SR66 Effectiveness of smoke management systems (2007)

Traditional design of smoke management systems (SMS) aims at providing smoke exhaust capacity based on maintaining the design smoke and airflow rates at critical locations in the building and by providing additional capacity or redundant components to cover failure of critical components in the system.

This approach assumes 100% reliability in the performance of individual elements in the SMS and fully effective interaction between these elements.

Such designs often fail to provide the assurance that the SMS will:

• become functional in the event of an emergency
• carry out the design objectives effectively for the full required duration.

A risk assessment approach based on subjective probabilities has been adopted in this study to evaluate the effectiveness of the SMS. A checklist approach with probability assignment based on experience or engineering judgement has been adopted.

A framework for a simple computer risk assessment model has been proposed. Provision has been made within this framework for modification of probability values by users, based on their individual experiences.