Experimental Study on the Characteristics of Temperature Field of Fire Room under Stack Effect in a Scaled High-rise Building Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT：A set of experiments were conducted in a scaled building model with 12 floors to study on the temperatures of fire room under stack effect in a high-rise building. The fuel mass loss rate, radiant flux, heat flux and temperatures in the atria and fire room at the first floor were experimentally investigated. The flames of pool fires in room are tilted towards the staircase under the air flow induced by the stack effect. The mass loss rate of fuel is influenced slightly by the position of window opened in the staircase, while the temperature distribution in the atria and fire room is different in the opened and closed staircases. The hot smoke temperatures in the atria and fire room at the first floor increase with an increasing pool size. The upper hot smoke temperatures in the atria are higher than those in the fire room in cases with an opened staircase. Compared different positions of the window opened in the staircase, it can be found that the upper hot smoke temperatures in the atria in cases with the 3 rd floor window opened are the highest due to the weaker stack effect. In the closed staircases, the upper hot smoke temperatures in the fire room are great higher than these in the atria at the first floor. Besides, the radiant flux and heat flux of the left sidewalls of staircase in an opened staircase are higher than those in a closed staircase, due to the tilted flame. The results obtained in this paper may be used for the safety design of the room in high-rise buildings.

"The influence of ventilation factors on the development of fires in rooms and buildings. Review of numerical studies"

“…In order to study the stack effect in high-rise buildings, several studies were consulted in which different software were used, FireSTORM [29], COSMO and CONTAM [30] and PyroSim [31], [32], following the main advantages and disadvantages of each. Moreover, in order to understand the stack effect phenomenon, experimental studies started in this regard were also consulted [30], [33]- [36] concluding that a faithful experimental representation of the stack effect cannot be reproduced by a small-scale experiment. If we refer to tall and very tall buildings, the stack effect is much more present due to the considerable height of vertical gaps, stairwells and elevator shafts.…”