| Author: | Szeto, Dick-fung |
| Title: | Evacuation study of commercial uses in partially re-developed industrial buildings in Hong Kong : a case study |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Subject: | Buildings -- Evacuation. Fire escapes. Commercial buildings -- Fires and fire prevention -- China -- Hong Kong. Industrial buildings -- Fires and fire prevention -- China -- Hong Kong. Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Building Services Engineering |
| Pages: | xii, 158 leaves : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Due to the changing demands of Hong Kong's commercial and industrial sectors, vast amount of industrial buildings are left vacant. These existing industrial buildings are re-developed for commercial uses. In order to provide fire safety for these buildings, the Fire Services Department imposes limitations on the floor areas and locations of commercial uses. One of the controlling measures is to restrict the commercial floor areas on G/F are not to exceed 460 m² and 230 m² for sprinklered and non-sprinklered industrial buildings respectively and spaces on upper floors are not allowed for commercial usage. In this dissertation, the restriction imposed by the Fire Services Department are investigated. A preliminary survey of industrial buildings in Kwun Tong is conducted to identify the typical design of industrial buildings. A sample building is selected for further study. Using the floor plans of a selected non-sprinklered industrial building, the required safe egress time (RSET) and available safe egress time (ASET) for assumed locations of partial conversion have been studied using computer simulation software, Fire Dynamics Simulator. Evacuation models are built to estimate RSET. ASET is determined by studying how fast the untenable conditions will arise in terms of temperature, clear layer height and visibility. ASET is found to be much shorter than RSET as the leading time to evacuation for commercial patrons is long. With the storage of dangerous goods, which may be volatile with high heat release rates, it is found that the relatively higher headroom in these industrial buildings may not lead to advantages in providing a longer ASET. The constraints of the Fire Services Department are found to be appropriate for the fire scenarios in the sample building. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b2447440x.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 18.47 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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