Pressurization in Tall Building Elevator Shafts

Dr. Don Beasley and Dr. Richard S. Miller

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0921

864-656-5622, Fax: 864-656-4435, Email: debsl@clemson.edu

864-656-6248, Fax: 864-656-4435, Email: rm@clemson.edu

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Two buildings are modeled using NISTs CONTAM building ventilation modeling software: a ten
story building with a single elevator shaft and three cars, and a thirty story building with two elevators
shafts with four cars each. The buildings are kept at 70 F inside and both warm (60 F ) and cold
(10 F ) ambient conditions are considered. Stair and other leakages are calibrated to produce typical
but conservative cold day stack effect pressure distributions in the elevator shafts having up to 0.071in
and 0.134in water, respectively. The calibrated simulations are then used to model the impact of
applying shaft pressurization to produce positive P across all elevator doors (minimum of 0.05in
water) as a proposed means of deterring smoke migration to upper floors by the stack effect. The
elevator door is modeled as being in the open position (four times the closed door leakage area) in
these cases and on the ground floor. Under the modeling assumptions the results of the study indicate:
Shaft pressurization in buildings much above 10 stories will almost certainly result in pressure
differences across elevator doors in excess of 0.3in water when the temperature difference between the
internal building and the ambient is in excess of 50 F .
Shaft pressurization shifts the stack effect pressure profile equally at all levels of the building (with
the exception of an open elevator door located on the ground floor level).
Shaft pressurization is independent of the pressurization source location (both roof and basement
mounted systems were tested). Furthermore, relief vents have no effect on the pressure distribution if
the minimum +0.05in water pressure difference is to be maintained.
Elevator shaft pressure profiles vary substantially with outside temperature; both with and without
shaft pressurization. If elevator doors bind at pressure differences of approximately 0.3in water then
problems will occur for both tall buildings ( 20 floors) at upper levels even on warm days, and even
for shorter buildings 10 floors on cold days. These are conservative estimates and assume that the
system can be controlled to just meet the minimum positive pressure difference of 0.05in water or
greater on all floors.
The majority of the fan power required goes to overcoming the effects of the relatively large open
elevator door on the ground floor and is therefore relatively independent of the ambient temperature.
If a constant speed fan is calibrated for a minimum P = 0.05in water with the elevator door open
then maximum P values will be substantially increased if the elevator doors are closed during shaft
pressurization and will nearly certainly lead to values greater than 0.3in water for even ten story
buildings on cold days.
Pressurization of the elevator shaft will produce significantly larger pressures when all of the hoistway
doors are closed relative to the Phase 1 situation with the elevator on the ground floor with open doors.
Since the elevators can be expected to operate (both under Normal and Phase 2) with the shaft
pressurization active and all doors closed, the additional pressures that result must be considered in
determining if the hoistway doors will operate properly (particularly at the upper floors). This effect

1
becomes lesser as the building height is increased as their is more volume to re-distribute the over
pressure.
The shaft temperature is an important parameter in determining the pressure differences across
elevator doors. As the shaft temperature is reduced the maximum pressure difference across elevator
doors decreases as well. However, the maximums remain problematic for tall buildings with even very
cold elevator shafts (eg. 30 story building at +0.506in water with a 30 F shaft). This is because
the primary factor influencing the maximum pressure difference is not the shaft temperature and
hydrostatic effects, but the need to overcome the open elevator door while maintaining a minimum
pressure difference.

INTRODUCTION
The following document presents results from an investigation of elevator shaft pressurization on
potential smoke distribution through the shaft effect. All results were obtained via computer sim-
ulations using the CONTAM software developed by the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group
at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Details of the software can be found at
http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/IAQanalysis/index.html.

RESULTS
Results are presented for two different building models. The following two subsections provide all
details concerning the building models and parameters. Final maximum pressure differences across
the elevator doors for each simulation are presented in Table 1 for all cases simulated. A schematic
of each building models typical floor plan is provided in Fig. 1 (not to scale). Figures 2 - 10 present
the vertical distribution of the pressure differences across each elevator door as a function of the floor
number for all simulations.

