Smoke Control Made Simple
This course will revolutionise the knowledge on smoke control for all sectors of the industry. We have developed a highly innovative method of determining the ventilation requirements of virtually any building with an atrium from start to finish. Application of this method has been designed to make sure you consider all areas required to ensure the smoke control system is compliant and will certify that the design objectives are met.
Module 10.1
This module will look at the history of smoke control
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Module 10.2
This module will look at the following issues
- Development of fire
- Methods of smoke control
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Module 10.3
This module covers step one. The first step is to determining the design objectives. The primary reason for any smoke control system is the safe evacuation of the occupants. However, a properly designed and installed system will have other benefits and these may indeed be the design objective.
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Module 10.4
This module will look at step two. Step two is to determine the design fire size that will be used in determining the requirements of the smoke control system. Although growing fires are a more realistic prediction of the fire growth, it is the convention to use a steady state fire. This will generally be the most pessimistic assumption of the most likely largest fire size that the system will have to deal with. This may have to be determined by considering a number of potential outcomes and identifying worst case. It is essential for the safe operation of the system that the correct design fire size is adopted.
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Module 10.5
This module will look at step 3. In this step you need to determine the mass flow rate of smoke to be extracted by the ventilation system. There are 2 main types of plumes, simple and complex. This module will look at simple plumes.
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Module 10.6
This module will look at the complex plume which is still covered in step three.
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Module 10.7
This module will look at further models which may be adopted to determine the smoke produced from a complex plume.
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Module 10.8
This module will look at further models which may be adopted to determine the smoke produced from a complex plume.
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Module 10.9
This module will look at further complex plumes.
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Module 10.10
This module will look at step four. The temperature of the smoke is important because if it is excessive then it will have an impact on any life safety objectives. Also, if the smoke is cool it may not have sufficient buoyancy to be extracted naturally and a mechanical system may be required.
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Module 10.11
This module will look at step five. This is a phenomenon which occurs when the air in the roof space is excessively high when compared to ambient. This may be due to solar or space heating of this area and may cause the smoke to stop rising before it reaches the extract point.Stratification occurs early in the fire development due to the smoke losing its buoyancy relative to its warmer surroundings.
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Module 10.12
This module will look at step six. In this step you decide on the type of ventilation required either natural or mechanical. Then you have to determine the number of reservoirs required in the building. If you decide on natural ventilation you have to determine the required AvCv for each reservoir which is a combination of area and the co-efficient of the ventilators. For mechanical systems you simply convert mass flow rate to volumetric.
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Module 10.13
This module will look at step seven. In this step you determine the number of extract points to satisfy the AvCv and this will depend on the co-efficient of the ventilator (usually 0.6) and the sizes available. For mechanical extraction you simply divide the total volumetric extract rate required by the rating of the fans. It may be necessary to add a fan if there is reason to believe a fan may be affected by the fire.
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Module 10.14
This module will look at step eight. If the ventilators in a natural ventilation system are too far apart then the smoke may become stagnant and begin to lose its buoyancy prior to being extracted. To avoid this situation, ventilators should not be located too far apart. This may result in an increase in the number of ventilators being required over and above the quantity to satisfy the AvCv requirement.
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Module 10.15
This module will look at step nine. In the previous step we determined the minimum number of exhaust points within each reservoir to satisfy the extract requirements, however, this may have to be increased since for any specified layer depth, there is a maximum rate (MCRIT) at which smoky gases can enter any individual exhaust point. Any further attempt to increase the rate of exhaust through that exhaust point merely serves to draw air into the orifice from below the smoke layer. This is generally known as ‘plug-holing’.
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Module 10.16
This module will look at step ten. It is essential to ensure that provision is made to allow for make-up or replacement air to replace the smoke mass being vented by either natural or mechanical means. The inlet air may be provided by automatic vents, doors or extract points in other reservoirs. These inlets must be located below the anticipated smoke layer depth and if usually closed, they must open on receipt of the same signal that operates the rest of the smoke ventilation system.
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Module 10.17
The final step is the post design considerations and is where you considered other issues that may have an effect on the smoke control system. You should consider the effects of the wind on the system along with the effect of tall buildings which may result in natural ventilation systems not being permitted.
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Module 10.18
This module will look at the issue of fire loading being introduced into shopping malls.
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Module 10.19
This module will go through 14 full exercises to confirm your understanding.
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