Numerical Analysis of Smoke Confinement by Means of Air Curtains in High-Rise Buildings

As an effective approach to confine fire-induced smoke transportation, the application of air curtains is introduced in high-rise buildings during fire. A series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out for a full scale corridor in high-rise building, in which different factors such as air curtain discharge velocity (ACDV), human evacuation and pressure difference are considered. The results show that with the ACDV increasing, the smoke flowing resistance of air curtain is greater. The factor of evacuation cause significant impact on the efficiency of air curtain. Compared with the pressure difference caused by wind effect, the fire effect would lead to higher critical pressure difference and discharge coefficient.