Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Performance-based regulations have developed gradually in the field of fire safety design of buildings. Yet there are not a few prescriptive provisions in the Building Standards Law of Japan. Many of them are based on empirical knowledge and their effectiveness is not well ensured. In some cases, they cause controversy between designers and building officials in an actual fire safety design. Here some fundamental and simple methods are introduced to examine the problems that are focused on the outdoor corridor of condominium and some results of the investigations are shown. From these results the followings are known. In order to ensure safety from smoke for evacuees or fire brigades in an outdoor corridor, approximately 4.5[m] wide opening to the air is necessary in usual conditions of a condominium. But this requirement changes depending on various conditions. It is influenced a little by fire room temperature, but is influenced largely by vertical sections and dimensions of the corridor.