SPONSOR CPD PROGRAMME Continuing professional development (CPD) is the regular maintenance, improvement and broadening of your knowledge and skills, to maintain professional competence. It is a requirement of CIBSE and other professional bodies. This Journal CPD programme can be used to meet your CPD requirements. Study the module and answer the questions on the final page. Each successfully completed module is equivalent to 1.5 hours of CPD. Modules are also available at www.cibsejournal.com/cpd Design and implementation for effective smoke control in buildings This module will draw on practical experiences in the provision of smoke-control solutions to satisfy current regulatory and advisory requirements This CPD will draw on practical experiences, identifying examples of areas that commonly cause uncertainty when designing, specifying, constructing and commissioning systems to control smoke risks to occupants in the event of a building fire. The 2019 revision to CIBSE Guide E Fire safety engineering encompasses smoke control as one of the engineers responsibilities when designing the fire strategies for a building. Writing about that revision in CIBSE Journal, chairman of CIBSE Guide E Steering Committee Martin Kealy explains:1 Smoke is the major risk to occupants in a high-rise building fire. The toxic products of fire include irritant and narcotic components, so, as well as preventing escape routes from being used because of poor visibility, smoke also causes disorientation, incapacity or death. Successfully implemented, smoke-control design extends the amount of time available to evacuate a building safely, without occupants being overcome by the effects of the smoke. A preconception held by some is that smoke control is a single standalone item. As with many of the design and operational aspects of delivering a successful building, however, it encompasses many elements, including a whole set of building design decisions, products, processes and procedures, installation, final test, and sign off. It might be considered as a system in its own right, as all these areas need to work together as part of the smoke-control system, properly documented as part of a golden thread so that the original design intent is preserved and recorded, and any changes go through a formal review process involving people who are competent and who understand the key features of the design.2 This should, ideally, be reflected in a single holistic smoke-control specification, drawing together all the requirements. Historically, however, detail has been spread across a number of areas in the documentation, including diverse sections such as those notionally covering smoke ventilation, controls, wiring, product specifications and the buildings acoustic requirements. Smoke control has become more challenging with the increasing prevalence of complex multi-use buildings including combinations of commercial, institutional, residential and recreational that are reaching higher into the sky. Globally, there are many hundreds already existing, particularly in locations such as Hong Kong, New York City, Shenzen and Dubai, and it is thought8 that, in London, nearly two-thirds of the 250 skyscrapers taller than 100m (conceived, planned or completed) will include residential use. There is already a great deal of guidance, standards and regulation on the implementation of fire and smoke products, and there is a shifting emphasis in upcoming UK legislation to ensure that there is a proper whole building approach to building safety legislation. When designing a smoke-control system, there are several routes all of which are likely to intertwine that may be informed using publications such as CIBSE Guide E; state guidance such as England and Wales Approved Document B: Fire Safety,3 the Scottish Technical Handbook Section 24 or Northern Ireland Technical Booklet E5; employing information from appropriate standards such as BS 9999:20176 and BS 9991:20157 Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings/ www.cibsejournal.com August 2020 43 CIBSE Aug 2020 p43-46 CPD Exyte 166 v2.indd 43 24/07/2020 16:02