Computational fluid dynamics-assisted smoke control system design for solving fire uncertainty in buildings

Abstract

For every fire prevention design, ensuring safe evacuation and preventing the fire from spreading are primary considerations. However, actual fire scenarios inevitably involve many uncertainties, such as the fire source location, the heat release rate, the fire growth coefficient and so on, which make it difficult for the traditional fire prevention system to achieve these primary considerations. In this paper, an optimum and intelligent system design was developed using the feedback of real-time fire characteristics based on precise control logic using computational fluid dynamics. The new system can make an intelligent adjustment to adapt the real-time fire and to obtain the best smoke exhaust condition by coupling the smoke control system and a physical boundary. The fire uncertainties were used to validate the system design, based on a conventional composite building containing room, corridor and atrium. The results show that the intelligent system is capable of providing different and reasonable reactions for various fire scenarios and of ensuring the safe evacuation of the building. Some limitations of the system have been improved by incorporating a constraint factor into activation procedures for solving extra-large and ultra-fast fires. In general, this intelligent design proved useful as a smoke control system which could be implemented in many similar buildings.