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Stairwell pressurization and the movement of smoke during a high-rise fire

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CH-15-019

Stairwell Pressurization
and the Movement of Smoke
during a High-Rise Fire

W.Z. Black, PhD, PE

Life Member ASHRAE

ABSTRACT
A smoke movement program is used to determine the
influence of open fire escape doors on the distribution of
smoke inside a high-rise building during a fire. Open doors
are simulated on the fire floor and on floors above and below
the stairway neutral pressure plane. The volume flow rates
of the stairwell pressurization fans necessary to maintain
smoke-free conditions are estimated when various stairwell
doors are opened throughout the building. The size of the
pressurization fans is shown to be influenced by the location
of open stairwell doors. If fans are inadequately sized to
overcome the pressure on the fire floor, the process of pres-
surizing the fire escapes may cause an increase in the
amount of smoke that reaches the upper floors and degrade
the air quality in the stairwells, particularly if the open
stairwell doors are on the upper floors in the building.
INTRODUCTION
The decreasing pressure in the atmosphere imposes a
similar pressure gradient on the interior of all buildings. As
the building height increases and the atmospheric temper-
ature decreases, the pressure differences between the
bottom and top of the building becomes more severe. As a
means of balancing the flow of air into and out of the verti-
cal shafts (elevator hoistways and fire escape stairwells1) in
the building and in the occupied floor spaces, the pressure
distribution inside the building establishes a series of
neutral pressure planes (NPPs). For elevations below the
NPP, air leaves the floors and flows into the shafts; above
1.
In this paper the terms stairwell and fire escape are used inter-
changeably.
the NPP, the flow direction is reversed and the air flows out
of the shafts and into the floors. There are three independent
NPPs at different elevations for the elevator shafts, stair-
wells, and the interior floor spaces of the building. Among
other factors, their locations are dependent upon the
construction of the building and the tightness of the elevator
and stairwell shafts. The locations of the NPPs can also be
strongly affected by the presence of fans that can be used to
provide fresh air to stairwells in the event of a fire. The
respective NPPs dictate the direction that smoke will travel
during a fire, and knowledge of their locations within the
building will aid in the design of a smoke management plan
that will address the building’s life safety issues.
The NFPA Life Safety Code defines a high-rise building as
one that has a height in excess of 23 m (76 ft) (NFPA 2003), and
ASHRAE classifies a tall building as one with a height exceeding
92 m (300 ft) (ASHRAE 2011). Obviously, most buildings in
crowded urban locations exceed these requirements, and the
recent trend in constructing supertall buildings in excess of
100 stories demands special attention to the design of life safety
systems that can successfully operate under the unique require-
ments of tall buildings. Being able to predict the paths that smoke
will take during a fire is vitally important because the majority of
fire fatalities result from smoke inhalation and not burns. The
movement of smoke in a high-rise structure is particularly impor-
tant when crafting a life safety plan, due to the large pressure
differences imposed on the building by the atmospheric pressure
gradient that draws the generated smoke toward the upper floors
and is augmented by the upward forces developed by the hot,
buoyant smoke. A fire on lower floors has the potential to fill the
elevator shafts and fire escape stairwells with smoke, making
them unusable as safe routes to the exterior. To combat the pres-

W.Z. Black is a Regents Professor Emeritus at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA.

