• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.341-344
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• 2013

During a building fire, smoke can flow through elevator shafts threatening life on floors remote from the fire. Many buildings have pressurized elevators intended to prevent such smoke flow. The computer program, CONTAM, can be used to analyze the performance of pressurization smoke control systems. The design of pressurized elevators can be challenging for the following reasons: (1) often the building envelope is not capable of effectively handling the large airflow resulting from elevator pressurization, (2) open elevator doors on the ground floor tend to increase the flow from the elevator shaft at the ground floor, and (3) open exterior doors on the ground floor can cause excessive pressure differences across the elevator shaft at the ground floor. To meet these challenges, the following systems have been developed: (1) exterior vent (EV) system, (2) floor exhaust (FE) system, and ground floor lobby (GFL) system.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.89-93
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• 2011

It is not recommended that elevator use for egress at (super) high rise buildings because elevator shaft main roles to spread of fire smoke. But in North America used to protect this area by elevator shaft pressurization. These tests are performed at high rise apartment to verify that elevator shaft pressurization can protect to spread of fire smoke or not. and verify to used for egress at fire. Pressurization at elevator shaft make pressure difference of 50 Pa all floor at 150 CMM because this method have low friction loss from air flow. Also when dwelling door and elevator door are opened that critical velocity is performed to protect of back-layering from fire room for escape routs by 180 CMM. Therefore through out these pressurization tests by elevator shaft are estimated to have less overpressure because supply air difference are low between to satisfy critical velocity at one door opened and maintain to pressure difference all doors closed. Finally we verified that disable or residual people can use elevator for egress at fire by elevator shaft pressurization.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.148-157
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• 2012

Recently, evacuation safety of building residents becomes the major concern, as the building has been higher and more complicated. Many high-rise multi use buildings are under construction in Korea. Required evacuation time using stairway is longer in high-rise buildings, moreover it is impossible for the disabled to evacuate by using stairway. For this reason the study on the effectiveness of using elevator for evacuation is being progressed. Elevator shaft flow coefficient is the major factor for the calculation of elevator piston effect. The results of this study can be used for the study of elevator piston effect as basic data. The flow coefficient simulation was performed using FLUENT, commercial CFD program. As a result of the flow coefficient simulation, the coefficient is 0.88 considering the safety factor. This result is verified that the result of experimental study, 0.86 is conservative.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.74-83
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• 2019

In the U.S., the pressurization of elevator shaft was developed in 1972 to allow vulnerable people, such as the elderly and weak who could not use escape stairs in case of fire, to evacuate. It is an advantage in terms of space saving by not using vertical ducts. This study drew the problem of the pressurization of elevator shaft based on the existing domestic patents and proposed improvements. The smoke control volume calculation method is proposed by using vertical modeling. Leakage gaps in elevator doors need to be reviewed through experimental data or actual data. The evacuation floor was divided, the openings in the elevator machine room were automatically closed to the fire signal and the relief damper was installed to improve the performance. The improved method functions as the smoke control damper supplying the air flow rather than maintaining the differential pressure. To increase reliability of the research results, the procedure was performed to verify by using Contam.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2012

Recently, evacuation safety of building resident become the major concern, as the building has been higher and more complicated. Required evacuation time using stairway is longer in high-rise buildings, moreover it is impossible for the disabled to evacuate by using stairway. For this reason the study on the effectiveness of using elevator for evacuation is progressing. This study shows the flow coefficient of hoistway when elevator is moving. The results of this study can be used for the study of elevator piston effect as basic data. Experiments were performed in 5 different hoistways at 3-story and 2-story buildings. According to the result of flow coefficient experiments, average flow coefficient is 0.954. Considering the $4{\sigma}$ to guarantee 99.99 % reliance, it is 0.86. This result is 3.6 % bigger than 0.83 that Klote and Tamura suggested. It represents that the maximum critical pressure is decreased about 7 % on the same condition of elevator and elevator shaft. When the smoke control performance of high-rise building is evaluated, the result is significant economically by applying a more realistic and less value of elevator piston effect.