N25 June 2011

Technical Information

A safe compartmentation using reliable motorised fire, smoke and heat dampers (cf. European ISONE Fire
Damper in Aldes ME Flash 23) will prevent effectively the spread of fire, smoke and heat through the whole
building and will thus manage to keep the smoke (the major killer in fire situations) inside the same compartment.
An efficient corridor smoke extraction using motorised smoke and heat exhaust dampers and 400C 2hrs
smoke exhaust fans (cf. European VANTONE/VRFI Smoke Exhaust Dampers & VELONE/CYCLONE/HELIONE
Smoke Exhaust Fans in Aldes ME Flash 24) will manage the extraction of smoke, fumes and hot gases inside the
compartment under fire to let the people escape safely the corridor during the early stage of the fire.

A stairwell pressurisation system is an essential smoke management system directly complementing the
corridor smoke extraction system. The main goal of the stairwell pressurisation system is to keep the smoke inside
the corridor of the compartment under fire to avoid any smoke inside the stairwell, and finally to let the people
escape safely the building under fire, and to let the fire fighters penetrate safely into the building.
Escape route from corridor

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Technical
Information

N25 June 2011

Two key basic principles

As described in ASHRAE 2007 HVAC Applications Fire and Smoke Management, a stairwell pressurisation
system is designed to provide a smoke-free escape route in the event of a building fire as well as a smoke-free
staging area for fire fighters.
On the fire floor, a pressurised stairwell must maintain a positive pressure difference across a closed stairwell
door to prevent smoke infiltration.
During building fires, some stairwell doors are opened intermittently during evacuation and fire fighting, and some
doors may even be blocked open. Ideally, when the stairwell door is opened on the fire floor, airflow through the
door should be sufficient to prevent smoke backflow.

The two key basic principles controlling the movement of smoke, and described here above, are PRESSURE &
VELOCITY. These two basic principles are the basis of any standard and code of practice related to stairwell
pressurisation design. When PRESSURE is considered for small gaps and closed doors, VELOCITY is used for
large gaps and open doors. Obviously, the number of effective open doors and the air velocity through these open
doors will have the greatest impact on the size of the stairwell pressurization fan.

Location of stairwell pressurisation fan and injection points

The stairwell pressurisation fan can be located anywhere, but as the exit door is located at the bottom of the
stairwell, the stairwell pressurisation fan is usually located at the top of the building to prevent any failure
and short-circuit due to open exit door near the single air supply injection point.
For tall buildings (H > 15m or 8 stories), there are usually several injection points for the supply of pressurising
air into the stairwell to ensure an even pressure distribution. These injection points should be at a distance not
greater than 3 floor levels to ensure an even pressure distribution.
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N25 June 2011

Technical Information

Protection of the air intakes from smoke hazards

As there is a potential hazard for smoke to enter the stairwell through a pressurisation fan air intake, there should
be two air intakes facing different directions in order not to be affected by the same source of smoke. Each air
intake shall be protected by a smoke control damper operated independently via a smoke detector in such a
way that if one damper closes due to smoke contamination, the other air intake will supply the air requirements of
the system without interruption. The air intake shall also not be less than 5m horizontally from any exhaust
discharge opening and be independent from wind speed and direction.

Air leakage paths (except open doors, windows, and air transfer grilles)
Air leakage paths must be identified and evaluated to keep a positive differential pressure between the stairwell
and the accommodation when all doors are closed. Some leakage paths are obvious such as cracks around
closed doors, elevator doors; construction cracks in building walls are less obvious but they are equally
important. The area of these leakage paths depends on such features as workmanship, door fit and weatherstripping.
Example: A 0.9 by 2.1 m door with an average crack width of 3 mm has a leakage area of 0.018 m2. However, if this door is
installed with a 20 mm undercut, the leakage area is 0.033 m2, a significant difference. The leakage area of elevator doors is
in the range of 0.051 to 0.065 m2 per door.

Leakage areas in series:

Leakage areas in parallel:

Typical leakage areas - Leakage areas in series or parallel

ASHRAE 2007 HVAC Applications

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N25 June 2011

Technical Information

Door-opening force requirement

The door-opening forces resulting from the differential pressure between the stairwell and the accommodation
must be considered. Unreasonably high door-opening forces can make it difficult or impossible for occupants to
open doors to refuge areas or escape routes. The force required to open a door is the sum of the forces to
overcome the pressure difference across the door and to overcome the door closer.
WHERE

F = total door-opening force, N

Fdc = force to overcome door closer, N
W = door width, m
A = door area, m2
p = pressure difference across door, Pa
d = distance from doorknob to edge of knob side of door,m

This relation assumes that the door-opening force is applied at the knob. Door-opening force Fp caused by
pressure difference can be determined from the below figure for different door widths and for d = 75 mm. The
force to overcome the door closer is usually greater than 13 N and, in some cases, can be as great as 90 N.

Door opening-force due to pressure difference

Air leakage through a door
ASHRAE 2007
HVAC Applications Fire and Smoke Management

Overpressure relief
An overpressure relief is mandatory as the design of pressurised stairwells is evaluated under two really
different conditions, ie all doors closed and with selected doors open. As a system designed under all doors
closed conditions cannot provide sufficient airflow through selected open doors to prevent smoke backflow, and
the pressure difference across the remaining closed doors can drop to low levels, the system has to be finally
designed for the worst case (ie with selected doors open). But to prevent the build-up of excessive pressures
when all doors are closed, an overpressure relief has to be implemented in the stairwell.