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ence of smoke in fire escapes, life safety plans often rely on pres-
surization equipment that is designed to maintain smoke-free
conditions in the fire escape stairwells so that occupants can rely
of a safe route of egress during a fire.
A logical and reasonable approach to providing a smoke-free
environment in the fire escapes is to pressurize them with fresh air
in sufficient quantities so that combustion gases are kept out. Pres-
surizing fire escapes so that the internal pressure is always above
the pressure on all floors (and particularly on the fire floor) is a
well-established method of ensuring that stairs remain smoke-
free during a fire (Tamura and Shaw 1976; Tamura 1983, 1989,
1991, 1992; Tamura and MacDonald 1993; Klote 1980, 1988).
Unfortunately, this plan is often compromised when people prop
fire escape doors open in hopes that they can safely return to the
floors if their escape route is compromised. Open stairwell doors
can often spell failure of an otherwise well-designed pressuriza-
tion scheme because they effectively deflate the stairwells and
allow smoke to enter the intended escape route.
The goal in this paper is to investigate the potential for
success of a stairwell pressurization plan when applied to a
high-rise building and to determine the effect of open stairwell
doors on the success or failure of a pressurization plan. The
influence of the location of the open door will be determined
and the effect on the capacity of the pressurization fans will be
estimated so that even though some doors may be open, the
dedicated fire escape fans will still be able to keep smoke from
entering the escape route.
SMOKE MOVEMENT SOFTWARE
The smoke management program used to analyze the
influence of stairwell pressurization systems and the effect
of open stairwell doors on smoke movement is COSMO
(COtrol of SMOke) (Black 2009b, 2010). The model
assumes steady-state conditions, and properties vary only in
the vertical direction. The program is a differential-network
model in which the building is subdivided into an arbitrary
number of horizontal differential volumes, and the conservation
equations for mass, momentum, and energy are applied to each
volume. The program code contains a detailed heat transfer
analysis that includes both the convective and radiative modes
used to calculate the temperature distribution of the gases inside
the building’s vertical shafts. The result is an array of differential
equations for the thermodynamic properties of the gases inside
the structure. The differential equations are solved using stan-
dard mathematical methods. The resulting pressure and temper-
ature distributions are then used to determine the velocities and
mass flow rates of gases throughout the building.
The basic equations that form the foundation of the code are
discussed by Black (2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2010, 2011) and Wang
et al. (2013) and are not be repeated here. The program results
have been verified by comparing the output with classical solu-
tions for simplified fluid flow and heat transfer problems. The
program results have also been verified by comparing output with
CONTAM, a nodal-network program developed by NIST
(Walton and Dols 2008).
2 CH-15-019
BUILDING MODEL
High-rise structures present numerous life safety chal-
lenges. Extended routes via fire escapes require that occupants
be able to descend long distances through stairwells that are
expected to be kept smoke free. Upper floors in high-rise
buildings are exposed to low pressures that exist in the upper
atmosphere and that tend to draw smoke to upper floors. Low
pressures thereby create dangerous conditions for occupants
near the top of the structure. Elevator shafts that are vented at
the top of the building create conduits that draw smoke upward
and contaminate the elevator hoistways. Smoke transport via
the elevator shafts renders them unusable for safe passage out
of the building (a behavior that has led to the long-standing
culture of warning occupants not to use elevators as an escape
route during a fire).
The number of variables that affect the movement of
smoke throughout the building is large. Smoke movement is
strongly influenced by the pressure and the temperature distri-
bution throughout the building, and extremely small changes
in either can have a significant influence on the route that
smoke will take during a fire. The type of building construc-
tion and the intensity and location of the fire also play a large
role in the movement of smoke. For this particular study, a set
of building, fire, and environmental conditions is selected so
that the computer results may be reasonably limited. There-
fore, the trends predicted by the software output that is
presented here are limited to the specific array of input condi-
tions. Any major change in these conditions would require
further computer calculations for the revised input informa-
