Measurement of heat and mass transfer through typical staircases.

This paper is concerned with heat and mass transfer through two typical staircases, The firststaircase connects the two individual floors of a two-storey building, and the other connectsthe three individual floors of a three-storey building. A series of experiments have beenperformed in order to study the buoyancy driven flow between the floors. A single tracer gasdecay technique was adopted . Temperatures at various points on each floor were constantlymonitored and air velocity measurements were also provided at some specific locations. Theheat and mass flow rates between the two floors , through the first staircase, were calculatedfrom the hcer gas wmentrations. The analysis of experimental data gives relations for themass and heat flow rate as a function of temperature difference between the floors, and of thegeometry of the particular staircase. Simulations of the same configurations have been carriedout, using validated CFD algorithms. Airflow rates estimated by these simulations showedvery good agreement with experimental values. The mass flow rates through the secondstaircase, are estimated using the CFD method. In addition, the paper discusses the airflowpatterns in the staircases.