Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
181-192, 2000
ABSTRACT
In Taiwan, the fire code is still prescriptive in nature which fails to provide effective design guide for buildings
with large spaces and atria. In this paper, the NFPA 92B has been adapted to develop a design procedure of
smoke management system in a shopping mall atrium using performance-based fire safety design method. The
objectives of this design procedure are assurance of safe evacuation and prevention of fire spread to adjacent
space. The authors implemented this design procedure to the fire safety system of a shopping mall in Taipei, and
obtained approval from authorities having jurisdiction as a successful performance-based design. This paper
demonstrated the complete design procedure as an example to fire safety engineers.
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International Journal on Architectural Science
Start
Building
Geometry
Humane
Evacuation Smoke Management
Behavior
System Design
Quatitative
Risk Mechanical Natural Hybrid
Asessment Ventilation Ventilation Ventilation
Modify the
number or Width Modify Smoke
of Exits Extraction Rate
No No
ASET>RSET
Yes
To compile the
integrated emergency
procedure
End
Q = heat release rate or the fire size in kw installed on the ceiling of a building. In an atrium,
t0 = effective ignition time the fire/smoke detection system design needs extra
t = actual time elapsed considerations.
a = fire growth rate
The atrium not only provides large space for smoke
In NFPA 92B, four different types of t2-fire were storage in case of a fire, but could easily become
assumed as shown in Fig. 2. The designer has to pre-stratified with a layer of hot air in the summer,
choose one which fits well with the project under especially in a sky-lighted atrium. The smoke
investigation. Sometimes a full-scale test should buoyancy was counter-balanced by the hot air
be arranged to validate the assumption, such as a causing the fire/smoke detectors unable to be
wet-bench fire of a semi-conductor clear room, or actuated. In NFPA 92B, the formation of smoke
an actual carriage fire set inside a vehicle tunnel. stratification can be calculated from:
c. Measured fire growth
z m = 5.54Qc1/4 (∆T/dz )
−3/8
(2)
A measured fire growth curve is utilizing test data
from Cone-Calorimetry, a bench-scale test or a where
full-scale test, and curve-fitted to represent the
“actual” heat release rate [5]. The curves obtained Zm = maximum height of smoke rise above fire
normally presumes more accurate, but sometimes surface (m)
restricted by the test assumptions. The design Qc = convective portion of the heat release rate
engineer normally picks one of these methods as a (kW)
start to size the fire protection system. ∆T / dz = rate of change of ambient temperature
with respect to height (C/m)
2.2 Fire Detection and Suppression System
Design On the other hand, when ordinary sprinkler system
was activated in an atrium, the water droplet could
Normally, the smoke detectors and sprinklers were
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International Journal on Architectural Science
be evaporated so quickly and becoming water mist mass flow rate calculated by the CFAST plume
before hitting the fire source. An actual fire model is obviously too high, could be 92.5% higher
occurred several years ago in CKS airport terminal than that calculated by the NFPA 92B plume model
I showed that the water sprayed in this case is more at the atrium height of 30 m.
like a “cloud” clustered in the middle of the atrium
and became inert. In Fig. 4, the BRI (Building Research Institute,
Japan) [10] and NRCC (National Research Council
NFPA 92B suggested that the sprinkler system of Canada) [11] test data were plotted to compare
should be installed with 2.4 to 7.6 m (8 to 25 ft) with the simulation result. It indicated the NFPA
height normally for escalator or “cabin” protection 92B has the best correlation with experimental data,
in an atrium. For the large space, long-range water and is adapted as our calculation model afterwards
cannon with infra-red detection is sometimes in the design example.
utilized.
When the required safe egress time (RSET) is
2.3 Smoke Management System Design larger than the ASET mentioned above, smoke
management system should be installed as a
Smoke management can be achieved by designing remedial measure.
mechanical and natural venting systems. But before
that, the natural smoke filling process should be b. Mechanical smoke exhaust system design
evaluated.
The design step can be shown as:
a. Smoke filling process evaluation
1. Design the allowable smoke clear height.
In order to evaluate the available safety egress time
(ASET), the smoke filling of the atrium and the 2. Use NFPA 92B plume model or other models
smoke descending rate can be calculated by: to calculate the smoke (air) entrainment mass
⋅
flow rate ( m p ).
d (ρ (H − y )) ⋅
A = mp (3)
dt 3. Size the smoke exhaust system capacity where
⋅ ⋅
m ext ≥ m p .