tion. While the results apply only to the building construction,
the environmental weather, and the fire conditions described
by the selected input variables, the general trends suggested by
the computer output are valid for any high-rise structure.
Therefore, the discussion of the results focuses more on the
trends provided by the results rather than on the quantitative
values shown in the graphs.
Information that describes a generic high-rise building
and a reasonable fire scenario was selected as input to the
smoke movement program. While the input data must be
quantitative, they describe a building that is typical of modern
construction and fire conditions that could be expected to exist
in a moderately furnished high-rise. The input data to the
program are specified by the following:
• Fire conditions: Fire on the first floor, the temperature at
the floor level is 300°C (570°F), and at the ceiling level
the temperature is 700°C (1300°F). The height of the
smoke layer is 0.5 m (1.64 ft) from the floor, the heat
release rate (HRR) of the fire is 100 MW (3.4 × 108 Btu/h),
and the average energy content of the fuel is 20 MJ/kg
(8620 Btu/lbm).
• High-rise building: The structure is 25 stories high and
has a floor area of 2000 m2 (21,500 ft2) per floor. The
floor height is 3.5 m (11.5 ft), the exterior wall construc-
tion consists of precast concrete panels, the interior non-
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fire floor temperature is 20°C (67°F), the shaft
temperatures are 40°C (103°F), and the floors have an
open design (no partitions within the floor area).
• Fire escapes: There are four interior stairwells with a
2.13 × 1.22 m (7 × 4 ft) door on each floor, the average
gap around the doors is 2 mm (0.079 in.), and the shaft
construction consists of concrete block.
• Elevators: There are eight elevator shafts each having a
vent at the top of the shaft with an area 10% of the shaft
cross section, the doors are 2.13 × 1.52 m (7 × 5 ft) for
each elevator, the average gap around the doors is 5 mm
(0.2 in.), the shaft construction consists of concrete
block, and no cars block the hoistways.
• Weather: There is no wind, the ambient outdoor temper-
ature is –17°C (1°F), and the pressure at ground level is
101.3 kPa (14.7 psi).
The open design of all floors in the building implies that
the smoke has no resistance for flow between the fire escape
and elevator shaft doors. The construction of the floors does
not include the consideration of elevator lobbies. This assump-
tion magnifies the interaction between the smoke transported
between the stairwells and elevator shafts. A more realistic
floor design would provide dampening of the flow of smoke
between the two vertical shafts.
The selected HRR for the fire on the first floor corre-
sponds to a fully developed fire on a floor that has a relatively
high fuel load (considering a sofa with polyurethane foam
padding provides a peak heat release rate of approximately
3 MW [10.2 MBtu/h]) (Klote and Milke 2002). The value for
Figure 1 Pressure distribution in elevator shafts, stairwells, floors, and atmosphere for all stair doors closed and unpressurized
stairwells.
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the energy content of the fuel was selected to simulate burning
of combustible substances that are in the midrange of the most
common materials that populate residential and commercial
buildings. The selected fire conditions equal the generation
rate of 5 kg/s (11 lbms/s) of combustion products on the fire
floor.
A winter ambient temperature was selected because
winter weather creates a lower pressure at the top of the build-
ing and a more demanding set of requirements for pressurizing
the stairwells. As a result, the estimated pressurization rates
for the stairwell fans determined by the software output tend
to be on the conservative side.
RESULTS
The smoke management program is able to provide a
wide variety of parameters that can be utilized in designing
a fire safety plan. Several examples of the program results
are shown in Figures 1 through 3 for the case of unpressur-
ized stairwells and for the case of all of the stairwell doors
remaining closed. These figures illustrate the factors that
influence the movement of smoke throughout the building,
and they help explain why the smoke takes various compet-
ing routes throughout the high-rise during the fire. Figure
1 shows the pressure distribution in the stairwells, elevator
shafts, floors, and the atmosphere. The floor pressure on the
first floor is elevated as a result of the generated gases
produced by the fire. Small changes in the HRR of the fire
and changes in the building construction influence the pres-
sures shown in Figure 1. The resulting pressure changes
alter the movement of the smoke during the fire. On the fire
3
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Figure 2 Temperature distribution in elevator shafts and stairwells for all stair doors closed and unpressurized stairwells.

