Smoke propagation experiments in a real-scale residential building

An experimental study of smoke propagation from an apartment to an escape route corridor in a real-scale residential building is presented in this paper. The experiments were performed using the same experimental setup but with different ventilation and apartment door opening times. The setup consisted of a fire in a two-seater sofa in an apartment connected to a corridor and other apartments. A total of four scenarios are presented in this paper. The baseline scenario examines the smoke propagation from the apartment to the corridor during a ventilation-limited fire with a closed façade and door between the apartment and corridor opening after 5 min. In the other scenarios, the effect of closing the door, smoke permeability and ventilation openings in the façade are investigated. The results show the impact of ventilation and door opening time on the conditions in the corridor. Closing the door of the apartment has a significant impact on decreasing smoke propagation, for example carbon monoxide concentrations in the corridor are 15–26 times lower than the baseline scenario. Ventilation openings have less impact, for example carbon monoxide concentrations are 2.6–3.7 times lower than the baseline scenario when additional ventilation openings are used. Overall, the results demonstrate the reliability of the design and provide insights into smoke propagation in real-scale residential buildings.