Building 1
Building 1 is specified as a ten story building with a floor height of 9.85f t and a floor area of
20, 000f t2 . On each floor there are two stairwells located at opposite corners of the building. Each
stairwell has a floor area of 250f t2 . In the center of the building is a single (open) elevator shaft
having three sets of elevators and elevator doors. The open shaft has a floor area of 675f t2 . Each of
the three elevator doors has a leakage area of 100in2 . However, the first floor elevator doors have a
400in2 open area modeling the elevator doors being open with the car on that floor. Each stairwell
has a single door with a leakage area of 10in2 . Each floor of the building has eight leakage points
(open windows or effective leakages due to ventilation) all having an identical leakage area of 100in2 .
The window leaks provide the coupling to the ambient for each level. All ten floors are identical [see
Fig. 1(a)]. There is also a roof level with only the stairwells and elevator shafts (where the fans are
installed for cases having fans). The stair door openings are identical on these levels but the elevator
shaft is sealed unless a fan is installed. The building temperature is maintained at 70 F on all floors.
The above parameters were determined based on a Building 1 0 reference case. This building
was designed exactly as above; however, the elevator doors were closed on all floors (identical 100in2
openings on all floors) and no shaft pressurization is present. The model was calibrated by iterating
the window and stair leakage areas until a typical shaft effect symmetric pressure distribution
was obtained (in this case 0.071in water). The ambient conditions correspond to the cold day
conditions discussed below (10 F ). As such, the resulting building parameters represent relatively
conservative estimates of real structures. An additional simulation of Building 1 0 is then performed
using identical parameters except that the ambient temperature is raised to a warm day condition
(60 F ). See Figs. 2 and 3 (closed door) for the non-pressurized pressure distributions. The ground
floor elevators were then set to the open position to create Building 1.

2
 Four simulations are run for Building 1. These correspond to cases with and without elevator shaft
pressurization: one for each of two ambient climates. The two climate conditions simulated are: a
warm ambient temperature of 60 F and cold ambient temperature of 10 F . No wind is present
in either case. The effects of the elevator door opening on the across door pressure differences without
shaft pressurization are illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.
Elevator shaft pressurization is considered next. In this case a specified volumetric flow rate fan
(comparable to a constant speed fan with fixed damper setting) is installed on the roof of the building
bringing ambient air into the elevator shaft. The volumetric flow rate is increased from a zero rate
(no fan) until an outflow from the elevator shaft is achieved on every floor. The fan discharge rate is
increased further until a minimum pressure difference of +0.05in water is achieved. The location of
the minimum P is at the ground level at the open elevator door. Results presented in what follows
correspond to this fan discharge rate. The required fan discharge rates found in this manner are:
(1) Cold Day: 22, 500cf m, and (2) Warm Day: 21, 500cf m. Resulting pressure differences across the
elevator doors are presented in Fig. 4. At this point only a warm elevator shaft (70 F ) is considered.
Effects of the fan bringing in cold ambient air are addressed below.

Building 2
A second thirty story building was also modeled. In order to make useful comparisons several
of the parameters determined for Building 1 were maintained. Building 2 is specified as a 30 story
building with a floor height of 9.85f t and a floor area of 10, 000f t2 . On each floor there are two
stairwells located at opposite corners of the building. Each stairwell has a floor area of 250f t2 . In the
center of the building are two (open) elevator shafts having four sets of elevators and elevator doors.
The open shafts each have a floor area of 900f t2 . Each of the elevator doors (four per shaft) has a
leakage area of 100in2 . However, the first floor elevator doors have a 400in2 open area modeling the
elevator doors being open with the car on that floor. Each stairwell has a single door with leakage
area 10in2 . Each floor of the building has eight leakage points (open windows or effective leakages
due to ventilation) all having a leakage area of 100in2 . The window leaks provide the coupling to the
ambient for each level. All thirty floors are identical [see Fig. 1(b)]. There is also a roof level with
only the stairwells and elevator shafts (where the fans are installed for cases having fans). The stair
door openings are identical on these levels but the elevator shaft is sealed unless a fan is installed. The
building temperature is maintained at 70 F on all floors. Building 2 0 is a reference case for this
building. This building was designed exactly as above; however, the elevator doors were closed on all
floors (identical 100in2 openings on all floors). Building 2 0 was simulated for both warm and cold day
ambient temperatures. No further calibration of parameters from that of Building 1 was conducted.
The resulting pressure distribution obtained for Building 2 0 is shown in Figs. 5 and 6 (closed door).
Building 2 is identical to Building 2 0 except that the elevator cars are all located on the first floor
with open doors.
Four simulations are run for Building 2. These correspond to two cases with no elevator shaft
pressurization: one for each of the two ambient climates: warm 60 F and cold 10 F . No wind is
present in either case. The effects of the elevator door opening on the across door pressure differences
without shaft pressurization are illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6.
Elevator shaft pressurization is considered next. Two specified volumetric flow rate fans (compara-
ble to a constant speed fan with fixed damper setting) are installed on the roof of the building bringing
ambient air into each of the elevator shafts. The volumetric flow rate is increased from a zero rate
(no fan) until an outflow from the elevator shafts is achieved on every floor. The fan discharge rate is
increased further until a minimum pressure difference of +0.05in water is achieved. The location of
the minimum P is at the ground level at the open elevator door. The discharge rate of both fans
are the same. Results presented in what follows correspond to this fan discharge rate. The required