Figure 3 Mass flow rate inside elevator shafts and stairwells for all stair doors closed and unpressurized stairwells.

floor, outdoor air is drawn into the building at floor level,
where the atmospheric pressure is greater than the floor
pressure, and smoke is exhausted at ceiling level, where the
pressure difference reverses. For smaller values of the
HRR, the floor pressure drops and the flow of atmospheric
air is into the building at all levels on the first floor. The
intersections of the various curves in Figure 1 identify the
three NPPs in the building. Even minute changes in the
pressure curves cause large changes in the locations of the
NPPs and dramatically influence the amount of smoke that
will reach the upper floors via the fire escapes and elevator
shafts.

4 CH-15-019
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Figure 2 plots the temperature distribution of the gases in
the stairwells and the elevator shafts. Smoke that enters the
two shafts near the floor level below the smoke layer is rela-
tively cool, and its temperature increases over the height of the
first floor as hot smoke at the ceiling level is drawn into the two
vertical shafts. The temperature of the combustion gases in
both shafts then decreases as they transfer heat by convection
and radiation to the cool boundary surfaces and as cool air
from the floors is drawn into the shafts below their respective
NPPs. By the time the gases in both shafts reach the top floors,
their temperature has decayed to a value that is nearly equal to
the surface temperature of their respective shafts.
Figure 3 plots the total mass flow rate of gases inside the
eight elevator hoistways and the four stairwells as they move
vertically upward through the shafts. The curves increase in
magnitude below their respective NPPs as air is drawn into the
shafts from the floors. They reach a peak value at the location of
their respective NPPs, and then they decrease as gases leave the
shafts on the upper floors. The elevator shafts transport the vast
majority of smoke to the upper floors due to their loosely fitting
doors and the presence of the vent at the top of the shafts that
exposes them to the low atmospheric pressure at the top of the
building. The size of the elevator vents plays a critical role in
determining whether smoke inside the hoistways will contam-
inate the upper floors or whether the smoke will exhaust through
the vents to the exterior of the building (Black 2009a).
The results in Figure 3 predict the magnitude of the task
of maintaining smoke-free conditions inside the four fire
escapes. Any smoke that enters the fire escapes on the fire
floor will be transported to the top of the building and contam-
inate the upper floors above their NPP and also render the
Figure 4 Flow rates in/out of floors for all stairwell doors closed and unpressurized stairwells.
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stairwell unsafe during the fire. To ensure that the stairwells
will remain smoke free, the pressurization system must have
sufficient capacity to increase the interior pressure such that it
is greater than the highest pressure on the fire floor. That
condition will drop the stairwell NPP to the ground level and
no combustion products will be able to enter the fire escapes.
Therefore, the criterion used here to judge the effectiveness of
a stairwell pressurization system is one that forces the stair
NPP to the bottom of the fire floor.
All Stairwell Doors Closed
Repeated computer simulations were obtained for a vari-
ety of cases for which the stairwell doors were open and closed
and for a range of stairwell pressurization rates. The goals
were to determine how the status of stairwell doors influences
the movement of smoke during a fire and to determine a range
of pressurization rates that would provide a smoke-free atmo-
sphere inside the fire escapes. Results like those shown in
Figures 1 through 3 were used to achieve these goals.
In order to establish a set of baseline conditions for smoke
movement inside the designated high-rise building, the
program was executed assuming all fire escape doors remain
closed and the stairwells were unpressurized. For this specific
set of conditions, the mass flow rates of gases leaving and
entering the floor spaces are shown in Figure 4. The positive
flow rate values represent flow of gases into the floor spaces
from the two shafts or from the atmosphere. The negative
values indicate flow of gases into the shafts from the floors.
The stairwell NPP is on the 13th floor and smoke generated by
the elevated pressure on the fire floor enters through the cracks
around the first floor doors and through construction gaps in
5
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the four stair shafts. Air enters the stairwells on all floors
below its NPP and dilutes the smoke that has entered on the fire
floor. Above the NPP, the diluted smoke in the stairwells is
forced onto the floor areas and it contaminates roughly the
upper half of the building. Obviously, when the stairs are not
pressurized, they become dangerous for use as an escape route
during the fire as a result of the smoke that enters on the fire
floor.
For the unpressurized case, the NPP for the elevator shafts
is on the 21st floor. Elevator shafts contain a higher concen-
tration of smoke because they receive more smoke on the fire
floor as a result of their less-tight doors and relatively loose
shaft construction. More air enters the elevator shafts below
their NPP than enters the stairs. The entering air dilutes the
concentration of smoke carried upward by the elevator shafts.
Above the 21st floor, the elevator shafts are a source of smoke
that contaminates the upper floors. A prudent life safety plan
must address the possibility of smoke delivered to the upper
floors via the smoke-laden elevator shafts. Consideration
should be given to installing exhaust fans in the vents at the top
of the shafts and increasing the size of the vents such that the
NPP is drawn to above the top of the building. If that goal can
be accomplished, then the smoke transported by the elevator
shafts is able to exhaust from the building without contami-
nating the upper floors of the high-rise building.
To maintain clean air in the fire escapes on all floors, the
stairwells must be pressurized by dedicated fans with a supply
of fresh air sufficient to overcome the elevated fire pressure on
the first floor. As the pressurized air is added to the stairwells,
the mass flow rate curve for the stairwells shifts toward more
positive values (to the right in Figure 4), indicating that the
stairwell NPP falls lower in the building, the amount of gases
leaving the stairwells increases, and less smoke enters on the
first floor.
When the stairwell pressurization rate is 0.38 m3/s
(805 cfm) on each floor, the mass flow rates throughout the
building are shown in Figure 5. When the values in this figure
are compared with those of Figure 4, the effect of stairwell
pressurization is evident. The addition of outside fresh air has
dropped the stairwell NPP to the first floor and dramatically
increased the flow of air exiting from the stairwells into all
floors in the building. The volume flow rate of smoke that
enters the stairwells on the fire floor is reduced by about a
factor of four; however, a small amount of smoke is still able
to enter the stairwells on the first floor, indicating that a further
increase in the amount of pressurized air is required to achieve
smoke-free fire escapes. Additional computer simulations for
increased stairwell pressurization show that a pressurization
rate of about 0.45 m3/s (955 cfm) in each stairwell on each
floor is necessary to stop the smoke from invading the stair-
wells so that they remain smoke-free during the fire.

Figure 5 Flow rates in/out of floors for all stairwell doors closed. Stairwell pressurization = 0.38 m3/s (805 cfm) per floor.

