On atrium smoke management system design

Common design guides on smoke management in atria will be reviewed in this paper. Different approaches used in those guides are outlined. It is observed that the engineering principles behind those design guides are basically the same, though the approaches might be different. Smoke ventilation appears to be a common approach for smoke management in an atrium. An acceptable smoke layer height can be kept, or at least the descending rate of the smoke layer could be reduced. Designs based on different guides are compared by referring to some real cases in Hong Kong. There are deviations among different guides even under the same fire scenarios. At the moment, these guides only give general design principles, not yet covering all atria, especially the tall ones in the Far East. In other words, only simplified design procedures for systems under some agreed fire scenarios in an atrium are outlined. Guidance on solving practical problems frequently encountered in atria apart from those cases is discussed, taking the huge development in the construction industry of China as an example.