Applications of smoke control methods
A disadvantage of the airflow method is that it supplies increased oxygen to a fire. Within buildings, the airflow method must be used with great caution. The airflow required to control a wastebasket fire has sufficient oxygen to support a fire 70 times larger than the wastebasket fire. The airflow method is best applied after fire suppression or in buildings with restricted fuel. For more information on airflow, oxygen, and combustion, refer to Huggett, C. 1980, Estimation of Rate of Heat Release by Means of Oxygen Consumption Measurements, Fire and Materials.
Buoyancy method
The buoyancy method clears smoke from large volume spaces with high ceilings. The method employs paths to the outside and relies on hot combustion gases rising to the highest level in a space. At the high point, either a powered smoke exhausting system or a
Applications of smoke control methods
Applying the methods of smoke control to spaces within a building provides a building smoke control system. Smoke control methods are most commonly applied to building spaces to provide zoned, stairwell, elevator shaft, and atrium smoke control.
Note:
It is beyond the scope of this user guide to provide mathematical design analysis information for smoke control. For references to design analysis information, see Appendix A, References.
Zoned smoke control
Zoned smoke control uses compartmentation and pressurization to limit smoke movement within a building. Typically, a building consists of a number of smoke control zones. Barriers (partitions, doors, ceilings, and floors) separate the zones. Each floor of a building is usually a separate zone (Figure 3 on page 6). However, a zone can consist of more than one floor, or a floor can consist of more than one zone.
The zone in which the smoke is detected is the smoke control zone. Zones next to the smoke control zone are adjacent zones. Zones not next to the smoke control zone are unaffected zones.
Pressure differences produced by fans limit smoke movement to adjacent and unaffected zones. The system may pressurize adjacent zones and leave all unaffected zones in normal operation (Figure 3(a) and Figure 3(c), page 6). Pressurizing adjacent zones creates a pressure sandwich. Or, the system may pressurize adjacent zones and some unaffected zones (Figure 3(b), page 6). In either case, the system exhausts the smoke control zone, putting it at a negative pressure, relative to adjacent zones.
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