Performance of smoke control system, Fontaine Building, Hull, Quebec

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Performance of smoke control system, Fontaine Building, Hull, Quebec

NA TIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH

PERFORMANCE OF SMOKE CONTROL SYSTEM, FONTAINE BUILDING, HULL, QUEBEC

by

C. Y. Shaw and G. T. Tam.ura

AN

Al

VZED

Internal Report No. 412 of the

Division of Building Re search

Ottawa March 1974

PREFACE

For the past several years the Division has been studying the factors affecting the migration of smoke through multi-storey buildings and has delineated a number of approaches to the control of smoke in the event of fire. Buildings incorporating these concepts and others are now being constructed and it is of great value to be able to determine how they perform. This report pre s e nt s the re sults of one such serie s of tests made on the Fontaine Building in Hull, Quebec. The Division is very appreciative of the cooperation of Glenview Realty (Ottawa) Ltd. in permitting these tests to be made and of the assistance that was obtained from the consulting engineers, Belasky and Associates, who designed the smoke control system for the building.

The results of these tests, and other similar ones, will provide design and application data that can only be obtained by such direct experi-ence. This kind of information is needed as a basis for rational building code regulations and for the design of systems that will meet code require-ments.

This report is a private record of what was done and of the results that were obtained: the information will ultimately be published in a form that better suits the needs of designers and code officials.

Ottawa N. B. Hutcheon,

PERFORMANCE OF SMOKE CONTROL SYSTEM, FONTAINE BUILDING, HULL, QUEBEC

by

C. Y. Shaw and G. T. T'arnu r a

The sm oke control sy stern of the Fontaine Building in Hull, Quebec, was de signed using the approach of the pre s surized centre core together with a rn e c han i cal l.y vented srn oke shaft. Tests were conducted to evaluate the pe rfo rrn sn ce of this s y stem on 17 March 1973. These tests, which involved only air flow and pressure rn e a su r eme nt s , were carried out by the Division of Building Research with the pe rrn i s s ion of the Glenview Realty (Ottawa) Ltd. and the De pa r trn e nt of the En vi r onrn e nt , This report describes the results of these tests.

DESCRIPTION OF BUILDING (Figure 1)

Height: The 190 -ft te st building has 16 storeys above ground and two ba serne nt floors. There are 14 typical floors. The m e chani c a l e quipm ent is located on the top floor.

Office The floor layout features open office planning with a centre Layout: core containing elevator shafts, stairwells, service rOOITlS

and shafts, and a lobby. A typical centre core plan is shown in Figure 2.

Floor The floor area is 15, 300 sq ft including 1480 sq ft in the area: centre core area.

DESCRIPTION OF AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

Supply Each typical floor is provided with four Singer rn od e l s y st ern : FV520-5 heat pum p units located in the centre core and

about 24 fan coil units located beneath the windows in the exterior walls. Fre sh air is supplied to the heat pum p units through two vertical shafts connected to supply fans located on the top m e chani c al floor. The rate of fresh air supply is app roxirn ate ly 2000 cfrn pe r storey.

Exhaust system: DESCRIPTION Emergency mode: (Smoke control mode) Fan capacity: Smoke exhaust shaft: DESCRIPTION

­2-The  air  from  washrooms  and  office  spaces  is  ducted  to  two  main  exhaust  shafts  also  located  in  the  centre  core.  These  two  shafts  are  connected  to  the  air  intake  plenums  of  the  basement  ventilation  systems. 

OF  SMOKE  CONTROL  SYSTEM 

The  emergency mode  of the  smoke  control  system  given  in  Figure  3  is  as  follows: 

1.   Two  fre sh  air  supply  fans  continue  to  operate.  The  supply  air  from  one  of the  fan  systems  supplies  air  to  the  office  spaces  and  the  other  is  diverted  at  the  top mechanical  floor  to  a  special  vertical  shaft to 

supply  air  to  the  lobbie s , 

2.   Smoke  exhaust  fan  is  operated  to  exhaust  gas  from   office  space  of  all  typical  floor s  through  a  smoke   exhaust  shaft  vented  to  the  outside  at  the  top  of  the   building.  

3.   The  basement  ventilation  systems  are  shut  down.  The  capacity  of  the  smoke  exhaust  fan  is  35, 000  cfrn .  The  capacitie s  of  the  two  fre sh  air  supply  fans  are  15, 000  cfrn  each. 

The  concrete  block  smoke  exhaust  shaft  is  rectangular  in  shape  and  has  a  cross­sectional  area  of  9.4  sq ft.  The  inlet  grille,  located  in  the  suspended  ceiling  of  the  office  space  adjacent  to  the  ve stibule,  is  ducted  to  the  smoke  exhaust  shaft  located  in  the  centre  core  and  has  a  cross-sectional  area  of  3. 5  sq ft.  Air  is  drawn  from  all  the  typical  floors  when  the  smoke  exhaust  fan  is  operated.  The  locations  of  the  shafts  and  inlet  grille s  are  shown  in  Figure  2.  The  smoke  exhaust  fan  together  with  a  motor-ized  outside  dampe r  is  located  on  the  roof. 

