Atria and other large volume space do not have the compartmentation that has traditionally been a major contributor of fire protection.The effectiveness of sprinklers in these large volume spaces is limited. For these reasons, smoke management systems for large volume spaces is of particular importance. Their primary goal is to maintain an enviroment in which the impact of smoke and heat on occupants is not life threatening. This involves keeping the height of the smoke layer above the highest level of occupancy for a defined period of time, longer than the expected time to evacuate the building. Three approaches to these systems are smoke filling , gravity smoke venting ,and smoke exhaust .This paper describes the design approaches to smoke management to achieve fire safety in atrium.