6 CH-15-019
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When the stairwells are pressurized, the flow of gases that
leaves the stairwells also influences the movement of gases to
and from the elevator shafts and the external skin of the build-
ing. The air that leaves the stairwells helps pressurize the
floors. The added air on the floors raises the NPP of the eleva-
tor shafts and helps decrease the amount of smoke that
contaminates the upper floors due to smoke that arrives via the
elevator shafts. Therefore, stairwell pressurization not only
improves the air quality inside the fire escapes, but it also helps
maintain cleaner air on the upper floors of the building. This
trend suggests that a reasonable life safety plan would include
floor pressurization in addition to stairwell pressurization so
that the floors and the stairwells would both remain smoke-
free areas during a fire (Black 2014).
Stairwell Doors Open on the Fire Floor
The baseline case is an idealized one because it assumes
that all fire escape doors remain fully closed throughout the
duration of the fire. One possible reason for an open door is
that the door failed during the fire. Another reason is that a fire
escape door could be propped open by occupants who wish to
protect a return route to the floors in the event that they should
find the fire escapes contaminated by smoke. Since open stair-
well doors can dramatically alter the pressure distribution
throughout the structure and change the distribution of smoke
within the building, it is important to determine the trends in
smoke movement when various fire escape doors are open
Figure 6 Flow rates in/out of floors for open stairwell doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on first floor. Unpressurized stairwells.
CH-15-019
during the fire. To determine the effect of open stairwell doors,
computer simulations were run when all four stairwell fire
escape doors were assumed to be open on the fire floor. This
type of scenario describes a severe demand on the stairwell
pressurization equipment, because an open door on the fire
floor provides a low-resistance path for smoke to travel into
the fire escapes. The smoke is then able to contaminate the
stairwells for the entire height of the building. Furthermore,
the stairwells will also become a conduit for smoke and will
distribute smoke to the floors above the stairwell NPP.
The curves in Figure 6 show the effect of open first-floor
doors when the stairwells are unpressurized and each of the
four stairwell doors has an open area of 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2). By
comparing the results in Figure 6 with those in Figure 4, the
effect on smoke distribution resulting from an open fire floor
door can be determined. Obviously, the open fire escape door
dramatically increases the amount of smoke that is able to
enter the stairwells on the first floor.At the same time, the open
fire escape doors reduce the first-floor pressure and cause
more fresh air to be drawn into the fire floor from the atmo-
sphere. Most of the combustion products leave the first floor
via the fire escapes. Clearly an open door on the fire floor
creates a dangerous situation for the inhabitants throughout
the entire building if the stairwells are not pressurized, because
it contaminates the stairwells for the entire height of the build-
ing. Failure of the fire floor doors predicts a demanding set of
conditions for providing uncontaminated fire escapes.
7
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When the fire floor doors remain closed, the elevator
shafts transport far more smoke to the upper floors than the
stairwells (Figure 4). Once a door on the fire floor is opened,
however, the stairs take on the dominate role and they become
the preferred route for smoke to reach the upper floors
(Figure 6). Therefore, the open stairwell door causes a reversal
of the preferential shaft that the smoke uses to move toward the
upper floors and the fire escapes replace the elevator shafts as
the major conduit for vertical smoke travel. This fact empha-
sizes the need to ensure that fire escape doors on the fire floor
remain closed during a fire.
The flow rate values on the first floor shown, in Figure 7,
illustrate how the amount of smoke that enters the fire escapes
can be reduced when they are pressurized. Pressurized air at a
rate of 0.35 m3/s (740 cfm) on each floor pushes the location
of the stairwell NPP to the top of the first floor, but it is insuf-
ficient to keep smoke from entering the stairwells on the fire
floor. In the process of pressurizing the fire escapes, the
increased pressure drops the NPP and exposes more floors to
smoke that is ingested on the first floor. In other words, if the
volume of pressurized air is insufficient to keep smoke out of
the fire escapes, the fire escapes will remain contaminated for
the entire height of the building and, at the same time, more
smoke will enter more floors via the stairs than would have
arrived if the stairs had not been pressurized in the first place.
Obviously, pressurization equipment must be sized suffi-
ciently to hold the smoke back, or otherwise stairwell pressur-
ization may worsen the situation by delivering an increased
flow of smoke to the upper floors.
The curves in Figure 7 show that when the stairwell pres-
surization rate is 0.35 m3/s (740 cfm), the mass flow rate of
combustion products that pass through the open door drops by
nearly one third. Extrapolating this value until it reaches zero
suggests that a pressurization rate of about 0.6 m3/s (1270 cfm)
is necessary to maintain an uncontaminated condition in the
entire height of the fire escapes.
The curves in Figure 8 illustrate how the pressurization of
the stairwells effectively reduces the mass of smoke that is
transported to the upper floors in the building. Pressurization
at a rate of 0.35 m3/s (740 cfm) on each floor reduces the mass
of smoke that enters the fire escapes on the fire floor by about
one half. Considering the fact that all of the gases inside the
stairwell eventually end up distributed on the floors within the
building, the pressurization helps improve the air quality on
the floors. However, the pressurization rate of 0.35 m3/s
(740 cfm) is insufficient to prevent smoke from entering the
stairs on the first floor, so the stairwells unfortunately will
spread smoke onto all floors above the fire floor. When the

Figure 7 Flow rates in/out of floors for open stairwell doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on first floor. Stairwell pressurization =
0.35 m3/s (740 cfm) per floor.

