Design analysis of a high rise building using pressurization for smoke management

Fire protection system design in a high rise building presents great technical challenges. In case of fire, an escape route free of smoke should be provided to facilitate efficient evacuation with a favorable pressure gradient to hinder smoke from back-layering. Both ASHRAE and NFPA Life Safety Code provided guidelines for stairwell pressurization system design. In this study, a 47-floor hotel was analyzed in adapting stairwell pressurization system. With subtropical weather, the stack effect is taken into account where worst-case scenario are simulated for summer and winter respectively. Two-stage pressurization system with inverter-driven ventilators was designed and analyzed in this paper. The simulation result covered cases with various opening-doors in different floors to evaluate its pressure distribution along the stairwell.