1.1 These guidelines are intended for application
of fire safety engineering design to provide technical justification
for alternative design and arrangements to SOLAS chapter II-2. The guidelines serve to outline
the methodology for the engineering analysis required by SOLAS regulation II-2/17 “Alternative
design and arrangements", applying to a specific fire safety system,
design or arrangements for which the approval of an alternative design
deviating from the prescriptive requirements of SOLAS chapter II-2 is sought.
1.2 These guidelines are not intended to be applied
to the type approval of individual materials and components.
1.3 These guidelines are not intended to serve
as a stand-alone document, but should be used in conjunction with
the fire safety engineering design guides and other literature, examples
of which are referenced in section
3.
1.4 For the application of these guidelines to
be successful, all interested parties, including the Administration
or its designated representative, owners, operators, designers, and
classification societies, should be in continuous communication from
the onset of a specific proposal to utilise these guidelines. This
approach usually requires significantly more time in calculation and
documentation than a typical regulatory prescribed design because
of increased engineering rigor. The potential benefits include more
options, cost effective designs for unique applications and an improved
knowledge of loss potential.