Pressurization in Tall Building Elevator Shafts

Dr. Don Beasley and Dr. Richard S. Miller Department of Mechanical Engineering Clemson University Clemson, SC 29634-0921
864-656-5622, Fax: 864-656-4435, Email: debsl@clemson.edu 864-656-6248, Fax: 864-656-4435, Email: rm@clemson.edu

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Two buildings are modeled using NISTs CONTAM building ventilation modeling software: a ten story building with a single elevator shaft and three cars, and a thirty story building with two elevators shafts with four cars each. The buildings are kept at 70 F inside and both warm (60 F ) and cold (10 F ) ambient conditions are considered. Stair and other leakages are calibrated to produce typical but conservative cold day stack eect pressure distributions in the elevator shafts having up to 0.071in and 0.134in water, respectively. The calibrated simulations are then used to model the impact of applying shaft pressurization to produce positive P across all elevator doors (minimum of 0.05in water) as a proposed means of deterring smoke migration to upper oors by the stack eect. The elevator door is modeled as being in the open position (four times the closed door leakage area) in these cases and on the ground oor. Under the modeling assumptions the results of the study indicate: Shaft pressurization in buildings much above 10 stories will almost certainly result in pressure dierences across elevator doors in excess of 0.3in water when the temperature dierence between the internal building and the ambient is in excess of 50 F . Shaft pressurization shifts the stack eect pressure prole equally at all levels of the building (with the exception of an open elevator door located on the ground oor level). Shaft pressurization is independent of the pressurization source location (both roof and basement mounted systems were tested). Furthermore, relief vents have no eect on the pressure distribution if the minimum +0.05in water pressure dierence is to be maintained. Elevator shaft pressure proles vary substantially with outside temperature; both with and without shaft pressurization. If elevator doors bind at pressure dierences of approximately 0.3in water then problems will occur for both tall buildings ( 20 oors) at upper levels even on warm days, and even for shorter buildings 10 oors on cold days. These are conservative estimates and assume that the system can be controlled to just meet the minimum positive pressure dierence of 0.05in water or greater on all oors. The majority of the fan power required goes to overcoming the eects of the relatively large open elevator door on the ground oor and is therefore relatively independent of the ambient temperature. If a constant speed fan is calibrated for a minimum P = 0.05in water with the elevator door open then maximum P values will be substantially increased if the elevator doors are closed during shaft pressurization and will nearly certainly lead to values greater than 0.3in water for even ten story buildings on cold days. Pressurization of the elevator shaft will produce signicantly larger pressures when all of the hoistway doors are closed relative to the Phase 1 situation with the elevator on the ground oor with open doors. Since the elevators can be expected to operate (both under Normal and Phase 2) with the shaft pressurization active and all doors closed, the additional pressures that result must be considered in determining if the hoistway doors will operate properly (particularly at the upper oors). This eect 1

becomes lesser as the building height is increased as their is more volume to re-distribute the over pressure. The shaft temperature is an important parameter in determining the pressure dierences across elevator doors. As the shaft temperature is reduced the maximum pressure dierence across elevator doors decreases as well. However, the maximums remain problematic for tall buildings with even very cold elevator shafts (eg. 30 story building at +0.506in water with a 30 F shaft). This is because the primary factor inuencing the maximum pressure dierence is not the shaft temperature and hydrostatic eects, but the need to overcome the open elevator door while maintaining a minimum pressure dierence.

INTRODUCTION
The following document presents results from an investigation of elevator shaft pressurization on potential smoke distribution through the shaft eect. All results were obtained via computer simulations using the CONTAM software developed by the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Details of the software can be found at http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/IAQanalysis/index.html.

RESULTS
Results are presented for two dierent building models. The following two subsections provide all details concerning the building models and parameters. Final maximum pressure dierences across the elevator doors for each simulation are presented in Table 1 for all cases simulated. A schematic of each building models typical oor plan is provided in Fig. 1 (not to scale). Figures 2 - 10 present the vertical distribution of the pressure dierences across each elevator door as a function of the oor number for all simulations.