During the natural smoke filling process, the smoke
descending rate is closely related to the fire plume The smoke descending rate of an atrium can thus
air entrainment mass flow rate, where the most be calculated by:
commonly applied prediction models were listed in
Table 2 [6-9]. Fig. 3 shows the fire plume air d (ρ (H − y )) ⋅ ⋅
entrainment mass flow rate under various heights A = m p − m ext (4)
dt
of a 5 MW fire. This figure depicts that the smoke
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International Journal on Architectural Science
( ) (z − z )
⋅
Plume region: m p = 0.153 gρ 0 Q / c p T∞
1/ 3 5/3
v
1/ 2
Virtual origin: z v = 1.5 A f
( )
⋅
Q1 / 3 (z − z v )
1/ 3
Plume region: m p = 0.21 gρ ∞ / c p T∞
2 5/3
700
Zukoski Plume model
Rate (kgs-1)
650
NFPA 92B Plume model
600
McCaffrey Plume model
rate (kg/s)
550
500
flowFlow
450
400
Mass
350
mass
300
Entrainment
250
entrainment
200
150
100
50
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Clear Height (m)
Fig. 3: Fire plume air entrainment mass flow rate under various heights of a 5 MW fire
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International Journal on Architectural Science
28
NFPA Plume model
26
24
Zukoski Plume model
22
NRCC data
Smoke Clear Height (m) 20 BRI data
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
Time (sec)
Fig. 4: Comparison of the predictions of smoke-layer position with the experimental data
15
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
Time(sec)
Fig. 5: Comparison of the predictions of smoke-layer position with experimental data for
the case with mechanical ventilation of 6 m3s-1
Fig. 5 shows the validation of this model by a experimental work, and the calculation model has
full-scale experiment performed by BRI (Building thus been adapted for our design projects
Research Institute, Japan) [10] with mechanical afterwards.
smoke exhaust rate of 6.0 m3s-1. At the early 80 s,
c. Natural ventilation system design
the predicted smoke clear height is lower than that
measured since the time lag is not counted The smoke management system can be optimized,
effectively. Otherwise, the correlation is good. if natural and mechanical smoke exhaust were
The authors conducted a full-scale experiment of combined into a hybrid system, where exhaust fans
an atrium fire in another research project. The can be downsized significantly.
actual smoke layer positions were recorded visually
with a video-camera and further identified with The natural smoke vent introduces a turbulent air
thermocouple measurements. The correlation is moving process due to high buoyancy and thus
quite satisfactory between the simulation and heavily depends on smoke layer temperature and
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International Journal on Architectural Science
thickness. In our designs, natural smoke exhaust d. Hybrid smoke management system design
rate was calculated using Morgan’s experimental
When the natural smoke vent demands excessive
equation [12], or:
space or the mechanical smoke exhaust rate
⋅ becomes too huge, a combination of the two can be
m n Ts + ( Av C v / Ai C i ) Ts T∞
1/ 2
2 2
designed to become a hybrid smoke management
Av C v = (5) system. It allows more flexibility to the designer
ρ ∞ 2 gD B ∆Ts T∞ and provides an important option for system
optimization.
where
The smoke descending rate of a hybrid system can
Av = measured throat area of ventilators (m2) be calculated as:
Ai = total area of all inlets (m2)
Ci = entry coefficient for all inlets (typically d (ρ (H − y )) ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
about 0.6) A = m p − m ext − m n (6)
Cv = coefficient of discharge (usually between 0.5 dt
and 0.7)
DB = depth of smoke beneath ventilator (m) 2.4 Evacuation Analysis
g = acceleration of gravity (ms-2) In evaluating RSET, the humane intervention and
⋅
mn = mass flow rate of smoke to be extracted response of each time step during evacuation has to
be considered. Normally, the RSET can be
(kgs-1) represented as:
Ts = absolute temperature of smoke layer (K)
T∞ = absolute temperature of ambient air (K) RSET = t d + t a + t o + t i + t t (7)
∆Ts = temperature rise of smoke layer above
ambient (C) where
ρ ∞ = density (ms-2)
RSET = the required egress time needed to a safety
place (s)
The calculation procedure can be summarized as in
td = time of fire being detected after ignition (s)
Fig. 6.
ta = time when alarm was actuated after
detection (s)
Start
È to = evacuees’ response time to an alarm (s)
Assume allowable smoke ti = time elapsed before evacuation actually takes
clear height place (s)
È tt = actual evacuation time needed for the whole
Calculate smoke generation rate crowd leading to a safety place (s)
using designed fire size
È The actual evacuation time tt can be evaluated
Calculate smoke layer temperature by mainly by two calculation models. One is the
Q Steady State-Steady Flow (SSSF) model.