8 CH-15-019
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Figure 8 Mass flow rate inside one stairwell when doors are open 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2) on first floor.
pressurization rate is increased to 0.6 m3/s (1270 cfm), the
pressure increase provided by the stairwell fans is able to
prevent smoke from entering the stairwell and to transport
only fresh air to the upper floors.
Stairwell Doors Open Below the NPP
To determine the effect that the location of an open stair-
well door has on smoke distribution, the program was used to
estimate the amount of smoke that is transported by the stair-
wells when the four fire escape doors are opened on a floor
below the NPP. A sample of the results is shown in Figure 9,
which plots the mass flow rate of gases into and out of the stair-
wells, elevator shafts, and building when all four stairwell
doors are open 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2) on the fifth floor and the fire
escapes are not pressurized.
A partially open door on the fifth floor changes the distri-
bution of smoke below the NPP, particularly on the floor with
the open door. When the stairs are not pressurized, the mass of
uncontaminated air that enters the stairwells on the fifth floor
increases by about a factor or two and the added air increases
the stairwell pressure. This change in the flow pattern causes
a greater dilution of the smoke that enters on the first floor, and
it improves the air quality of the gases that leave the stairwells
on the upper floors. As a result, an open fire escape door on the
lower floors somewhat improves the air quality inside the
stairwells, but it does not completely provide smoke-free
conditions within the fire escapes because smoke is still able
to enter the fire escapes on the first floor.
If pressurized air is added to the stairwells at a rate of
0.3 m3/s (635 cfm) on each floor, the direction of airflow
caused by the added air changes from inward to outward on all
the lower floors except on the fire floor (Figure 10). The addi-
tion of fresh air from the pressurization fans drops the stairwell
CH-15-019
NPP to the first floor and decreases the flow of smoke that
enters on the fire floor by about one half. Stairwell pressuriza-
tion eliminates the inflow of air on the lower nonfire floors and
increases the outflow of gases into the floors above the NPP.
On the fifth floor, the air leaving the open fire escape doors
increases dramatically and the added air increases the fifth
floor pressure, which has a side effect of increasing the flow
of air into the elevator shafts on that particular floor
(Figure 10).
Additional computer simulations for higher pressuriza-
tion rates show that a pressurization rate of about 0.5 m3/s
(1060 cfm) per floor is sufficient to keep smoke from entering
the stairwells on the first floor when the doors have an open
area of 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2). The pressurization rate must be
increased to about 0.55 m3/s (1165 cfm) per floor if the doors
have an open area of 1.0 m2 (10.76 ft2). In excess of those rates,
the pressurization fans force fresh air out of the stairwells and
into the floors at all levels within the building, and no smoke
is transported throughout the building via the fire escapes.
Pressurizing the stairs has little influence on the smoke move-
ment through the elevator shafts, and the shafts continue to
move large volumes of smoke to the upper floors above their
respective NPP.
In Figure 11, the mass flow rate of gases through one
stairwell is plotted when there is no stairwell pressurization
and compared to the value when the stairwell is pressurized
at a rate of 0.3 m3/s (635 cfm) per floor. When the stairwells
are not pressurized, fresh air enters the fire escapes through
the open door on the fifth floor, which causes a slight
increase in the amount of smoke transported to the upper
floors. When the stairwells are pressurized, the flow of air
through the open door reverses, and a large amount of smoke
enters the fifth floor, reducing the mass of smoke that is
9
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Figure 9 Flow rates in/out of floors for open stairwell doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on the fifth floor. Unpressurized stairwells.

Figure 10 Flow rates in/out of floors for open doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on the fifth floor. Stairwell pressurization = 0.3
m3/s (635 cfm) per floor.