3
discharge rates for each fan determined for Building 2 are: (1) Cold Day: 132, 000cf m, and (2) Warm
Day: 131, 000cf m. Resulting pressure differences across the elevator doors are presented in Fig. 7.
At this point only a warm elevator shaft (70 F ) is considered. Effects of the fan bringing in cold
ambient air are addressed below.

Fan Requirements
The fans installed in the system are specified as constant volumetric flowrate fans (comparable
to constant speed with fixed damper setting). For pressurization Building 1 uses a single fan on
the roof level and Building 2 uses two fans (one per shaft) on the roof level. As mentioned above
the fan requirements are substantial but are relatively independent of the ambient temperature. For
Building 1 the fan is rated at 22, 500cf m and 21, 500cf m on cold and warm days, respectively, while
for Building 2 each fan is rated at 132, 000cf m and 131, 000cf m, respectively. On the surface this may
seem counter intuitive based on the substantially different shaft pressures encountered on cold and
warm days. However, the effect is attributable to the open elevator door on the ground floor. This
can be described with the aid of Fig. 8 which shows the pressure differences as a function of the floor
level for Building 2 both with and without pressurization and on both cold and warm days. If the
elevator doors were closed (consider for example floor 2 and above in the figure) then the addition of
pressurization would simply shift the pressure curves to the right until the minimum pressure (floor 2
in this example) reached +0.05in water. A substantially larger fan discharge rate would be needed for
cold days compared to warm days. However, the presence of the four times larger door leakage area
as a model for the open elevator door on floor 1 introduces a nonlinearity into the model. In this case
pressurization shifts the upper curves nearly linearly. However, the ground floor pressure difference
(which is the location of the minimum needing to be fixed at +0.05in water) starts at relatively the
same values from just the shaft effect alone (no pressurization). The vast majority of the fan power
is needed to simply overcome the large opening on the ground floor and maintain a positive pressure
difference throughout the shaft and in particular on floor 1. The extra power needed to compensate
for the cold day is relatively negligible.
Had the elevator doors been kept closed both warm and cold day fan discharge rates would be
substantially reduced (although the cold day requirements would be substantially larger than the
warm day requirements). In this case the shaft pressurization would simply linearly shift the shaft
effect curves to the right on the figure until the minimum P reached +0.05in water. This may be
ideal operation; however, minimum pressure differences must be maintained even for cases in which
the elevator doors are open. This poses even further potential problems with elevator door operation
as the doors may need to be closed with the pressurization system in operation. Figure 9 shows the
effect of closing the elevator doors on the shaft pressure difference distribution for Building 1 and
Building 2 on a cold day. In this case the closing of the elevator doors with the fan still operating
at the same flowrate increases the pressure differences across all elevator doors. The effect is most
pronounced for Building 1 as the over pressure has fewer floors over which to be re-distributed. In
this case an approximately constant increase of 0.05in water is observed on the upper floors and
the maximum P now exceeds +0.3in water (floor 10). Closed door operation must therefore be
considered in testing pressurization systems; particularly for smaller buildings.

