- Author
- Center for Fire Research
- Title
- Experiments in Smoke Control.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Keywords
- smoke control | experiments | elevator shafts
- Abstract
- Smoke is the primary killer in most fires. Often flowing to parts of the building remote from the fire and clogging stairwells and elevator shafts, smoke makes escape difficult and inhibits fire fighting. To help protect life and property, systems have been developed using fans to produce airflows and pressure differences that can control smoke movement. However, the interaction of such systems with fire and smoke is complex and not well understood. The experiments being conducted here by the Center for Fire Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are the first to test a smoke control system under real-life fire conditions.