10 CH-15-019
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Figure 11 Mass flow rate inside one stairwell when doors are open 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2) on fifth floor.
transported to the upper floors. The pressurization rate is not
sufficient to prevent smoke from entering the fire escapes on
the first floor, even though it dramatically reduces the
amount of smoke that the stairwell transports to the upper
floors above its NPP.
Stairwell Doors Open Above the NPP
As an example of the effect of an open door on a floor
above the NPP, Figures 12 and 13 illustrate the case where
the four fire escape doors are partially open on the 20th
floor, each with an open area of 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2). An open
door above the stairwell NPP tends to reduce the pressure
inside the stairwell because it exposes the stairs to lower
atmospheric pressure that exists at higher elevations in the
building. Lower pressures tend to draw more smoke into the
fire escapes at the fire floor and the stairwells have a
tendency to behave like a chimney, depositing smoke on the
floor with the open door. The lower stairwell pressure
creates a more demanding set of conditions needed to keep
smoke from invading the fire escapes than occurs when a
door is open on a lower floor. When the stairs are not pres-
surized (Figure 12), combustion products can enter the fire
escapes on the first floor. The smoke travels to the upper
floors, where the open door delivers a greatly increased
amount of smoke to the 20th floor through the partially
opened door. The open stairwell not only influences the
smoke movement through the stairwells, but, to a lesser
degree, it affects the local smoke movement in the elevator
shafts and through the exterior surface of the building on the
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20th floor, as shown in Figure 12. Any fire safety plan must
account for local changes in building conditions, such as
open fire escape doors affecting smoke movement in adja-
cent enclosures within the building.
The various smoke flow rates when the stairwell
pressurization rate is 0.45 m3/s (955 cfm) on each floor are
shown in Figure 13. When the stairs are pressurized, they
supply air to all nonfire floors, as illustrated by the values
lying to the right side of the figure. Gases leaving the
stairwell and entering the 20th floor through the partially
open door are greatly increased. This trend shows that a
pressurization rate insufficient to prevent smoke from
entering the stairs on the fire floor can potentially cause the
fire escapes to be contaminated for the entire height of the
building and deliver a large percentage of that smoke to the
floor with the open door. Counterbalancing this detrimental
effect is a positive effect caused by the slight reduction of
smoke that enters the stairs on the first floor. These
diverging trends again point out the danger of pressurizing
the stairwells at a rate insufficient to hold the smoke back on
the fire floor. Unless the pressure inside the fire escapes is
greater than the pressure on the fire floor, any attempt to
create smoke-free conditions in the stairs can actually
decrease the air quality on upper floors, where a door may
be held open during the fire. On the other hand, if the
pressurization rate is sufficient to keep smoke from invading
the fire escapes on the fire floor, then only fresh air will be
delivered to all floors in the building, including the floor that
has an open fire escape door.
11
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Figure 12 Flow rates in/out of floors for open stairwell doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on 20th floor. Unpressurized stairwells.
If the smoke management software is applied to the cases
of increasing pressurization rates and the curves in Figure 13
are extrapolated, a pressurization rate of about 0.6 m3/s
(1270 cfm) is sufficient to maintain smoke-free fire escapes if
the door on the 20th floor is open 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2), and that
value must be increased to about 0.65 m3/s (1380 cfm) when
the doors are open 1.0 m2 (10.76 ft2).
Figure 14 shows the mass flow rate of gases inside a single
stairwell when it is not pressurized and when it is pressurized
at a rate of 0.45 m3/s (950 cfm) per floor. When the stairs are
not pressurized, the 20th floor is above the NPP and the
amount of smoke inside the fire escapes decreases when
smoke leaves the shaft and enters the floor. When the stairs are
pressurized, the increased shaft pressure forces more smoke to
enter the 20th floor and the flow of smoke within the shaft
decreases more dramatically. Since the pressurization rate is
insufficient to keep smoke from entering on the first floor,
pressurization of the stairwells causes more smoke to enter the
20th floor and actually degrades the air quality on that floor.
In other words, the situation on the floor with an open door
actually degrades when the stairs are pressurized as long as the
pressurization fans are incapable of preventing smoke from
entering the stairs on the fire floor.
12
Capacity of Pressurization Equipment
Applying the program with increasing volume flow rates
of fresh air added to the stairwells provides a range of fan
capacities that are necessary to block the entry of smoke
generated by the fire and keep it from entering the fire escapes.
If all fire escape doors remain closed, the necessary pressur-
ization rate of approximately 0.45 m3/s (955 cfm) is required
on each floor for the specified building construction, atmo-
spheric conditions, and fire intensity. For this case, the fire
escape stairwells remain free of smoke on all floors, and only
fresh, pressurized air is distributed to upper floors via the stair-
wells. However, when fire escape doors are open during the
fire, the pressurization rate must be increased up to about
0.65 m3/s (1380 cfm), depending on the location and extent of
the open door.
The criterion used here to ensure that the stairwells will
remain smoke free is one that pushes the fire escape NPP to the
ground level. However, current codes (NFPA 2000, 2012)
address the same goal by specifying a pressure difference of
12.5 Pa (0.05 in. of water) across openings in an enclosure
when the structure has sprinklers and 25 Pa (0.10 in. of water)
in spaces without sprinkler systems. There is no indication in
the NFPA code as to the capacity of the pressurization equip-
CH-15-019
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Figure 13 Flow rates in/out of floors for open stairwell doors (0.5 m2 [5.38 ft2] open) on 20th floor. Stairwell pressurization
= 0.45 m3/s (950 cfm) per floor.

