SHORT NOTES ON INTERNAL VOIDS IN HIGHRISE BUILDINGS: ARE THEY SAFE IN A FIRE?

Internal voids are now commonly found in new highrise buildings. There are concerns on fire safety associated with their design. Two aspects are pointed out in this short note: Fire aspects of a room such as kitchen or bathroom opened to an internal void. Spread of smoke from the fire level to adjacent levels. Fire models including Computational Fluid Dynamics are used for the analysis. Preliminary results indicated that further studies, including full-scale burning tests, should be carried out to investigate the potential fire hazard.