Building 1
Building 1 is specied as a ten story building with a oor height of 9.85f t and a oor area of 20, 000f t2 . On each oor there are two stairwells located at opposite corners of the building. Each stairwell has a oor area of 250f t2 . In the center of the building is a single (open) elevator shaft having three sets of elevators and elevator doors. The open shaft has a oor area of 675f t2 . Each of the three elevator doors has a leakage area of 100in2 . However, the rst oor elevator doors have a 400in2 open area modeling the elevator doors being open with the car on that oor. Each stairwell has a single door with a leakage area of 10in2 . Each oor of the building has eight leakage points (open windows or eective leakages due to ventilation) all having an identical leakage area of 100in2 . The window leaks provide the coupling to the ambient for each level. All ten oors are identical [see Fig. 1(a)]. There is also a roof level with only the stairwells and elevator shafts (where the fans are installed for cases having fans). The stair door openings are identical on these levels but the elevator shaft is sealed unless a fan is installed. The building temperature is maintained at 70 F on all oors. The above parameters were determined based on a Building 1 0 reference case. This building was designed exactly as above; however, the elevator doors were closed on all oors (identical 100in2 openings on all oors) and no shaft pressurization is present. The model was calibrated by iterating the window and stair leakage areas until a typical shaft eect symmetric pressure distribution was obtained (in this case 0.071in water). The ambient conditions correspond to the cold day conditions discussed below (10 F ). As such, the resulting building parameters represent relatively conservative estimates of real structures. An additional simulation of Building 1 0 is then performed using identical parameters except that the ambient temperature is raised to a warm day condition (60 F ). See Figs. 2 and 3 (closed door) for the non-pressurized pressure distributions. The ground oor elevators were then set to the open position to create Building 1. 2

Four simulations are run for Building 1. These correspond to cases with and without elevator shaft pressurization: one for each of two ambient climates. The two climate conditions simulated are: a warm ambient temperature of 60 F and cold ambient temperature of 10 F . No wind is present in either case. The eects of the elevator door opening on the across door pressure dierences without shaft pressurization are illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. Elevator shaft pressurization is considered next. In this case a specied volumetric ow rate fan (comparable to a constant speed fan with xed damper setting) is installed on the roof of the building bringing ambient air into the elevator shaft. The volumetric ow rate is increased from a zero rate (no fan) until an outow from the elevator shaft is achieved on every oor. The fan discharge rate is increased further until a minimum pressure dierence of +0.05in water is achieved. The location of the minimum P is at the ground level at the open elevator door. Results presented in what follows correspond to this fan discharge rate. The required fan discharge rates found in this manner are: (1) Cold Day: 22, 500cf m, and (2) Warm Day: 21, 500cf m. Resulting pressure dierences across the elevator doors are presented in Fig. 4. At this point only a warm elevator shaft (70 F ) is considered. Eects of the fan bringing in cold ambient air are addressed below.

Building 2
A second thirty story building was also modeled. In order to make useful comparisons several of the parameters determined for Building 1 were maintained. Building 2 is specied as a 30 story building with a oor height of 9.85f t and a oor area of 10, 000f t2 . On each oor there are two stairwells located at opposite corners of the building. Each stairwell has a oor area of 250f t2 . In the center of the building are two (open) elevator shafts having four sets of elevators and elevator doors. The open shafts each have a oor area of 900f t2 . Each of the elevator doors (four per shaft) has a leakage area of 100in2 . However, the rst oor elevator doors have a 400in2 open area modeling the elevator doors being open with the car on that oor. Each stairwell has a single door with leakage area 10in2 . Each oor of the building has eight leakage points (open windows or eective leakages due to ventilation) all having a leakage area of 100in2 . The window leaks provide the coupling to the ambient for each level. All thirty oors are identical [see Fig. 1(b)]. There is also a roof level with only the stairwells and elevator shafts (where the fans are installed for cases having fans). The stair door openings are identical on these levels but the elevator shaft is sealed unless a fan is installed. The building temperature is maintained at 70 F on all oors. Building 2 0 is a reference case for this building. This building was designed exactly as above; however, the elevator doors were closed on all oors (identical 100in2 openings on all oors). Building 2 0 was simulated for both warm and cold day ambient temperatures. No further calibration of parameters from that of Building 1 was conducted. The resulting pressure distribution obtained for Building 2 0 is shown in Figs. 5 and 6 (closed door). Building 2 is identical to Building 2 0 except that the elevator cars are all located on the rst oor with open doors. Four simulations are run for Building 2. These correspond to two cases with no elevator shaft pressurization: one for each of the two ambient climates: warm 60 F and cold 10 F . No wind is present in either case. The eects of the elevator door opening on the across door pressure dierences without shaft pressurization are illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. Elevator shaft pressurization is considered next. Two specied volumetric ow rate fans (comparable to a constant speed fan with xed damper setting) are installed on the roof of the building bringing ambient air into each of the elevator shafts. The volumetric ow rate is increased from a zero rate (no fan) until an outow from the elevator shafts is achieved on every oor. The fan discharge rate is increased further until a minimum pressure dierence of +0.05in water is achieved. The location of the minimum P is at the ground level at the open elevator door. The discharge rate of both fans are the same. Results presented in what follows correspond to this fan discharge rate. The required 3

