In recent years, approaches to smoke management in atria have been introduced into many codes and engineering guides. This paper presents information that can be used for design analysis of atrium smoke management systems. Various approaches to manage smoke in atria are discussed Often a hot layer of air forms under the ceiling of an atrium, and this hot layer can prevent smoke from reaching the ceiling. A method is discussed for dealing with smoke detection when such a hot air layer prevents smoke from reaching the ceiling.

In recent years, the atrium building has become commonplace. This paper explains the physical concepts of the steady fire, unsteady fire, zone fire model, and the fire plume that are the basis of atrium smoke management. The approach to smoke control design calculation in codes is based on the zone fire model concept. In the zone model, smoke forms an upward-flowing fire plume that reaches the ceiling and is considered to form a perfectly mixed layer under the ceiling of the room of fire origin.

This paper presents results of a project initiated by ASHRAE and the National Research Council of Canada. The project applies both physical and numerical modeling techniques to atrium smoke exhaust systems to investigate the effectiveness of such systems and to develop guidelines for their design. This paper compares experimental results obtained from testing a physical model of a mechanically exhausted atrium space with results of two sets of numerical predictions of the same space.

Entertainment clubs, nightclubs, theaters, restaurants, and coliseums, with their highly variable occupancy rate, are excellent candidates for demand-controlled ventilation. The dynamic thermal requirements of both heating and cooling, coupled with the need to control indoor air quality because of the large number of patrons who also may be smoking during the highest occupancy, provide an opportunity to integrate the temperature controls with an indoor air quality control system.

Custom software to automatically administer questionnaires on computer screens was installed on computers in four open-plan offices. Five questions related to thermal comfort were presented twice per day for three months. Results indicate that this new method of subjective data collection was successful and efficient: the participants had few complaints about the method of questionnaire delivery, and a substantial literature review demonstrates that our results are comparable with results from other field studies of thermal comfort conducted using different methods.

A passive solar house with sunspace made of reinforced concrete was constructed in Sendai, Japan in 1984. One year measurement of room temperatures were recorded. Also, detail measurements have been made during the summer and winter seasons. Further, calculation of indoor temperature was conducted using response factor methods for studying the thermal effects of the sunspace on the indoor environment. This paper describes the measurement and calculation results.