Ts = T∞ +
⋅
c p m p + h( A + PR ( H − y ) ) Conventionally, the SSSF model is used in
considering the evacuation process being similar to
È
Calculate smoke layer density by
a hydraulic flow [13]. The total egress time needed
is the larger of the walking time needed from the
ρ s = 353 / Ts
farthest exit or the time needed to pass through
È exits. Or,
Calculate the pressure difference at floor level by
⋅
∆p = m p / 2 ρ ∞ (αAD ) T1 = max (t11,t12) (8)
2 2
È
Required area of natural vent where
opening
⋅ T1 = egress time (s)
AN = m p / α 2 ρ {− ∆p + (ρ ∞ − ρ )g (H N − y )} t11 = walking time needed to the farthest exit (s)
È
End d
t11 = (9)
v
Fig. 6: The calculation procedure of natural
smoke vent systems where
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International Journal on Architectural Science
d = traveling distance from the most remote point subsystem designed. The smoke management
(m) system should maintain at least the whole time
v = unimpeded walking velocity (ms-1) period to provide a smoke-free escape route.
t12 = time needed to pass through exits (s) However, the fire and smoke detectors, the
annunciation, and the human reaction in the control
N center or the evacuees’ response could be so
t12 = (10) different and heavily dependent on the occurring
n×b
fire sizes, fire location and even unknown reasons.
where For example, the beam-type smoke detection
system may be specified to activate in 60 s when a
N = effective evacuee number (-), persons fire occurs, but it could only take 30 s to react
n = evacuation flow rate (persons/m-s) properly if the fire occurred right underneath, or
B = effective exit width (m) vice versa. The human factor also plays a similar
role in identifying a fire and calling the control
However, in certain occasions, the SSSF model center, or in directing the evacuee during the egress
over-simplified the evacuation phenomenon, process.
especially in a huge crowd where bottleneck is very
likely to form and the dynamic egress model To consider the uncertainties and probabilities in
should be used instead. each time step, the Monte Carlo method was
adapted in this study. Each time step was assigned
The dynamic egress analysis, in simulating a normal distribution curve with the maximum
individuals to evacuate on a computer screen, occurrence probability assigned according to its
considers more profoundly the crowd movement engineering specifications. Therefore, in simulation
diversity, stairs and exists availability and human process, the beam detectors not only responded in
behavior. 60 s as they are specified by the designers, but
could also react in 50 s, 40 s and 30 s, etc. only in
A number of computer evacuation models have reducing probabilities.
been developed in an attempt to predict the egress
process. Most of these are based on network-node The objectives of Quantitative Risk Assessment
approaches, such as EVACNET+, EXITT, EXIT89. (QRA) using Monte Carlo simulation are to
On the other hand, the models which use spatial calculate the combined impact of the model’s
analysis techniques to define the movement of various uncertainties when a building caught fire,
crowds and to track the trajectory of all individuals in order to determine a probability distribution of
as they make their way out of the enclosure have the total egress time. It is adapted as a power tool
become very popular recently. These models to evaluate the effectiveness of the designed
include SIMULEX, EXDOUS, EGRESS, STEPS. emergency procedures.
The computer model ‘SIMULEX’ is designed to
simulate the egress movement of thousands of
individual people in large, geometrically complex, 3. DESIGN CASE STUDY
multi-story building spaces. Thompson and
Marchant [14] carried out a lot of tests to evaluate The authors have recently completed a
the maximum sustainable exit flow rate through performance-based fire safety design project
different passageways indicated that SIMULEX following the procedure developed in this paper
simulation results could correlate well to the data and is discussed here for demonstration purpose.
obtained from real-life observations. The authors
[15] also performed several validations of the This project is designed for a modern shopping
SIMULEX application to geometrically complex mall, which is twelve floors above ground for retail
building designs (such as underground rail stations, shops and seven floors underground for small
shopping malls, etc.) with successful results. delicatessen restaurants and car parks. Fig. 7 shows
Therefore, the SIMULEX program was utilized for the profile of the CP shopping mall, where Table 3
design analysis in this study. listed the dimension of the two atria under study.