discharge rates for each fan determined for Building 2 are: (1) Cold Day: 132, 000cf m, and (2) Warm Day: 131, 000cf m. Resulting pressure dierences across the elevator doors are presented in Fig. 7. At this point only a warm elevator shaft (70 F ) is considered. Eects of the fan bringing in cold ambient air are addressed below.

Fan Requirements
The fans installed in the system are specied as constant volumetric owrate fans (comparable to constant speed with xed damper setting). For pressurization Building 1 uses a single fan on the roof level and Building 2 uses two fans (one per shaft) on the roof level. As mentioned above the fan requirements are substantial but are relatively independent of the ambient temperature. For Building 1 the fan is rated at 22, 500cf m and 21, 500cf m on cold and warm days, respectively, while for Building 2 each fan is rated at 132, 000cf m and 131, 000cf m, respectively. On the surface this may seem counter intuitive based on the substantially dierent shaft pressures encountered on cold and warm days. However, the eect is attributable to the open elevator door on the ground oor. This can be described with the aid of Fig. 8 which shows the pressure dierences as a function of the oor level for Building 2 both with and without pressurization and on both cold and warm days. If the elevator doors were closed (consider for example oor 2 and above in the gure) then the addition of pressurization would simply shift the pressure curves to the right until the minimum pressure (oor 2 in this example) reached +0.05in water. A substantially larger fan discharge rate would be needed for cold days compared to warm days. However, the presence of the four times larger door leakage area as a model for the open elevator door on oor 1 introduces a nonlinearity into the model. In this case pressurization shifts the upper curves nearly linearly. However, the ground oor pressure dierence (which is the location of the minimum needing to be xed at +0.05in water) starts at relatively the same values from just the shaft eect alone (no pressurization). The vast majority of the fan power is needed to simply overcome the large opening on the ground oor and maintain a positive pressure dierence throughout the shaft and in particular on oor 1. The extra power needed to compensate for the cold day is relatively negligible. Had the elevator doors been kept closed both warm and cold day fan discharge rates would be substantially reduced (although the cold day requirements would be substantially larger than the warm day requirements). In this case the shaft pressurization would simply linearly shift the shaft eect curves to the right on the gure until the minimum P reached +0.05in water. This may be ideal operation; however, minimum pressure dierences must be maintained even for cases in which the elevator doors are open. This poses even further potential problems with elevator door operation as the doors may need to be closed with the pressurization system in operation. Figure 9 shows the eect of closing the elevator doors on the shaft pressure dierence distribution for Building 1 and Building 2 on a cold day. In this case the closing of the elevator doors with the fan still operating at the same owrate increases the pressure dierences across all elevator doors. The eect is most pronounced for Building 1 as the over pressure has fewer oors over which to be re-distributed. In this case an approximately constant increase of 0.05in water is observed on the upper oors and the maximum P now exceeds +0.3in water (oor 10). Closed door operation must therefore be considered in testing pressurization systems; particularly for smaller buildings.