Different configurations with

PRD to the outside or to the
building

ASHRAE 2007
HVAC Applications & NFPA 92.A

In case the PRD is connected to the building on each floor, a fire damper should be connected in series. In
case the PRD is connected to the outside, a windshield is recommended to prevent wind pressures.
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Technical Information

Corridor smoke extraction & air relieve

The corridor smoke extraction system is the best solution to offer a low resistance path for the supply air
penetrating inside the corridor from the stairwell to leave the building through vertical ducts and 400C 2hrs
smoke exhaust fans. The corridor smoke extraction is perfectly complementary with the stairwell pressurisation
system. Indeed, by creating a low pressure point in the fire area, the corridor smoke extraction ensures that all
airflow will be directed towards this fire area, and consequently that the smoke will be prevented to enter
unaffected parts of the building via unidentified leakage paths.

HVAC system
In order not to affect the pressure differential, the HVAC system shall be shut down to prevent the smoke
movement penetrating other interconnected spaces (same requirement for compartmentation and smoke
extraction system).

"
In the UAE, the design criteria are quite stringent due to the number of high-rise buildings, the building occupancy
and the difficulty to reach the ground level, resulting in a really important need for a safe evacuation. As per the
new UAE Fire Code, the stairwell pressurisation system should thus be implemented in any building with
habitable height exceeding 23 m when internal exit staircases are without adequate provision for natural
ventilation, and should deal with the following design criteria:
1 DETECTION PHASE
Pressure Criterion:
Minimum pressure differential between stairwell & adjacent accommodation space is 12.5Pa in sprinklered
buildings or 25Pa in non-sprinklered buildings when all doors are closed. A value of 50Pa can also be considered
without any problem (cf. drawings in this document).

2 ESCAPE PHASE
Velocity & Force Criteria:
Minimum velocity shall be higher or equal to 1m/s through 3 open doors (1 main exit door + 2 doors on
consecutive floors)
Maximum force required to open any door at the door handle shall not exceed 133N. This maximum force means
finally a maximum differential pressure as long as the force of the door closer is known. This maximum differential
pressure is usually below 80Pa.

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3N25
DIFFERENT
POTENTIAL CONFIGURATIONS

Technical Information

Calculation Methodology:
1- Identify all the airflow paths with doors closed and calculate the leakage rate via these airflow paths (cracks
around doors).
2- Calculate the air supply required with all the doors closed with a 50% increase for unknown.
3- Identify all the different doors and calculate the air supply required through these doors with v=1m/s and an
allowance of 15% for ductwork losses.
4- Calculate the total airflow (all doors closed + 3 doors open) and determine the fan duty point
5- Check that the door opening forces are below 133N
6- Calculate the size of the PRD

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N25 June 2011

In case of fire, a stairwell pressurisation fan is used to supply fresh air into the exit route stairwells to create a
sufficient pressure differential within the corridor space.
Any type of fans could be used theoretically for stairwell pressurisation application. A major advantage of using
axial fans for stairwell pressurisation is that they have a relatively flat pressure response curve with respect to
varying flow. Therefore, as doors are opened and closed, propeller fans quickly respond to airflow changes in
the stairwell without major pressure fluctuations.
A second advantage of using axial fans is that they are usually less costly than other types of fans and can
provide adequate smoke control with lower installed costs.
But as they are operating at low pressures and are readily affected by wind pressure on the building, they often
require windshields at the air intake, especially when they are wall-mounted. This is less critical when axial
fans are mounted on roofs because they are often protected by parapets and the direction of the wind is at right
angles to the axis of the fan.
A study from Hobson and Stewart, Pressurisation of Escape Routes in Buildings (1977), revealed also that axial
flow fans were more reliable than centrifugal fans with a failure rate 10 times less than centrifugal fans and a
high reliability of 94.9%. Nowadays, we can obviously consider that new centrifugal fans have achieved better
performances with higher reliability and are now as reliable as axial fans. Despite this reliability, standards, codes
of practice, and regulations are still enforcing stand-by fans requirements with primary and back-up
pressurising units, mounted in parallel or series, especially in the case where the pressure differential system
equipment provides air under pressure to the only escape route within a building.
Note: If there are two independent escape routes for each accommodation within a building (ex: 2 staircases) or if there is just
one escape route within a building but there is possibility for the people to enter another compartment with other means of
escape, there is no need for stand-by fans.

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HELIONE stairwell pressurisation axial fan is designed, CE marked and tested as per EN 12101-3 for operation at
400C for 2 hours and hold Civil Defence approval.
Note: For the selection of the stairwell pressurisation fan, the fan performance shall be at least 1.5 times larger than that
calculated for the predicted leakages in order to allow for the unidentified leakages plus an allowance of 15% for probable
ductwork leakage as per EN 12101-6.

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N25 June 2011

Technical Information

The pressure relief damper shall be sized to discharge the total excess airflow determined by subtracting the total
air leakage from the stairwells, lobbies and corridors with all doors closed from the total required airflow in the
worst case conditions (selected doors open).
The pressure relief damper shall be able to maintain at or above the design pressurisation level but below the
maximum pressure determined by the door opening force requirements.

Pressure Relief Damper Model SG 662

Aldes ME has developed its own

stairwell pressurisation fan
selector to meet all these
requirements.
For any information or enquiry or
case study, please contact us!
www.aldes.ae

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