An office building has an atrium in its center. Its top is open.
The cross section of the atrium is rectangular. There is a sill (spandrel) with 120 cm high separating windows (vertical direction) of the same facade. My question refers to openings in different floors and different facades with right angle to each other.
Are there bibliographies on this subject? In NFPA 80A I have seen nothing.
About standards on that problem, I dont know nothing.
About physical aspects, on my opinion:
1. If the top is open, like you said, there is not the problem of the smoke layer which can go down enough to interact with different windows on different floors.
2. As my colleague of Modena said, it depends on boundary and ventilation conditions. Also, of course, it depends on the distance between windows (the fire and smoke plume from the window num. 1 can interacts with window num. 2 also in case of good smoke control, if windows are close each other).
3. May be, also, a spreading by burning brands from the fire. About indoor fire I dont know about that specific problem, but it can be possible, theoretically.
Dear Professor Valdir,
In Portugal, the fire code restricts windows in the same façade to have a minimum of 1,10m between them (including some horizontal element to protect from sun or rain).
In angles < 135º a fire protection of EI 30 (buildings up to 28m) or EI 60 is required. If such angle
Fire Safety in complex building configurations, as well as building with atriums, should be evaluated using Performance Based Codes and not Prescribed Codes. They should also take into consideration wind effects on the spread of smoke. In other words, one should examine the possible spread of smoke produced by fires at different locations in acomplex building using numerical or physical models. The possible effect of windows and/or vents should also be studied in a similar manner. See for example, Poreh, M., Beware of Communicating Elevated Smoke Layers. Fire Technology, 35 (2), pp. 170-178(1999).
I think that the possibility exists. Fire spread is much more about spotting of firebrands than commonly believed and clearly a configuration like the one described may allow firebrands to go from one window to the other.
I don't know bibliographies on this subject, but I think that it is possible.
It may and it may not. To find out you must run a program , like PHOENICS , and find out. There is a lot of work reported since the ...early1980"s, at Fire Research Station in the UK, at Ove-Arup Constructors, at my labs.at Imperial College, University of Greenwich and at NTUA.
I offer a few , you must look for more.
1.N.C.Markatos , et al ,Int.J. of Heat and Mass Transfer,25(1) , pp63-75 ,1982
2.N.Hoffman , et al ,Appl. Mathematical Modelling,13(5), pp298-306 ,1989
3.N.Hoffman ,N.C.Markatos ,Appl. Mathematical Modelling ,12(2) ,pp129-140,1988
4.N.C.Markatos,K.A.Pericleous,"An Investigation of 3D Fires in enclosures" ,Revue Generale de thermique,23(266),pp67-78,1984
5. G.Cox,et al ,Fire Safety Science, Proc. of 1st Int.Symposium, pp159-171, 1986
6.G.M.Stavrakakis , N.C.Markatos, "Simulation of airflow in one- and two-room enclosures containing a fire source" , Int. J. of Heat Mass Transfer,52(11) pp2690-2703,2009
7.N.C.Markatos , Asia-Pacific J. of Chem.Engineering ,7, pp182-205 ,2012.In this one you will find a Figure similar to your problem Fig.19, which you can get at www.apjChemEng.com
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