Large-scale physical model studies for an atrium smoke exhaust system

This posting is by permission of ASHRAE and is presented for educational purposes only. ASHRAE does not endorse or recommend commercial products or services. This paper may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE. Contact ASHRAE at www.ashrae.org. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASHRAE. Written questions and comments regarding this paper should be received at ASHRAE no later than February 13, 1999. ABSTRACT This paper presents results of a project initiated by ASHRAE and the National Research Council of Canada. The project applies both physical and numerical modeling to atrium smoke exhaust systems to investigate the effectiveness of such systems and to develop guidelines for their design. In this paper, results were obtained from a series of tests conducted using a large-scale physical model. The results from the physical model studies are used to investigate the effect of various parameters including fire size, volumetric flow rate for the smoke exhaust system, and the number and location of the exhaust inlets on the conditions in the atrium.