Smoke movement characteristics in subway stations - Fire safety assessment of center platform stations by numerical studies - Fire s

Until recently' validity of simulations for a subway station fire was difficult to be evaluated as there was almost no available data for a real subway station fire. To obtain some real data' in October 2003 in Tokyo' smoke movement experiments were conducted in actual subway stations currently in service. Although this experiment was limited in time' intensity and contents' essential data was collected to tune and examine the validity of the numerical calculations. The experimental results suggested that the smoke movement is highly dependent on the air flow blowing down the stairway and the opening and closing conditions of the shutters. The reasonable agreement between the experimental data and the prediction shows that the CFD model can reproduce the smoke?air mixing which is caused by the air flow through the stairways connecting the platform and the concourse. The CFD model will be suitable to reproduce the specific smoke movements in subway stations. Smoke spread at the event of more plausible severer fires in more complicated conditions is discussed to grasp fire safety levels and to propose appropriate operation of shutters and smoke extraction systems.