Speaker: Rosalie Hrybyk
This presentation will provide results from an internal study utilized to find closure on the historic battle of considering open doors during the design of a stairwell pressurization system. Through expanding on previous research and modeling approaches, quantification of the impacts of varied approaches will be provided. CONTAM and FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) have been utilized to perform test cases of a typical high-rise building using stair pressurization. Various factors are considered during the analysis such as injection locations and open door configurations. In addition to adequate pressure differentials, the study analyzes if tenable conditions within the stairwell are maintained throughout the matrix of possible design approaches. In typical design methodologies, tenability is not evaluated as part of stairwell pressurization design or performance. It is anticipated that positives and negatives of the various considered design approaches will be identified, with hopeful closure through model visualizations and data on how our profession should proceed in designing these systems.