Some laws have been implemented to improve the safety of buildings against fire by the authorities due to the increase of under-construction buildings. One of the applied laws is related to ventilation systems in parking to control the amount of smoke and fire which would be done by exhaust fans, riser duct systems, smoke and fire dampers, and jet fans.
Moreover, special damper actuators are used for these smoke and fire dampers which are produced by various companies. For instance, Belimo BLE, Belimo BEN, Belimo BFL/BFN/BF, Siemens GGA/GCA, and others with 230 or 24 volts.
Application
These products are part of a “passive smoke control system” that is mounted upon deflection to detect and intercept the transmission of smoke in air ducts. In addition, as part of an “engineered smoke control system” designed to restrain the amount of smoke by using walls and floors as barriers and create pressure differences. Moreover, these products are mounted as exhaust dampers to eliminate or control the entrance of smoke contaminated airflow to exhaust risers and are also used to separate the sensitive environments containing specific gases which in particular times need to be evacuated or trapped like fire suppression systems (FM200).
Installation
The following should be considered when installing smoke dampers:
- Installation position:
These dampers are mounted on or inside the smoke separation walls or smoke barriers. The mounted smoke damper must not distance more than 24 inches from smoke barriers. Especially, dampers installed as air handling unit isolators are exceptions to this rule. Furthermore, NFPA 90A states that smoke dampers must be used to isolate air handling units with a capacity of 15000 CFM.
- Damper sleeves:
Smoke dampers usually do not require additional sleeves and can directly connect to ducts.
