulatory and Insurance Integration: Preparation of performance-based fire engineering reports and technical submissions for approval by AHJs and insurers (e.g., SCDF, FM Global, Lloyd’s), supporting acceptance of alternative solutions and achieving significant cost and design efficiencies.

    Sector-Specific Applications

    Petrochemical and Industrial Facilities

    PBD is critical in environments with large hydrocarbon inventories and complex piping networks where prescriptive codes cannot capture real-world behavior. Archer applies CFD fire and smoke modelling, explosion overpressure and blast impact analysis, and thermal radiation contour mapping to evaluate the effectiveness of foam-water deluge systems, fire walls, and structural fireproofing.

    We develop performance-based justifications for foam-system density reductions, alternate separation distances, and optimized detector layouts, ensuring compliance with NFPA 11, 15, and 30 while improving constructability and cost efficiency.

    The 2022 edition of NFPA 409 now formally recognizes a risk-based approach for developing alternative fire protection strategies — allowing designers to move beyond the rigid prescriptive foam-system requirements of earlier editions. This evolution is especially significant given the global phase-out of AFFF foams, which have traditionally been the foundation of hangar fire protection.

    Archer applies Performance-Based Design (PBD) principles to help facility owners achieve full compliance while adopting practical, lower-impact protection strategies. Using advanced modelling tools such as Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), PyroSim, and ANSYS Fluent, our engineers simulate fuel spill dynamics, foam spread, and thermal radiation contours to evaluate feasible alternatives — including emergency drainage-only systems in lieu of complex foam discharge networks.

    This approach not only ensures life safety and asset protection, but also mitigates risks of equipment damage from false discharges and delivers substantial CAPEX and OPEX savings over the lifecycle of the protection system. Archer’s analyses provide the technical justification required for AHJ acceptance under NFPA 409’s performance-based provisions, supporting a safe and responsible transition to SFFF-compatible or non-foam protection schemes.

    Tunnel fires present extreme confined-space challenges where traditional prescriptive design cannot predict tenability. Archer conducts transient CFD modelling for longitudinal and transverse ventilation analysis, smoke layer interface prediction, and temperature-time contour mapping.

    Our solutions address critical velocity validation, jet-fan placement optimization, fire resistance of structural linings, and tenability time verification for multi-vehicle or tanker fire scenarios — ensuring compliance with NFPA 502, PIARC, and international best practices.