Smoke control in hospitals.

Full scale fire tests have been carried out in order to study the influence of different ventilating principles on the time point of fire detection and the smoke filling of a four-bed room. Using conventional mechanical ventilating systems as "smoke exhaust systems" the time difference left for evacuation of the fire room can be positively influenced. With the conventional ventilating system operating there is a significant difference between time points of detection of the ionization and optical smoke detectors, for both flaming and smoldering fire. Using the "low momentum displacement ventilation" this difference is reduced, resulting in possibilities for the ionization smoke detector to be optimized for both flaming and smoldering fires.