ColtShaft mechanical shaft system: protecting means-of-escape stairs in residential and fire-fighting stairs

ColtShaft is a mechanical fire-fighting shaft system that provides equivalent performance to a BRE shaft for the ventilation of common corridors and fire fighting lobbies. It can therefore be considered to meet the recommendations of Building Regulations (E&W) Approved Document B, BS 9991 and BS 9999 for ventilation of stair cores.

Under design conditions with the lobby doors open, ColtShaft provides a ventilation rate similar to the BRE shaft, but it also offers the benefit of being a lot smaller, providing 20% of the BRE Shaft footprint.

This clip shows a CFD model of a Building Regulations compliant dead-end corridor fitted with a conventional AOV. Smoke is shown blue and clear air is shown red. At the start of the video the door opens to allow people to escape and smoke pours out of the apartment and hangs around in the corridor. The video then jumps forward to when the fire brigade arrive to open the door again to fight the fire. The corridor fills with smoke. The corridor remains smoke logged for a long time after the door is re-closed.

This clip shows a CFD model of a non-compliant dead-end corridor provided with an Extended Corridor "Pull" system to compensate for extended travel distances. Smoke is shown blue and clear air is shown red. At the start of the video the door opens to allow people to escape and smoke pours out of the apartment but is quickly cleared. The video then jumps forward to when the fire brigade arrive to open the door again to fight the fire. The corridor fills with smoke but it then clears quickly when the door is re-closed. By comparison with the situation with a conventional AOV, the Colt Extended Corridor "Pull" system provides better conditions for escape and fire-fighting.