Effect of Elevator Shaft Temperature

To this point only elevator shafts with temperatures equal to the internal building temperature
have been considered (70 F ). In reality the majority of designs will bring cold ambient air into the
shaft. The shaft temperature will have both spatial and temporal dependencies. Even an average
shaft temperature in the sense of the CONTAM model will be time dependent. It will start at the
building temperature and begin to decrease towards the outside ambient value as time progresses and

4
several air changes occur. In the absence of an additional building HVAC system the entire building
will asymptotically approach the ambient temperature. The thermal inertia of the concrete structure
itself would have to accounted for as well in predicting the shaft temperature as a function of time. In
addition, the effects of the HVAC system, and the fire itself will prevent the average shaft temperature
from reaching the ambient. Obviously, modeling the realistic system is exceedingly complex. Therefore,
for the purposes of this study the effects of the shaft temperature will be considered as follows. For
early times the shaft is modeled at the building temperature (as above). This is because the shaft
pressure will equilibrate much faster than the turnover time of the air inside it needed to substantially
drop its temperature: at 130, 000f t3 /min a fan will turnover the air in the 900f t2 30 9.85f t/f loor
shaft approximately every 2min (in contrast the pressure will equilibrate on time scales 1 10sec
after the fan comes to speed. For later times the effect of the shaft temperature will be modeled by
assuming a uniform temperature throughout the shaft (consistent with CONTAM) and varying this
parameter. A more comprehensive study of the shaft temperature as a function of time is currently
under way and the simulations will be revised as needed. However, the following analysis covers the
limits of warm to cold shafts and puts bounds on the expected behavior.
The effect of the shaft temperature is considered if Fig. 10 for the pressurized shaft case for the thirty
story Building 2. Elevator shafts of 70 F , 30 F and 10 F are examined and data is also presented
in Table 1. The shaft temperature is an important parameter in determining the pressure differences
across elevator doors. As the shaft temperature is reduced the maximum pressure difference across
elevator doors decreases as well. However, the maximums remain problematic for tall buildings with
even very cold elevator shafts (eg. 30 story building at +0.506in water with a 30 F shaft). This is
because the primary factor influencing the maximum pressure difference is not the shaft temperature
and hydrostatic effects (Fig. 10(a)), but the need to overcome the open elevator door while maintaining
a minimum pressure difference. In fact, even the second floor elevator door in Fig. 10 experiences a
greater than +0.30in water value. This value will be dependent on the specified leakage of the ground
floor door (in this case 400in2 ). Even when the shaft is at the outside temperature of 10 F and the
stack effect is absent over pressurization problems are present. In this case simply pressurizing the
shaft sufficiently to produce a +0.05in water difference across the open first floor elevator door requires
a 125, 000cf m fan. The over pressure at the second floor remains greater than +0.05in and remains
approximately constant among all of the upper floors in the absence of the stack effect.

CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained during the course of this study are summarized in Table 1. The table presents
the following data for each simulation: the Building name, the number of floors, whether or not the
elevator door is modeled as open, whether or not shaft pressurization from the roof is applied, the fan
volumetric flowrate (per fan) in cubic feet per minute, ambient temperature, and finally the maximum
measured pressure difference from all floors of the buildings. Relatively large pressure differences
are required across upper floor elevator doors for tall buildings on cold days. The maximum pressure
difference observed is +0.667in water for the thirty story building on a cold day. These results are based
on relatively conservative building parameters. Testing of related shaft pressurization systems should
be conducted on tall buildings on cold days as reliable systems are developed. In all cases pressurization
results in a nearly linear shift of the stack effect pressure profile towards positive P values; with the
exception of the open elevator door on the ground floor. The elevator shaft temperature also has an
effect on the pressure differences across elevator doors. Cold shafts have somewhat reduced maximum
pressure differences. However, the primary factor causing large maximum pressure differences at the
top floors is the need to overcome the open elevator door in the Phase 1 position; not the hydrostatic
effect. Therefore, maximum pressure differences remain problematic even with cold elevator shafts.
In addition, further simulations not reported here were conducted for a basement mounted fan

5
system and for a roof mounted pressure relief vent (louver). These results indicate that the shaft
pressurization is independent of the location of the pressurization source due to the large elevator
shaft area offering negligible resistance to the shaft flow. The roof vent also has negligible effect on
the results if a minimum +0.05in water pressure difference is to be maintained. As the vent is opened
the pressure in the shaft drops. However, in order to re-acquire the +0.05in water value the fan speed
must be increased to compensate. The net effect is that no significant changes in the pressures results;
although a larger fan is needed.

