A Retrospective Survey on Elevator Evacuation of Supertall Buildings Under Fires

Chow, Wan Ki

doi:10.2190/af.16.4.c

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Long evacuation time is a key fire safety concern when a supertall building is on fire. Stairs alone are inadequate for full evacuation at any significant height, for example up to 2 hours as reported in the previous case [2]. Phased-evacuation or the "stay-in-place" approach by providing refuge storeys or refuge areas is a feasible way for fire safety management for supertall buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Study on the Performance of a Proposed Fire Safe Elevator System used for Evacuation in Supertall Buildings

Cai

Shen

2016

MATEC Web Conf.

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Abstract. Long evacuation time is a key fire safety concern when a supertall building is on fire. The elevator system can be an effective alternative. The performance of a design of fire safe elevator system combining the refuge place with fire safe elevator is studied. An example building based on this proposed design is considered. Smoke spread to the system is studied by the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). Different arrangements of smoke extraction with pressurization systems are evaluated by analysing the smoke dispersion and pressure distributions in this fire safe elevator system. Numerical results were compared with that by theoretical equations. The results show that a smoke extraction system with a four-floor approach pressurization system can be an efficient method for smoke control in elevator system for supertall buildings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Study on the Performance of a Proposed Fire Safe Elevator System used for Evacuation in Supertall Buildings

Cai

Shen

2016

MATEC Web Conf.

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“…21 The theoretical location of the neutral plane for shaft with a continuous opening was calculated by equation (4) to be 151.5 m. FDS result of the neutral plane location for scenario NNN was calculated to be 158.5 m, with an error of 4.6% compared to theoretical result. The theoretical location of the neutral plane for ventilated shaft was calculated to be 169 m by equation (5). Corresponding FDS result for scenario NVN was calculated to be 164 m, with an error of 3.0%.…”

Section: Scenarios Without Firementioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 Long evacuation time has been identified as a primary consideration and an important factor for fire rescue when a crowded supertall building is on fire. [3][4][5] Full evacuation with stairs alone would require a long evacuation time up to 2 h as reported in some existing supertall buildings. 5 Phased evacuation or the 'stay-inplace' approach by providing with refuge storeys or refuge areas is then commonly adopted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[3][4][5] Full evacuation with stairs alone would require a long evacuation time up to 2 h as reported in some existing supertall buildings. 5 Phased evacuation or the 'stay-inplace' approach by providing with refuge storeys or refuge areas is then commonly adopted. However, if fire safety management is not implemented properly, firemen have to go inside the building to rescue occupants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical studies on fire hazards of elevator evacuation in supertall buildings

Cai

Chow

2018

Indoor and Built Environment

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Long evacuation time is a key fire safety concern for crowded supertall buildings. Elevator evacuation appears to be the only choice but fire safety provisions are not specially designed for the use of elevators. A fire safe elevator system was proposed earlier for supertall buildings by providing elevator accessible on each floor level and passing through the refuge place. The fire hazard associated with this design has been studied numerically through an example building in this paper. Smoke spread to the elevator system was considered in the study. The effect of ventilation of the shaft, stack effect and wind effect on smoke movement were studied by empirical equations in fire engineering and justified by computational fluid dynamics. Different designs of smoke extraction with pressurization system were evaluated by analysing the smoke dispersion and pressure distributions. The effect of fire at different heights on smoke spread was also investigated. Results show that the smoke extraction system can only delay smoke spread to the elevator shaft near the fire source for a short time. The "four-floor approach" pressurization system can confine the smoke in the area of fire floor for a sufficiently long time period for safe evacuation.

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Experimental and numerical evacuation study in tall office building

Ivanov

Chow

2023

Journal of Building Engineering

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A Retrospective Survey on Elevator Evacuation of Supertall Buildings Under Fires

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Study on the Performance of a Proposed Fire Safe Elevator System used for Evacuation in Supertall Buildings

Study on the Performance of a Proposed Fire Safe Elevator System used for Evacuation in Supertall Buildings

Numerical studies on fire hazards of elevator evacuation in supertall buildings

Experimental and numerical evacuation study in tall office building

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