Analysis and Prediction of Air Leakage through Door Assemblies DANIEL GROSS Center for Fre Research National Bureau of Standards Goithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA WILLIAM L. HABERMAN Engineering Consultant Rockville, Maryland, USA assRact A generalized relationship is presented for determining air flow rates through narrow gaps around door edges. The celationship provid Values of leakage rates for steady, Laminar flow through gaps. over wide Fangs of pressure difference and eliminates appronisations associated ith the often inappropriate use of discharge coefficients and exponents in che flow equation Q'= © A(ap)". The analysis covers straight theoush, ‘single bend and double bend gaps of constant thickness, a2 well a Connected gaps of constant thicknesses. Comparison of measured flow rates for installed stairvell door assemblies with those predicted by use of the relationship shows agreement vithin 20 percent. The volumetric How of heated air through simple door gaps haz been calculated by use of the kelationship. The results shov thet the flow race jay increase oF Gecresse vith tonperacure depending on gap size and flow region ntaopUcTroN Prediction of the flow of air through gaps around exterior doors te of considerable importance in deteraining ventilation races and heat Tosses in buildings. Knowledge of air leakage 2 also of importance in estimating the effectiveness of Interior doors as barriers te shoke fos. and in the design of smoke control systeas where stait and elevator shafts, vestibules, and other building spaces may be pressurized or exhausted, Im tho usual approach, use iz made of an equation of the form 210 € A(G9)" for descefbtng flow through single gape or shecugh she uleiple gaps of complete, closed door a Were, Q ie the volume flov tater € te a flav cocttictent, & le the efess-seecional aren of the Bap, Op is the pressure drop across the gap, and-n is an exponent. The constants ¢ snd n are generally not knovn of vary with gap geonetiy and Reynolds nunber.” Te has boon noted that previous assumptions of a~ 0.5 (che square root approximation for thin plate orifices) are not alvays appropriate [1]. “Nevertheless, it is comon practice in smoke control Gesign calculations’ to retain this assunption for all gape ar to utilize a value of n= 0.5 for latge gaps and n= 0.625 for saail openings (2,9) ‘The gape im conventional door assemblies approximate deep (thick- walled) rectangular orifices, i.e. wide rectangular duces, rather than thine walled orifices for which typleal discharge coefficients are often sssuned, Such will be the case of a plain door at floor Level, where there 15 no door stop, or at the aecting edges of swinging doors. in the ore typical case, where there are simple stops, tho flow passage may be Considered a rectangular duct wieh = sharp 90° bend of ‘ell", wheredoors are rabbeted, the flow passage will be in the for of « double 90° bend or "double elit. In addition, there my be Fe. or cavities within the gap az well ar variations in gep thickness, parcloularly in Coubinatfon with 90° bends, Finally, vhere sealing devices (flexible imetal, rubber, or plastic strips, labyrinths, ete) are ingtalled around the edges of Joore or door franes to reduce air flow, the geometry of the Flow passages may be quite complex. Air flow through stealghe-ehrough gape nay be considered equivalent to sir flow in receangelar duces, for “Len theory and experimental data are available [4-11]. Flow in such geps Ls typically laminar but nay also extend into the transition region fat sufficiently high pressure differences Measuring air flow through very saall, well-defined geps involves aeeting up special apparatus including flov devices suitable for very Low flow rates. Only a Linited snount of experimental data has bees published. The study by Hopkins and Hansford [1] provided dats on flow Through three simple gap configurations (straight-through, single bend and double bend). Homa [12] neasured flov through straight-through gaps Of various thicknesses and depths. ‘Thomas and Dick [13] measured flow through short sections of steel and vood window assezbiies, The configuration of these gaps is very similar to double bend gaps vith calarged conter portions, Nearurenents for simple and complex geps have ‘iso been reported by Ishira [14]; also, faired curves releting Ap and Volume Flow rate through straight gaps. and through a varlety of coaplex gaps containing bends, recesses, and labyrinths are summarized in (13) Standard measurenents can be made of flow through door assemblies at several op levels using chanber, a fan or blower, and suitable flow Control devices. Simple Laboratory teat methods have been in comnon use for exterior door and Window assentlies where infiltration iz of concern and there 2 standard pressure difference simulating vind pressure, ef 75 va, is normaly used [16], Nore recently, it has been applied alco