Building # Floors Open Door Pressurized Fan [cf m] Ambient Pmax [inH2 O]
10 10 No No N/A Cold, 10 F 0.071in
10 10 No No N/A Warm, 60 F 0.011in
1 10 Yes No N/A Cold, 10 F 0.08in
1 10 Yes No N/A Warm, 60 F +0.012in
1 10 Yes Yes, 70 F 22,500 Cold, 10 F +0.278in
1 10 No Yes, 70 F 22,500 Cold, 10 F +0.327in
1 10 Yes Yes, 70 F 21,500 Warm, 60 F +0.158in
20 30 No No N/A Cold, 10 F 0.134in
20 30 No No N/A Warm, 60 F 0.019in
2 30 Yes No N/A Cold, 10 F 0.017in
2 30 Yes No N/A Warm, 60 F +0.02in
2 30 Yes Yes, 70 F 132,000 Cold, 10 F +0.667in
2 30 Yes Yes, 70 F 131,000 Warm, 60 F +0.45in
2 30 Yes Yes, 30 F 128,000 Cold, 10 F +0.506in
2 30 Yes Yes, 10 F 125,000 Cold, 10 F +0.436in

Table 1: Summary of results: Building 1 is ten stories (20, 000f t2 ) with two diagonally located stair-
wells (250f t2 ) and a center located elevator shaft (675f t2 ) with three sets of cars and doors (100in2
leakage area). Building 2 is thirty stories (10, 000f t2 ) with two diagonally located stairwells (250f t2 )
and two center located elevator shafts (900f t2 each) with four sets of cars and doors (100in2 leakage
area). For pressurization Building 1 uses a single fan on the roof level and Building 2 uses two fans (one
per shaft) on the roof level. An open elevator door is located on the ground floor and has a leakage
area of 400in2 . The inside temperature is 70 F on all floors for both buildings. An unpressurized
shaft is at 70 F .

6
 Stairwell Stairwell

Windows/Ventilation Windows/Ventilation
door door

Shaft 1
Elevator Shaft

Shaft 2
doors
door door

Stairwell Stairwell

(a) (b)

Figure 1: Schematic representation of building floor plans (not to scale) for: (a) Building 1 (10
identical floors), and (b) Building 2 (30 identical floors). Both buildings have an additional roof with
only stairwell and elevator structures.

10 Closed door
Open door
9
8
Floor Number

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
-0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1
P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 2: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for reference
Building 1 0: Cold day (10 F ), no pressurization.

7
 10 Closed door
Open door
9
8

Floor Number
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
-0.02 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02
P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 3: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for reference
Building 1 0: Warm day (60 F ), no pressurization.

10
9
8
Floor Number

7
6
5
4
3
2 0
Cold Day (10 F)
1 Warm Day (600F)

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 4: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for Building
1: elevator shaft pressurization on the roof, elevator doors open.

8
 30
Closed door
Open door
25

Floor Number
20

15

10

-0.2 -0.15 -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2

P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 5: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for reference
Building 2 0: Cold day (10 F ), no pressurization.

30
Closed door
Open door
25
Floor Number

20

15

10

-0.05 -0.025 0 0.025 0.05

P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 6: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for reference
Building 2 0: Warm day (60 F ), no pressurization.

9
 30 Cold Day (10 F)
0

0
Warm Day (60 F)
25

Floor Number
20

15

10

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 7: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for Building
2: elevator shaft pressurization on the roof, elevator doors open.

40
No Pressurization Cold Day
No Pressurization Warm Day
35 Pressurization Cold Day
Pressurization Warm Day
30
Floor Number

25
20
15
10
5
0
-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
P across elevator door [in water]
Figure 8: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number for Building
2 (open elevator door on ground floor).

10
 30
10 Open Door Case 1: Open Door
Closed Door Case 2: Closed Door
9 25
8
Floor Number

Floor Number
7 20
6
5 15
4
10
3
2 5
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
P across elevator door [in water] (a) P across elevator door [in water] (b)

Figure 9: Pressure difference across the elevator doors as a function of the floor number (Cold Day)
with pressurization showing the impact of closing the elevator doors during fan operation: (a) Building
1 and (b) Building 2.

30
Shaft at 700F
Shaft at 300F
25 Shaft at 100F
Floor Number

20

15

10

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

P across elevator door [in water] (b)

Figure 10: Effect of the shaft temperature on the pressure difference across the elevator doors as a
function of the floor number for Building 2 (open elevator door on ground floor): pressurized shaft
with minimum P = +0.05in water.

11