NIST research focuses on water effects on elevators in fire emergencies

NIST research focuses on water effects on elevators in fire emergencies

The Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has completed the first of a two-part project designed to gauge the effects of water on elevators in a fire emergency.

In this phase, a simulated lobby was constructed of cinderblock and only an elevator door was installed, with the cooperation of the elevator industry, explains John Klote, NIST Fire Safety Engineering Division. The elevator was exposed to water flows from sprinklers and a 440-gpm solid-stream hose flow. A tank on the hoisting side of the elevator door collected the water so the flow rate through the doors could be determined. Plastic was needed for the hose stream phase, Klote explained, “because the water went all over the place.”

Phase 2 will be a test in a real building. Klote says the NIST is looking for one, but “it`s beyond anyone`s research budget.”

Klote says that standing water and sprinkler flows are “the kinds of volume of water we can deal with” in that they are “reasonable” flows for which to design protective systems, in which the “technique would be to channel the water away from the components. No one is optimistic at all about the fire hose flow,” Kote adds. In these cases, he interjects, an outside building elevator would be a perfectly good alternative. Most big cities have at least one, he concludes.

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