Designing for Fire Safety and Ventilation in Warm Humid Climate, Case Study: Library Building of Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Fire safety is imperative for public buildings. Previous studies suggested that fire responsive building should limit the provision of oxygen to avoid hazardous flashover. However, due to warm humid climate, most Indonesian low-rise buildings are designed to maximize natural ventilation by constructing open stairs instead of fully enclosed stairwells. Therefore, those facts incite questions on how fire safety issues should be addressed in warm humid climate buildings. In response, this research employs a case study of five stories Library of Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Furthermore, this paper introduces FDS+Evac to predict the behavior of fire spread toward occupants during egress. Research combines the mandates of fire safety along with natural ventilation by deploying two separate conditions: a) under fire incident, and b) daily (normal) condition. Under fire incident, the experiment measures egress safety indicators; degree of visibility, air temperature, and FED (Fractional Effective Dose), whereas for daily condition air velocity and its distribution are accounted. Experiments are conducted by devising three concepts: 1) existing, 2) passive protections; hung walls, enclosed stairwell, and smoke cavities, and 3) active protections; exhaust fans, air curtains, and sprinklers. Result shows that smoke, high temperature, and poor visibility are best solved by providing air cavities, whereas toxicity is reduced by increasing ventilation rate. Moreover, natural ventilation is satisfied since existing openings are unchanged.