co interior doors [17-20] where the principal concern is the control of potential leakage of sacke from building fires. a short review of the Evatlable air leakage measurenente on interior doce agsenblies was published several yeare age [21] If Q 4s plotted sgeinst ap, a single value approximation of che ‘exponent n 4s\sonetines obeatned in certain flow rate regions. Normally. full scale flow measurements of door assenbLies are time-consuming and expensive, and this {s espectelly true If heated aly is used. Hence, it Would be desirable to obtain « generalized relationship suitable for pre Aiccive calculations of aly leakage through door gaps over a vide range Elow conditions. ‘The purpose of this paper 1s to provide a relation ship capable of predicting flow chrough gaps of prescribed geometry and fo make comparisons vith available experimental data on flow through gaps land around selected door asseablies anaysts 1, Flow in Straight-Through Gaps “ine ‘autre One dtstingutshing feature of the flov tn gaps, unlike flow in ordinary pipe or duce installations, is the presence Of Flow development cegton (Fig). Fa — ‘The fluid shich enters the gap is, due to viscosity, reduced to rere velocity Fig 1 Development of Laninar long the entire gap wall. The flutd Flow n'a Gap 170layer at the wall gradually slovs dovm the faster-noving flutd next to Ae, until the effect of viscosity {s felt actors the entire gap. In one model of flow development, it is assumed chat che fluid enters with unt- form velocity. In this case, the inviscid core region of uniform flow gradually disappears and is replaced by the fully developed flow. Zhe Hlow development region often comprises a large portion of the flow through gap. To correlate data from a series of measurements, the use of non- ainensional pataneters based on the applicable set of physical variables becones advantageous. The significance of using nondinensional per. meters in Lieu of dimensional ones ies in the feduetion in the munber of Daranetere required to describe the phenomenon. Ar a consequence, con: Siderably fever experinental measurements are required to ertablich = valid relationship between variables of the gap flow. An appropriate sot of six significant physical variables 48 Q~ £8, pv. %y By), where 1s the volune flow Fate, Op it the pressure difference across" the Bap, Ls the flufa density, v ix the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, x is the depth of gap in the Flow direction, and D, is the hydraulic dianeter For rectangular gaps, D, ~ 28, where a 1s che" thickness of the gap. Dimensional enalysis vat utilized to provide the following set of three pondimensionsl parameters: G, = £(Re, D,/2), shore C, iz the prescure coefficient ap/(1/2)e¥" and Re tz the Reynoids number V'D,/v., Here, V (the average Flow velocity) = G/L a= 29/L Dy for wide rectangula® cops ‘Tho form of the analytic solution for Laminar flow in the entrance region of rectangular ducts [7], where the pressure coefficient slong the duct vas related to the nondimensional paraneter x/0,R0, suggests @ reduction in the nunber of paraneters. “Thus, the Cvo parameters Re and D,/x wore coalesced into one, nasoly Re 0, /x, ylelding a simplified set containing only two paranecers: 6, = ike Be) wo 1c should be emphasized that only a general functional dependency, not a specific functional relationship, (e-g. Linear) is implied here Te results of the analytic solution of Miller and Han [7] are shown in Fig.2, vhere the prossure coefficient G, for Laninar flow in s wide rectangular duct Is presented as s function of the paraneter Re Dy/x Extensive experimental data on developing flov of alr in vide rectangular ducts vere obtained by Beavers et al [10] and cover the range in Re D,/s fron 20 to 2500, These data ate alzo included in Fig.2. Excellent greenent between snalytic and experieental reculcs a foted, For values Of Ro d,/x loss than 10, the analytic solution merges into the straight Line 96°x/0,Re, the solution for fully developed laminar flov in a wide rectangular duct. Ie should be noted chat this sctaight Line always Lies Delov the developing flow curve; hence, the pressure drop in the entrance tegion of a duct will alvays be greater than that in an equal length of duct in fully developed flow. For short sections, the pressure drop in developing flow can be several times ax great az thar for fully developed ‘low, The analycie and experimental results do not contain entrance and leaving losses. Since there {z inviscid flow to the gap entrance and = viscous jet Leaving the gap, a combined entrance and leaving Loss coefficient of 1.3 vill be aerused. A curve for the total G, (the pressure drop in the duct plus entrance and leaving losses) has also boon [neluded in Fig.2, The reasonableness of the assumption will be con- Fired by comparison vith experimental data for straight-through gaps which includes auch losses in its measurements m