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International Journal on Architectural Science
recommended in NFPA 92B for sprinkler system designed smoke clear height is thus 55.2 m above
installation at the top. So that, in this case, the the ground, or at the bottom of the 10th floor.
atrium did not install a sprinkler fire suppression
system. On the other hand, the sprinkler system In NFPA 101 Life Safety Code [16], 4 to 6 ACH
was indeed installed on each retail floor based on (Air Change Rate per hour) was recommended as
the local Fire Safety Code. So that, the design fire an effective smoke exhaust rate of a large space.
size of 5 MW, fast-t2 fire growth curve was However, the correspondingly large exhaust rate, or
specified in calculation to be conservative. 128 m3s-1 in this case, can only keep the clear
Redundant beam detectors have been adapted for height at 19.1 m but not the 55.2 m needed in such
quick response and for eliminating false alarms. a tall atrium. The tremendous atrium height results
The smoke-and-heat hybrid type detectors were in a huge smoke generation rate and should not be
installed as another redundancy. Human taken care of by mechanical smoke exhaust system
identification of a fire was considered a must only. Proposals were made to either adapt partial
before the automatic emergency procedure was natural vent system and/or intersect the atrium in
launched. half in the middle where two smoke zones were
created so that feasible mechanical smoke exhaust
The smoke management system design needs system can be installed maintaining tenable
further discussion. conditions within 480 s and holding smoke level
there steadily.
In order to simulate the smoke descending rate of
Atrium I, both zone model and 3D CFD model Fig. 10 shows the successful simulation result of
consisting of 50,000 grid cells were used. The Atrium II in the spherical building following these
simulation result shown in Fig. 8 indicated that the design concepts. This atrium is divided into two
natural smoke filling process takes about 800 s to smoke zones by fire-proof partition, so that atrium
complete. Fig. 9 shows the intermediate stages of II in the spherical building with 31.2 m height is
temperature and velocity distributions where easier to tackle with. When 100 m3s-1 mechanical
ceiling jet creates a large eddy and turbulence exhaust system was designed, the smoke position
causing the smoke to descend quickly. To control was held at the 7th floor (7F) at around 74 s, and
the smoke in an acceptable clear height, it is further descending to the 6th floor (6F) at 200 s,
proposed to isolate the 10th to 12th (10F~12F) and held there steadily. This is considered a tenable
floor atrium connecting space with fire-proof condition. To sum up, the smoke management
wire-meshed glass block so that the atrium space system of this project has been designed through
can be served as a smoke storage space. The this procedure to maintain the tenable condition.
Atrium I
Fire-proof
partition
Atrium II
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International Journal on Architectural Science
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
Time (sec)
Fig. 8: Predicted smoke-layer positions in Atrium I
20
15
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (sec)
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International Journal on Architectural Science
In order to evaluate the required safe egress time, the total evacuation time as shown in case 3 of
or RSET, dynamic egress analysis using Table 4.
SIMMULEX [17] has been performed and
compared with the SSSF model. Based on the Comparison of Table 4 results in the fact that in a
local fire code, any exit should be located in less crowded shopping mall accommodating more than
than 30 m from any spot of the building interior. 2000 people, the SSSF model sometimes
Based on a full-scale experiment performed by the over-simplifies in calculating the evacuation time
authors [18], and compared with SFPE data [13], needed by over 50%, and the dynamic egress
the evacuation walking velocity and flow rate was simulation model should be used instead. Fig. 11
selected. Based on the SSSF model, a fixed emphasized this point further, that the flow rate
constant of 1.3 persons/s-m was assumed as the constant actually decided the slope of the
exit flow rate as shown in Table 4. It is interesting evacuation line in the SSSF model. However, the
to simulate this flow rate using a dynamic model, dynamic model depicted that this curve is hardly a
so that a more accurate result could be obtained, straight line at all, and the deviation between the
while maintaining the simplicity of the SSSF model two models becomes obvious. The total evacuation
as shown in case 2 of Table 4. Or, a thorough time calculated, or tt in equation (7) is 257 s. As
dynamic egress analysis was performed to calculate listed in Table 5, the RSET in this case is 377 s.
Table 4: Total evacuation time predicted by SSSF model and dynamic model
Parameter Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Simulex Simulation
1.3 person/s-m
2500 0.57 person/s-m
2000
Evacuees
Accumulatedevacuees
1500
accumulated
1000
500
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Travel time (sec)
Fig. 11: Comparison of the evacuation curve predicted by dynamic model with the
SSSF model on the 11th floor of Atrium I
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International Journal on Architectural Science
Fig. 12: Simulation result of Quantitative Risk Analysis using Monte Carlo simulation in Atrium I
Table 5: Mean RSET on the 11th floor in the effective fire safety engineering design
Atrium I methodology can be achieved.
