The Investigation of Efficacy and Fire Resistance Characteristics of Fire Barrier in the Lift Industry Applications

Although it would be preferable for the lift well to be located in the fire-protected area of the building, it is not always possible. Therefore, most newly installed lifts are required to have adequate fire resistance for the length of time corresponding to the fire rating of the building in which they are fitted. The national and international regulations specify such fire rating requirements. However, the regulations fail to address the scenarios that involve lift service or installation periods. In most cases, the lift shaft is then fully or partially open with an exposed area of the entrance creating a significant hazard in time of a fire. In this paper, a novel solution is presented to this problem by considering the design standards, regulations and fire resistance testing procedures. The flow simulation and computational fluid dynamics software are used to simulate and validate the suitability of the proposed solution. It is shown that the development of a temporary fire barrier covering the lift well is feasible. However, further testing and full certification are needed to produce a final, commercially viable product.