English

The report describes measurements of the deposition of large particles from a small scale wind tunnel model of a chemical warehouse fire plume. A common feature of such fires is the discharge of relatively large particles with falling speeds of the order of m s- 1, partly generated by mechanical damage, which can fall out of the fire plume in a different pattern to that of the gases and fine particles. These large particles may also contain toxic components, so it is desirable to know their fallout pattern.

Each year in Canada, building fires cause hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and billions of dollars’ worth of property damage. Canada has the second highest fire death rate among 15 industrialized countries. In Canada in 1988, about 72% of fire deaths and 40 percent of fire property losses occurred in small buildings, such as one- and two-family homes, apartment buildings and hotels/ motels. The 1989 fire statistics for Alberta indicate that about 70% of fire deaths and 51 percent of fire property losses occurred in small buildings.3 What can we learn from these numbers?

Existing commercial buildings are surveyed and categorized based on the construction characteristics of their envelope. The envelope heat gain and the resulting cooling load demand are analysed with the aid of energy simulation tool DOE-2. l D. The concept of the overall thermal transfer value (OTTV) is applied to study the association of the envelope designs with the cooling requirement, and a modified approach in asessing the effective envelope heat gains under a sub-tropical climate is proposed.

The dynamic performance of a radiative cooling system for buildings is calculated and presented in the present paper. The cooling system consists of a lightweight metallic radiator covered by a single polyethylene wind screen and used for cooling the ambient air below its designed initial temperature. The cooler air is directed and eventually mixed with the indoor air of the building to provide primarily instantaneous thermal comfort during the night and secondly to cool the interior mass of the building by convection, thus creating a cold storage for the following day.

Co-operative Retail Services wanted its new headquarters building to be both energy efficient and humane. Have these green ambitions been realised, and did the chilled beams and displacement ventilation systems provide the promised improvements in occupant comfort?

Can natural-ventilation techniques really cope with the demands of hot summer days? That is the question that Monodraught's Terry Payne was seeking the answer to when he invited a BRE team to monitor an installation at the University or Hertfordshire