THERMAL SCIENCE

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Cheuk Lun Chow

SPREAD OF SMOKE AND HEAT ALONG NARROW AIR CAVITY IN DOUBLE-SKIN FAçADE FIRES

ABSTRACT
A scenario on double-skin façade fire was identified earlier for hazard assessment. A flashover room fire occurred next to the façade, broke the interior glass pane and spread to the façade cavity. As observed in experiments, hot gas moved up as a vertical channel flow for narrow façade cavity. Heat and smoke spread along the narrow air cavity of a double-skin façade will be studied in this paper. A simple mathematical model is developed from basic heat transfer theory for studying the vertical air temperature profiles of the hot gas flowing along the cavity. Assuming one-dimensional flow for hot gas moving up the façade cavity, conservation equations on mass and enthalpy were solved. Experimental results on two double-skin façade rigs of height 6 m and 15 m with narrow cavity depth were used to justify the results. A total of 11 tests were carried out. Correlation expressions between cavity air temperature and the height above ceiling of the fire room were derived.
KEYWORDS
smoke, heat, double-skin façade, fire hazard
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2011-09-18
PAPER REVISED: 2012-04-13
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2012-04-28
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI110918094C
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2014, VOLUME 18, ISSUE Supplement 2, PAGES [S405 - S416]
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Spread of smoke and heat along narrow air cavity in double-skin façade fires

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