The concept of the evacuation safety design of an atrium building with permanent smoke insulation on refuge compartment is proposed. Namely, in case of a fire, by keeping the refuge compartment secured from smoke steadily, people in the building can stay the compartment for long time and they have no pressing need of staircase evacuation. Major results are as follows
1. Evacuation planning with refuge compartment secured from smoke steadily is effective especially for buildings in which many people unfamiliar with the buildings (ex. commerce facilities) and elderly and could not evacuate by oneself (ex. elderly facilities and hospitals).
2. Steady smoke insulation of refuge compartment is achieved by keeping the neutral pressure plane of smoke in an atrium higher than occupant area. While many people passing thought the doors of staircase and those doors are kept opened, the refuge compartments of many floors are combined as one shaft. On the other hand, people stays the same floor and those doors kept closed, those refuge compartments assume to be independent each floor. So the condition of smoke insulation should be satisfied for both cases.
3. Compatibility of above both conditions and applicability for relatively large heat release rate fire are confirmed, this means the passive smoke insulation has high redundancy. So this passive smoke control method is suitable for long time smoke insulation of refuge compartment.
