Screens surrounding openings in floor slabs of public buildings

Introduction. Screens often surround openings in the floor slabs of atrium buildings to prevent the spread of fire hazards to higher floors and to improve the efficiency of smoke ventilation systems. In this article, the co-authors assess the expediency of installing screens around openings in the floor slabs and identify the best screen height values. In this article, the co-authors perform a quantitative analysis of the ability of screens to prevent the propagation of hazardous fire factors, to identify general regularities typical for a multi-level space, and to develop recommendations for the installation of screens inside public buildings. The co-authors suggest that screen height should be a solution to the following tradeoff problem: the use of screens reduces acceptable evacuation time for the floor that has screens installed and rises the evacuation time for higher floors.

Rational screen height selection algorithm. The co-authors propose the following algorithm for the two-stage selection of the rational screen height. At the first stage, the evacuation problem is resolved. As a result, evacuation completion time is determined for emergency exits. Further, acceptable evacuation time and the time needed to block emergency floor exits are identified for a particular type of a fire alarm system.
At the second stage, the dynamics of hazardous fire factors in building rooms is assessed for various screen heights. As a result, the rational height of screens is established for the evacuation time to remain positive.

Conclusions. Screen height values cannot be determined in advance. Each case requires an individual approach that entails the resolution of evacuation problems and the tracking of the dynamics of hazardous fire factors in buildings that have multi-height spaces. These ideas are in line with the concept of flexible regulation of fire protection systems designated for construction facilities.

1. Hansell G.O., Morgan H.P. Design approaches for smoke control in atrium buildings : (BR 258) Building Research Establishment Report S. Borehamwood Herts, 1994; 57.

2. Acherar L., Hui-Ying Wang, Garo J.-P., Coudour B. Impact of air intake position on fire dynamics in mechanically ventilated compartment. Fire Safety Journal. 2020; 118:103210. DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103210

3. McGrattan K., Hostikka S., McDermott R., Floyd J., Weinschenk C., Overholt K. Fire Dynamics Simulator. Technical Reference Guide. Vol. 3: Validation. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2015.

4. Van Coile R., Jomaas G., Bisby L. Defining ALARP for fire safety engineering design VIA the life quality index. Fire Safety Journal. 2019; 107:1-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.04.015

5. Schadschneider A., Klingsch W., Kluepfel H., Kretz T., Rogsch C., Seyfried A. Evacuation dynamics: Empirical results, modeling and applications. Encyclopedia of complexity and system science. Springer, New York, 2009; 3142-3176. DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_187

6. Prisadkov V.I., Muslakova S.V., Kosterin I.V., Fadeev V.E., Shamaev A.M. Engineering method of selection of rational variant of fire protection of objects with economic responsibility. Pozharovzryvobezopasnost/Fire and Explosion Safety. 2016; 8:49-57. DOI: 10.18322/PVB.2016.25.08.49-57 (rus).

7. Chow W.K., Fong N.K., Cui E., Ho P.W., Wong L.T. Polyu/ustc atrium: a full-scale burning facility-preliminary experiments. Journal of Applied Fire Science. 1998; 8(3):229-241.

8. Kholshchevnikov V.V., Samoshin D.A., Parfenenko A.P., Kudrin I.S., Istratov R.N., Belosokhov I.R. Evacuation and behavior of people during fires. Moscow, Academy of State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, 2009; 212. (rus).

9. Heskestand G. Fire plumes, flame height, and air entrainment. Handbook of Protection Engineering. Third Edition. Chapter 1. Springer, New York, 2016; 2-1,2-17. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2565-0_13

10. Purser D.A. Combustion toxicity. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. 5th ed. Society of Fire Protection Engineers, 2016; 3493.

11. Schröder B., Arnold L., Seyfried A. A map representation of the ASET-RSET concept. Fire Safety Journal. 2020; 115:103154. DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103154 (rus).

12. Alpert R.L. Ceiling jet flows. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. 3rd ed. Chapter 2. 2002; 2-18, 2-31.

13. Lovreglio R., Kuligowski E., Gwynne S., Boyce K. A pre-evacuation database for use in egress simulations. Fire Safety Journal. 2019; 105:107-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2018.12.009

14. Schröder B. Multivariate methods for life safety analysis in case of fire : Ph.D. thesis. Universitatsbibliothek Wuppertal, 2017; 245.

15. Kholshchevnikov V.V., Prisadkov V.I., Kosterin I.V. Improvement methodology for de-termining the calculated value of the fire risk in buildings and structures based on stochastic description of determining their processes and trees events. Pozharovzryvobezopasnost/Fire and Explosion Safety. 2017; 26(1):5-17. DOI: 10.18322/PVB.2017.26.01.5-17 (rus).