Natural and Mechanical Ventilations for Reducing the Severity of Hot Gases and Smoke in Fires of Large Stores

This study investigates numerically the effectiveness of using natural and mechanical ventilations in reducing the severity of hot gases and smoke in fires of multi-floor-stores and large shopping centers.Fire behavior in both Single-and Double-Floor-Stores (SFS & DFS) are simulated.Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), provided by NIST, has been used to run the simulations for all proposed cases.For the assumed scenarios, the values of hot gas temperature and smoke are extracted at different points, especially inside the hot layer near the ceiling, for further analysis.Final results show noticeable reduction in the severity of fire in the presence of natural and mechanical ventilation systems, for both (SFS & DFS).Thus, appropriate ventilation system can be used as an efficient tool to improve the safety level in multi-floor-stores and large shopping malls.