What is a staircase pressurization system?

August 4, 2022

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In each high-rise building, stairs are considered as an exit when dangerous incidents occur, such as fires. Therefore, the stairs need a system to help prevent the smoke from spreading into this area. The staircase pressurization system is the system that ensures that. Find out in our article.

What is a staircase pressurization system?

A stair pressurization system is a system to create a pressure difference between the inside of the emergency stairs and the outside area. Using industrial fans to supply air, creates positive pressure inside the stairwell area. This creates a safe area to help people escape.

Why install a staircase pressurization system?

Many people think that burns are the leading cause of death in fires. However, according to statistics, most fires occur with up to 50% to 80% of deaths due to smoke inhalation.

Fire smoke and toxic gases in the fire contain highly toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide. The higher the fire, the longer the toxicity increases. When people inhale the toxic gas from the fire can lead to respiratory failure, loss of consciousness, suffocation, organ failure, and other effects.

– If the whole body inhales toxic gases due to smoke and fire, it causes suffocation and is likely to lead to death within about 7 minutes.

– The fire generates a high amount of heat, the heat can burn the skin, burn the mucous membranes inside the respiratory tract causing the swelling …

– A fire causes objects to deform, releasing other toxic chemicals that can cause respiratory damage, respiratory failure, loss of consciousness, or suffocation.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a system to create an escape space for people, ensuring that in the shortest time people can escape. Avoid inhaling toxic gases in a fire.

Meanwhile, the staircase pressurization system is the solution to help create a safe area, with absolutely no smoke, fire, or toxic gas to help people escape the risk of suffocation.

Stair pressurization systems are considered mandatory in high-rise buildings. When today, consecutive fires occur in apartments and high-rise buildings around the world.

This system offers the following benefits:

– Prevent the movement of dust, smoke, and fire from entering the stairwell area. Help the stairs always in condition to provide enough necessary air for people during the escape time.

– Maintaining a clean air environment helps people in need such as the elderly, young children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, etc. have time to recover and wait for the fire brigade to respond.

– Stairs are the place to help firefighters access and deal with the fire.

– Protect human life, and minimize property damage.

Therefore, the stair pressurization system is extremely necessary and important for high-rise buildings such as houses, apartments, office buildings, etc.

Structure of the staircase pressurization system

The stair pressurization system is designed with 2 main components as follows:

– Air supply: Where the air is pumped into the stairwell area

– Air reduction: Avoid overpressure when the door is closed

Includes the following parts:

– Booster fan, air supply: usually use a centrifugal fan or industrial axial fan.

– The airflow distribution system includes an air duct, terminal diffuser, and vent arrangement.

– Air vents, exhaust valves, automatic dampers.

– Automatic control system: fire alarm device, smoke alarm, switch…

🔰 USEFUL INFORMATION

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Principle of the staircase pressurization system

The pressurization system uses an industrial exhaust fan or a mechanical fan to create a flow of air into the elevator chamber. This creates positive air pressure inside the stairs. Thanks to the difference in air pressure, smoke, toxic gases, and fire from outside cannot penetrate inside the stairs.

Here is a specific example:

A: Stairs area (escape stairs)

B: Elevator lobby area

C: Corridor area where the fire occurred

Each of these areas has partitions and doors to separate the area. Most of these areas are the same on each successive floor.

According to the principle: Air always moves from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure. As a result, maintaining area A (the emergency staircase area) always has a higher pressure than areas B and C. The smoke and fire from area C cannot spread to area A. In other words, no Gas and fire smoke from area C is prevented from moving, they are limited to moving through area B and can’t spread to area A at all.

From there, it can be seen that the stairs are the safest place, ensuring people get out of the fire quickly.

The exit area door is always closed by the mechanism of the hydraulic hinge. The pressure in the stairwell area needs to be maintained at a higher level than the outside area, so that the airflow always moves outward, preventing the ingress of smoke from the outside into the interior.

👇 Note:

The pressure should not be too high, exceeding the maximum level will make it difficult for human strength to open the door. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the pressure at a suitable level carefully calculated during construction and installation.

After entering, close the door immediately. Because if the door is open, the gaps will be wider, and the air from inside the stairs tends to move to the outside. After a while, it is possible to balance the air between the escape area and the area outside the fire. This will cause the air to contain smoke and fire, toxic gases will move back inside the stairs.

Above is detailed information about the pressurization system for emergency stairs. Hope the above information brings useful things for readers.

SYSTEM FAN GROUP

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