Average time
Fire and/or smoke detection 60 s NOMENCLATURE
Identification of fire location 20 s
Alarm and announcement 30 s Symbols
Egress route selection 10 s A area of building floor (m2)
Egress in process 257 s a fire growth rate
RSET 377 s AD door way area (m2)
Af area of fire source (m2)
When one remembered that the smoke Ai total area of all inlets (m2)
management system in this project has been AN smoke vent area (m2)
designed to maintain the smoke-free escape route, Av measured throat area of ventilators (m2)
or tenable condition, for more than 12 mins AW area (m2)
(ASET), the safety factor of smoke management b effective exit width (m)
and egress design in this project is approximately 2. Ci entry coefficient for all inlets (typically about
Quantitative risk assessment has been performed 0.6)
which validated the effectiveness of the whole cp specific heat of air (kJkg-1K-1)
emergency procedure as shown in Fig. 12. That is, Cv coefficient of discharge (usually between 0.5
the most probable time needed for the emergency and 0.7)
process to complete is 375 s, or 525 s in the worst D fire diameter (m)
case. On the other hand, the tenable condition can d travel distance from most remote point (m)
be maintained by smoke management systems for DB depth of smoke beneath ventilator (m)
12 mins (720 s), which warranted the effectiveness g acceleration of gravity (ms-2)
of the complete emergency procedure. H height of building (m)
h total heat transfer coefficient (kwm-2k-1)
HN height of smoke vent (m)
4. CONCLUSIONS L mean flame height (m)
N effective evacuee number (-), persons
The performance-based design procedure as n evacuation flow rate (persons/m-s)
developed in this study consists of the integration P fire perimeter (m)
of a smoke detection and management system with PR perimeter length of the room (m)
the egress planning to maintain a smoke-free Q total heat release rate (kw)
tenable escape route. The effectiveness of the N effective evacuee number (-)
complete emergency procedure has been analyzed Qc convective portion of the heat release rate
with quantitative risk assessment and demonstrated (Btus-1)
in a modern shopping mall design successfully. T temperature (K)
To this end, a more flexible, safer, and cost- t time (s)
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International Journal on Architectural Science
t0 effective ignition time (s) 7. P.H. Thomas et al., Investigations into the flow of
T1 egress time (s) hot gas in roof venting, Fire Research Technical
t11 walking time needed to the farthest exit (s) Paper No. 7, Department of Scientific and
t12 time needed to pass through exits (s) Industrial Research and fire Offices Committee,
Joint Fire Research Organization, London (1963).
v unimpeded walking velocity (ms-1)
y smoke layer position (m) 8. B.M. Cetegen, E.E. Zukoski and T. Kubota,
Z height above fuel surface (m) “Entrainment in the near and far field of fire
Zm maximum height of smoke rise above fire plumes”, Combustion Science and Technology, Vol.
surface (m) 39, pp. 305-331 (1984).
α opening flow coefficient 9. B.J. McCaffrey, “Momentum implications for
∆T / dz rate of change of ambient temperature buoyant diffusion flames”, Combustion and Flame,
with respect to height (C/m) No. 52 (1983).
ρ density (ms-2) 10. T. Tanaka and T. Yamana, “Smoke control in large
Q *
D [
Q / ρ ∞ c p T∞ ( gD) 1/ 2 2
D (-)] scale spaces”, (Part 2: Smoke control in large scale
spaces), Fire Science and Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1,
⋅ pp. 41-54 (1985).
mext extraction rate of mechanical exhaust system
11. G.D. Lougheed, Personal communication, National
(kgs-1)
⋅
Research Council of Canada, 20 March (1991).
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(kgs-1) for smoke ventilation in enclosed shopping centers,
⋅ Building Research Establishment Report No. 186
m p plume mass flow rate (kgs-1) (1990).
∆p pressure difference at the level of the floor 13. H.E. Nelson and H.A. MacLennan, Emergency
(pa) movement, The SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection
∆Ts temperature rise of smoke layer above Engineering, Society of Fire Protection
Engineering (1995).
ambient (C)
14. P.A. Thompson and E.W. Marchant, “Testing and
Subscripts application of the computer model ‘SIMULEX’ ”,
Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 149-166 (1995).
fl flames 15. K.H. Yang and S.K. Lee, “Smoke management and
0 centerline egress design analysis of an underground railway
∞ ambient station”, To be appeared in The Journal of Applied
s smoke layer Fire Science (2000).
16. NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, National Fire
Protection Association (1995).
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