OF  TESTS 

A  total  of  four  tests  were  conducted.  Tests  nos.  1  and  2,  were  conducted  to  establish the  air  flow  pattern  of  the  building  with the  air  conditioning  systems  both  in  operation  and  shut  down.  Te st  nos.  3a  and  b  were  conducted  to  check  the  performance  of  the  smoke  control  system.  Pressure  difference  measurements  across  various  exterior  and  interior 

-3-doors were taken during all te st s . The rates of outside supply and ex-haust air were measured during Test no. 3. In addition rates of air exhaust at the discharge grilles for lobby pressurization were also

mea-sured on nine floors. Details of the test conditions as well as the results of pressure and air flow rate measurements for the four tests are shown in Table I and Figure s 4 to 8.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The tests were conducted on a windy day with an average easterly wind speed of 25 mph. Outside air temperatures. taken at various

times during the tests. averaged 39°F. In general, the pressure difference across various interior doors was small relative to the fluctuation in the readings. The recorded readings are approximate value s ,

Test No.1: Air handling system in normal operation

With the air handling system in normal operation. Figure 4 shows that the pressures in the lobby spaces were less than those in the stairwell, elevator shaft, and office spaces. The low pressures in lobby spaces are probably caused by the operation of the washroom exhaust systems which extract air from the lobby space s , The pre s sure s in the office space s are generally higher than those of the elevator and stair shafts. Opening of the lobby doors on a floor, therefore, can cause a flow of air from the office space into these shafts and into the lobby spaces of other floors. Test No.2: Air handling systems shut down

With the air handling system shut down, Figure 5 indicates that the neutral pre ssure plane of the lobby space. with respect to the office space, is located at about the 10th floor. Below this, the pressures in the office

spaces are higher than those of the centre core while above the reverse is the case. The direction of air flow is, therefore, from the office spaces to lobbies and vertical shafts below the 10th floor and from the stair and elevator shafts to lobby and office spaces above the 10th floor.

Test No.3: Smoke control system in operation

Two tests were conducted with the smoke control system in operation. Test no. 3a was carried out with the two supply fans (office and lobby spaces) and the exhaust fan (office spaces) in operation. Figure 6 indicates that below the 5th floor the pressures in the lobby spaces are lower than those in the office spaces and are higher than those in the vertical shafts; above the 5th floor, the reverse is the case. Te st no. 3b was similar to 3a except that the supply fan system of the office spaces was shut down. Figure 7 indicates that the pressure differences across various interior doors are somewhat similar to those of Test no. 3a.

-4-An e xarn iriat i on of Figures 5, 6 and 7 indicates that the operation of the smoke control system did not significantly alter the flow pattern caused by building stack action. It also indicates that with the smoke control

system in operation only minimal pre s surization of the lobby space s on the lower levels and slight pre s surization on the upper levels were obtained. To further investigate the performance of the smoke control system, air supply rates to lobby spaces and air exhaust rates from office spaces were measured on nine floors. The results shown in Figure 8 indicate that the

vertical distributions of supply and exhaust air rates were not uniform. The rates on the higher floor levels were much greater than those on the lower floor levels. The rates of air supply to lobby spaces in terms of air change per hour varied from 27 for the 14th floor to 4 for the 2nd floor.

The test results indicate that the flow capacities of the supply air system is inadequate to achieve significant pressurization of the lobby spaces, particularly on the lower floors. The pressurization system could be made more effective by increasing the supply air rate sand

eliminating some of the source s of air leakage in the lobby enclosure such as those of the washroom exhaust systems. The smoke exhaust system could be made more effective by allowing it to exhaust from only the office space of the fire floor.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful for the cooperation and assistance of Glen-view Realty (Ottawa) Ltd. and Belasky and Associates and wish to acknow-ledge the contribution made by J. H. McGuire and R. G. Evans in performing the field tests.

TABLE  I  TEST  CONDITIONS 

WIND  E.  25 MPH,  OUTSIDE  AIR  TEMPERATURE  39°F 

DESCRIPTION 

Air  Handling  Systems 

TEST  NO.  Normal  operation  Smoke  control mode  Shut  down  1 x  2 x  a  x  3  b  x  Smoke  Control  System 

Supply  air  system  for  lobby 

pressuri-zation (No. 2)

Supply air system for office space pre s surization (No. 1) Smoke exhaust fan In operation In ope ration In operation x x x x x

Gene ral Exhaust System

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2 

AIR DUCT, SPACE 5 HEAT r ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ I  

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GRILLE MAIN EXHAUST

SHAFT TO _{AIR SUPPLY}

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SUPPLY AIR DUCTS

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TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN OF CENTRAL CORE

10  9  7  6  GROUND  1st  BASEMENT  2nd  BASEMENT 

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FIGURE  3 

SMOKE  CONTROL  SYSTEM 

BR 5163-2

LEGEND 

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OUTSIDE  AIR  SUPPLY  SYSTEMS,  15,000 CFM  EACH

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PRESSURE DIFFERENCES ACROSS LOBBY DOORS, INCH OF WATER

FIGURE 4

PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS FOR TEST NO.1

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FIGURE  5  

PRESSURE  MEASUREMENTS  FOR  TEST  NO.2  

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PRESSURE DIFFERENCE ACROSS LOBBY DOORS, INCH OF WATER

FIGURE 6

PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS FOR TEST NO.

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PRESSURE DIFFERENCE ACROSS LOBBY DOORS I

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FIGURE 7

PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS FOR TEST NO. 3b BR 5163-6

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FLOW  RATES  OF  OFFICE  SPACE  EXHAUST  AND  LOBBY  PRESSURIZATION  VS  FLOOR  LEVEL  BR5163­7