Smoke Evacuation during a storm

[southerneng]

I have been working on a medical project in the south Pacific. The hospital has a three story atrium with a smoke evacuation system. Since the area is prone to typhoons, the facility also has storm shutters. The client is insisting that the smoke evacuation system be fully operational during a typhoon. The problem is that make up air is not available because the typhoon shutters are closed. Even if we opened the shutters, the velocity of the make-up air will be above the maximum of 200 FPM and will disrupt the smoke boundary layer. Does anyone have a code reference about designing for simultaneous disasters?

 

[stookeyfpe]

The code never contemplates simultaneous emergencies inside a building. If we did every structure built must resist a terrorist with a plane with an active shooter inside while the building is burning.

If one calculates the frequency of a fire in a sprinklered hospital that exceeds 3 sprinklers operating and then looks at the frequency of typhoon, the combine frequency would probably approach 1 x10^5. This is a purely speculative but I've done it before.

Sounds like the code official isn't very experienced with building fires but has 1st hand experience with typhoons. I would emphasize all of the other engineering controls in constructing an I-2 under the IBC and remind him/her that the emergency responders probably won't be responding during a typhoon. So your structure is designed with a defend-in-place strategy. Thus the reason for smoke compartments so that patients can be relocated while in bed from an area where a fire has occurred to an area separated by fire & smoke barriers.

 

[southerneng]

I have already taken this approach with the official without much success. We have also calculated the odds of a typhoon and fire simultaneously and your number is not far off. After a long conference call yesterday, I think that we have finally reached a compromise that I can agree to. Thank you for your input and insights.