Eect of Elevator Shaft Temperature

To this point only elevator shafts with temperatures equal to the internal building temperature have been considered (70 F ). In reality the majority of designs will bring cold ambient air into the shaft. The shaft temperature will have both spatial and temporal dependencies. Even an average shaft temperature in the sense of the CONTAM model will be time dependent. It will start at the building temperature and begin to decrease towards the outside ambient value as time progresses and 4

several air changes occur. In the absence of an additional building HVAC system the entire building will asymptotically approach the ambient temperature. The thermal inertia of the concrete structure itself would have to accounted for as well in predicting the shaft temperature as a function of time. In addition, the eects of the HVAC system, and the re itself will prevent the average shaft temperature from reaching the ambient. Obviously, modeling the realistic system is exceedingly complex. Therefore, for the purposes of this study the eects of the shaft temperature will be considered as follows. For early times the shaft is modeled at the building temperature (as above). This is because the shaft pressure will equilibrate much faster than the turnover time of the air inside it needed to substantially drop its temperature: at 130, 000f t3 /min a fan will turnover the air in the 900f t2 30 9.85f t/f loor shaft approximately every 2min (in contrast the pressure will equilibrate on time scales 1 10sec after the fan comes to speed. For later times the eect of the shaft temperature will be modeled by assuming a uniform temperature throughout the shaft (consistent with CONTAM) and varying this parameter. A more comprehensive study of the shaft temperature as a function of time is currently under way and the simulations will be revised as needed. However, the following analysis covers the limits of warm to cold shafts and puts bounds on the expected behavior. The eect of the shaft temperature is considered if Fig. 10 for the pressurized shaft case for the thirty story Building 2. Elevator shafts of 70 F , 30 F and 10 F are examined and data is also presented in Table 1. The shaft temperature is an important parameter in determining the pressure dierences across elevator doors. As the shaft temperature is reduced the maximum pressure dierence across elevator doors decreases as well. However, the maximums remain problematic for tall buildings with even very cold elevator shafts (eg. 30 story building at +0.506in water with a 30 F shaft). This is because the primary factor inuencing the maximum pressure dierence is not the shaft temperature and hydrostatic eects (Fig. 10(a)), but the need to overcome the open elevator door while maintaining a minimum pressure dierence. In fact, even the second oor elevator door in Fig. 10 experiences a greater than +0.30in water value. This value will be dependent on the specied leakage of the ground oor door (in this case 400in2 ). Even when the shaft is at the outside temperature of 10 F and the stack eect is absent over pressurization problems are present. In this case simply pressurizing the shaft suciently to produce a +0.05in water dierence across the open rst oor elevator door requires a 125, 000cf m fan. The over pressure at the second oor remains greater than +0.05in and remains approximately constant among all of the upper oors in the absence of the stack eect.

CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained during the course of this study are summarized in Table 1. The table presents the following data for each simulation: the Building name, the number of oors, whether or not the elevator door is modeled as open, whether or not shaft pressurization from the roof is applied, the fan volumetric owrate (per fan) in cubic feet per minute, ambient temperature, and nally the maximum measured pressure dierence from all oors of the buildings. Relatively large pressure dierences are required across upper oor elevator doors for tall buildings on cold days. The maximum pressure dierence observed is +0.667in water for the thirty story building on a cold day. These results are based on relatively conservative building parameters. Testing of related shaft pressurization systems should be conducted on tall buildings on cold days as reliable systems are developed. In all cases pressurization results in a nearly linear shift of the stack eect pressure prole towards positive P values; with the exception of the open elevator door on the ground oor. The elevator shaft temperature also has an eect on the pressure dierences across elevator doors. Cold shafts have somewhat reduced maximum pressure dierences. However, the primary factor causing large maximum pressure dierences at the top oors is the need to overcome the open elevator door in the Phase 1 position; not the hydrostatic eect. Therefore, maximum pressure dierences remain problematic even with cold elevator shafts. In addition, further simulations not reported here were conducted for a basement mounted fan 5

system and for a roof mounted pressure relief vent (louver). These results indicate that the shaft pressurization is independent of the location of the pressurization source due to the large elevator shaft area oering negligible resistance to the shaft ow. The roof vent also has negligible eect on the results if a minimum +0.05in water pressure dierence is to be maintained. As the vent is opened the pressure in the shaft drops. However, in order to re-acquire the +0.05in water value the fan speed must be increased to compensate. The net eect is that no signicant changes in the pressures results; although a larger fan is needed.