ment necessary to generate this magnitude of pressure differ-
ence. Therefore, the selection criteria of pressurization
equipment is somewhat vague as to the capacity of the pres-
surization fans that are required to develop the code-required
pressure differences.
Repetitive runs of the program provide rough guidelines
to the size of equipment necessary to maintain safe conditions
when the stairwell doors are opened to varying degrees and are
located on different floors in the building. These values are
summarized in Table 1. It is important to recognize that these
values apply to the specific design conditions of the building
under consideration as well as the given fire conditions and
winter environmental conditions. Any changes in the weather
(ambient temperature, wind velocity), building design
(number of floors, tightness of construction, etc.), or fire char-
acteristics (HRR, fire temperature, and smoke layer depth)
will certainly influence the values in Table 1. The tabular
values, however, do provide guidelines for selecting pressur-
ization fans, and they give proper trends that can be relied upon
when designing a fire safety plan for high-rise buildings.
CONCLUSIONS
The results provided by the smoke management software
suggest the following guidelines for stairwell pressurization
rates are necessary to prevent smoke from infiltrating the fire
escapes during a structural fire:
1. The capacity of fans used to pressurize fire escapes
depends upon the location of open doors in the stairwell.
The computer results were obtained for a case of a fully
developed, high-heat-release-rate fire on the first floor of
a simulated high-rise building. The weather conditions
that were selected correspond to a cold, winter day with
no wind. These conditions create as set of conservative
limits, and they result in fan sizes that should be able to
prevent smoke from entering the stairwells in the most
demanding cases.

CH-15-019 13
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Figure 14 Mass flow rate inside one stairwell when doors are open 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2) on 20th floor.

Table 1. Approximate Capacity 3. When stairwell doors are open, the distribution of smoke
of Pressurization Fans Necessary throughout the building is altered, and the presence of open
to Maintain Smoke-Free Conditions in the Stairwells stairwell doors affects the capacity of the stairwell pressur-
ization equipment designed to provide fresh air to the fire
Capacity of Pressurization Fans escapes. If stairwell doors are open on the fire floor, they
m3/s (cfm) on Each Floor expose the stairwells to the elevated fire pressure, and the
for Smoke-Free Stairwells capacity of the pressurization equipment must be increased
approximately 40% to 50% to provide a shaft pressure that
Door Open All Doors Open Area Open Area
On Closed 0.5 m2 (5.38 ft2) 1.0 m2 (10.76 ft2)
exceeds the local fire floor pressure.
4. When open doors are below the stairwell NPP, the inflow
1st Floor 0.45 (955) 0.6 (1270) 0.65 (1380) of air to the stairwells increases the stairwell pressure. The
5th Floor 0.45 (955) 0.5 (1060) 0.55 (1165) increase in stairwell pressure helps hold back the smoke on
the fire floor and helps reduce the load on pressurization
20th Floor 0.45 (955) 0.6 (1270) 0.65 (1380) air-handling units. As a result, an open door below the
stairwell NPP requires only a relatively small increase in
fan size to ensure that no smoke enters the fire escapes.
2. If all fire escape doors remain closed, a relatively modest 5. If an open stairwell door occurs above the NPP, the pres-
flow rate provided by pressurization fans can be sure in the fire escapes is reduced and the open door tends
employed to maintain smoke-free conditions in the stair- to act like a chimney, transporting an increased flow of
wells. The predicted size of the pressurization fans is smoke to the upper floors of the building. Therefore, an
within the ability of air-handling equipment that is open door on the upper floors demands pressurization
needed to provide comfort cooling and heating for the fans with greater capacity than expected if the fire
specified building. escapes are expected to be kept free of smoke.

14 CH-15-019
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6. If an undersized set of stairwell pressurization fans is
employed that does not have the capacity to overcome the
fire floor pressure, the stairwell pressurization may
worsen the air quality within the building. Undersized
fans may deliver more smoke to the upper floors than
would arrive if the stairwells had not been pressurized in
the first place. Fire escape pressurization equipment
should be selected so that it has spare capacity to ensure
that smoke is unable to invade the stairwells and prevent
smoke from reaching the upper floors via the stairwells.
7. Once a stairwell door is opened slightly, the influence on
the size of the supply fans is significant. Any further
increase in the size of the opening does not require a
corresponding proportional increase in pressurization
rate. A fully open door requires only a marginally larger
pressurization fan than one that is suitable for a slightly
open door.
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