An Integrated Fire Safety Plan to Manage Smoke Movement During a High-Rise Fire

摘要

A computer program designed specifically to track smoke movement during afire was applied to the task of designing an integrated smoke management scheme for high-rise buildings. The goal of the program was to design a smoke control plan that manipulates the pressure distribution throughout the building while keeping smoke away from building occupants. The results of the program indicate that a plan to pressurize both the stairwells and floor spaces within the building and to utilize the elevator shafts as a route to vent smoke to the exterior can be employed to maintain smoke-free areas on the floors as well as in the fire escape stairs. Combining stair and floor pres-surization has several advantages, including reducing the size and capacity ofthepressurization equipment necessary to keep smoke at bay. The combination of pressurized areas also reduces the force necessary to open fire escape doors and keeps the force within code limitations. The final aspect of the smoke management scheme involves equipping the elevator shafts with exhaust fans to reduce the flow resistance of smoke that is transported to the exterior of the building. The combination of pressurized stairwells and floors, coupled with elevator exhaust, forms a three-pronged approach to smoke management that has the best opportunity to improve life safety during afire. The program results are used to determine the capacity of the pressurization equipment sufficient to maintain smoke-free conditions in the high-rise building. The dedicated fans employed in the stairwells that are capable of preventing smoke from invading the fire escapes are reasonably sized. Floor pressurization equipment is shown to be within the capabilities of existing comfort control equipment. The computer-predicted capacity of the stairwell air-handling units (AHUs) compare well with the size of equipment that has been used in several experimental stairwell pressurization tests.