Building 10 10 1 1 1 1 1 20 20 2 2 2 2 2 2

# Floors 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30

Open Door No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Pressurized No No No No Yes, 70 F Yes, 70 F Yes, 70 F No No No No Yes, 70 F Yes, 70 F Yes, 30 F Yes, 10 F

Fan [cf m] N/A N/A N/A N/A 22,500 22,500 21,500 N/A N/A N/A N/A 132,000 131,000 128,000 125,000

Ambient Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Warm, 60 F Cold, 10 F Cold, 10 F

Pmax [inH2 O] 0.071in 0.011in 0.08in +0.012in +0.278in +0.327in +0.158in 0.134in 0.019in 0.017in +0.02in +0.667in +0.45in +0.506in +0.436in

Table 1: Summary of results: Building 1 is ten stories (20, 000f t2 ) with two diagonally located stairwells (250f t2 ) and a center located elevator shaft (675f t2 ) with three sets of cars and doors (100in2 leakage area). Building 2 is thirty stories (10, 000f t2 ) with two diagonally located stairwells (250f t2 ) and two center located elevator shafts (900f t2 each) with four sets of cars and doors (100in2 leakage area). For pressurization Building 1 uses a single fan on the roof level and Building 2 uses two fans (one per shaft) on the roof level. An open elevator door is located on the ground oor and has a leakage area of 400in2 . The inside temperature is 70 F on all oors for both buildings. An unpressurized shaft is at 70 F .

Stairwell Windows/Ventilation door

Stairwell Windows/Ventilation door Shaft 1 Shaft 2 door

Elevator Shaft doors door Stairwell

Stairwell

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: Schematic representation of building oor plans (not to scale) for: (a) Building 1 (10 identical oors), and (b) Building 2 (30 identical oors). Both buildings have an additional roof with only stairwell and elevator structures.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 -0.1 -0.05

Closed door Open door

Floor Number

P across elevator door [in water]

0.05

0.1

Figure 2: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for reference Building 1 0: Cold day (10 F ), no pressurization.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 -0.02

Closed door Open door

Floor Number

P across elevator door [in water]

Figure 3: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for reference Building 1 0: Warm day (60 F ), no pressurization.

-0.01

0.01

0.02

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Floor Number

Cold Day (10 F) Warm Day (600F)

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

P across elevator door [in water]

Figure 4: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for Building 1: elevator shaft pressurization on the roof, elevator doors open.

30 25
Closed door Open door

Floor Number

20 15 10 5 -0.2 -0.15 -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2

P across elevator door [in water]

Figure 5: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for reference Building 2 0: Cold day (10 F ), no pressurization.

30 25
Closed door Open door

Floor Number

20 15 10 5 -0.05 -0.025 0 0.025 0.05

P across elevator door [in water]

Figure 6: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for reference Building 2 0: Warm day (60 F ), no pressurization.

30 25

Cold Day (10 F) 0 Warm Day (60 F)

Floor Number

20 15 10 5 0

P across elevator door [in water]

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Figure 7: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for Building 2: elevator shaft pressurization on the roof, elevator doors open.

40 35

Floor Number

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -0.1 0

No Pressurization Cold Day No Pressurization Warm Day Pressurization Cold Day Pressurization Warm Day

P across elevator door [in water]

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

Figure 8: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for Building 2 (open elevator door on ground oor).

10

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

30
Open Door Closed Door

25

Case 1: Open Door Case 2: Closed Door

Floor Number

Floor Number

20 15 10 5 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

P across elevator door [in water]

(a)

P across elevator door [in water]

(b)

Figure 9: Pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number (Cold Day) with pressurization showing the impact of closing the elevator doors during fan operation: (a) Building 1 and (b) Building 2.

30 25

Shaft at 700F Shaft at 300F Shaft at 100F

Floor Number

20 15 10 5 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

(b)

P across elevator door [in water]

Figure 10: Eect of the shaft temperature on the pressure dierence across the elevator doors as a function of the oor number for Building 2 (open elevator door on ground oor): pressurized shaft with minimum P = +0.05in water.

11