Scale modelling studies on smoke movement in vertical shafts of tall buildings

There is growing interest in understanding fire spreading in a vertical shaft for very tall buildings in the Far East. Experimental study on smoke movement induced by buoyancy in a model will be reported in this paper. A series of experiments had been performed in a 1/10 scale model of typical vertical shafts in China. Six scenarios were set up by varying the ventilation conditions by opening different side wall and top vents at the shaft. The smoke temperature and concentrations of carbon monoxide in the shaft model were measured. Those are useful to justify the reduction of buoyancy in the vertical shaft. Measured results are compared with numerical simulation with Computational Fluid Dynamics. Relations of buoyancy reduction and the toxic gases concentrations are studied.