National foreword

This Published Document is the UK implementation of CEN/TS 12101‑11:2022.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee FSH/25, Smoke, heat control systems and components.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

This publication is not to be regarded as a British Standard.

Compliance with a Published Document cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This Published Document was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 September 2022.

This Technical Specification (CEN/TS) was approved by CEN on 13 June 2022 for provisional application.

The period of validity of this CEN/TS is limited initially to three years. After two years the members of CEN will be requested to submit their comments, particularly on the question whether the CEN/TS can be converted into a European Standard.

CEN members are required to announce the existence of this CEN/TS in the same way as for an EN and to make the CEN/TS available promptly at national level in an appropriate form. It is permissible to keep conflicting national standards in force (in parallel to the CEN/TS) until the final decision about the possible conversion of the CEN/TS into an EN is reached.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document ( CEN/TS 12101‑11:2022 ) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 191 “Fixed firefighting systems”, the secretariat of which is held by BSI.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to announce this Technical Specification: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

0.1 General

The requirements in this document are provided for powered smoke and heat control systems installed in car parks with or without sprinkler protection.

Modern cars are generally larger than their predecessors and contain a larger quantity of flammable materials, in particular plastics, which results in an increase of heat and smoke output from burning cars. Consequently, the design fires recommended in this document are larger and have a greater heat and smoke output than those in some previous guidance.

0.2 Purposes of smoke control systems

Smoke control systems can be generally designed for one or more of three purposes in the event of a fire:

to protect means of escape from the car park;
to provide an access sufficiently free of smoke for fire-fighters to a point close to the seat of the fire;
to assist fire-fighters to clear smoke from a car park.

The system requirements will differ depending upon the purpose. Not all types of ventilation systems are suitable for all purposes.

This document only covers smoke control systems which are intended to provide an access sufficiently free of smoke for fire-fighters.

0.3 Smoke control systems to provide an access sufficiently free of smoke for fire-fighters

This document deals only with horizontal flow powered ventilation systems.

The following systems are not covered by this document however, they are briefly discussed here:

Horizontal natural ventilation - These systems may be suitable for open car parks, where at each level, ventilation openings are located on at least two opposite façades. The size of the ventilation openings will need to meet the relevant national regulations.
- SHEVS – These systems are covered by the recommendations of CEN/TR 12101‑5 for steady-state design fires or prCEN/TR 12101‑12 (under development) for time-dependent design fires. Hot smoky gases from a fire rise up to the ceiling, where it spread to form a smoke layer above the denser cold air beneath. SHEVS, which may be natural or powered, are designed and sized to maintain conditions beneath the smoke layer that allow evacuation and/or firefighting operations. Such a system requires a sufficient height from the ceiling to the floor.
- Smoke dilution systems – These systems are based on powered ventilation with air change rates which are significantly lower than these required for mechanical SHEVS. Smoke dilution systems are meant to reduce smoke concentration and temperature, and increase visibility, during the fire. In addition, it can assist firefighters to clear the smoke after the fire. They are not suitable to create smoke free areas during fire.

0.4 Effects of sprinklers

The main effects of sprinklers is to prevent fire spread to adjacent cars. This is reflected in the design fire sizes recommended for car parks with and without sprinklers. A further effect of sprinklers is to reduce the average temperature of the smoke.

Sprinklers are considered to have no negative effect on smoke ventilation systems in car parks.

Measures to avoid possible negative effects of smoke ventilation systems on sprinklers efficiency are taken into account in this document.

0.5 Horizontal flow powered ventilation systems

When the hot gases from the fire reach the ceiling due to buoyancy, it create a relatively rapid gas flow spreading in every horizontal direction, in a shallow layer beneath the ceiling surface, which is called ceiling jet.

The aim of horizontal flow powered smoke ventilation is to oppose the ceiling jet generated by the fire, so that the upstream smoke propagation is limited.

This document is intended to describe the conditions to be fulfilled by a horizontal flow powered smoke ventilation system to provide an access path sufficiently clear of smoke to allow fire-fighters to reach a point close to the fire for fire-fighting operations. The smoke ventilation system should rely on a smoke detection installation able to activate immediately the evacuation alarm of the car park in order that the evacuation is completed prior to the full activation of the smoke ventilation system, to avoid conditions which would be worse for escape.

NOTE 1 Activation of SHEVS at a lower velocity could be possible during evacuation.

The smoke detection installation should also be able to locate the origin of the fire, i.e. the first activated smoke detector, in order to:

start the right activation sequence of the smoke ventilation system;
NOTE 2 In large or complex car parks, it is likely that the smoke ventilation system will need to be automatically configured to move the smoke in one of several directions, depending on the location of the fire (multiple extraction points, multiple air inlets and/or multiple access points for fire-fighters).
inform the fire-fighters on the location of the fire to organize fire-fighting operations.

1 Scope

This document gives minimum design, installation and commissioning requirements for powered smoke and heat control systems for enclosed car parks using horizontal flow powered ventilation, with or without sprinkler protection, on one or more levels, for cars and light commercial vehicles (max 3,5 t), to reach the design objectives outlined in this document .

This document is applicable for car parks with vehicles powered by petrol, diesel, electricity, CNG or LPG.

NOTE 1 For the purpose of this document for smoke ventilation systems, it is assumed that cars powered by electricity, CNG (compressed natural gas) or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) will have similar HRR to vehicles powered by petrol or diesel.

NOTE 2 Cars powered by hydrogen are not covered by this document.

This document only covers traditional car parks that are with cars parked alongside each other, with common car access lanes. It does not cover other forms of car parking systems, such as stacking systems.

This document does not cover requirements for day‐to‐day ventilation.

Any other risks than fire from cars are not covered by this document.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms

3.2 Symbols

4 Design fires

4.1 Design principle

4.2 Heat release rate

5 Normative requirements

5.1 Design objectives

5.2 Design solutions

5.3 Activation sequence

5.4 Wind effect

6 Installation and components

6.1 Fans

6.2 Controls

6.3 Cabling

6.4 Ducts (including fixings), attenuators (silencers) and grilles

6.5 Dampers

6.6 Discharge terminations

6.7 Air inlet and smoke extract (natural and powered)

6.8 Smoke discharge

6.9 Initiation systems: sprinklers and detection

6.10 Smoke barriers

6.11 Power supply systems

7 Interactions between horizontal flow powered ventilation and other systems and functions

7.1 Sprinklers interaction

7.2 Pressure difference

7.3 Day to day ventilation

8 Commissioning

8.1

8.2

9 Acceptance testing of installation on site

9.1

9.2

9.3

10 Maintenance and periodical checking

11 Documentation

11.1 General design documentation

11.2 System design documentation

11.3 Installation, maintenance and testing documentation

11.4 Computer control software documentation

Bibliography

PD CEN/TS 12101-11:2022

Smoke and heat control systems - Horizontal flow powered ventilation systems for enclosed car parks

Current, Under Review

Published:

30 Sep 2022