  The refuge floors have been introduced into high-rise buildings with the aim
of ensuring a safe place to stay for the occupants in case of an emergency:
primarily during a fire breakout. Provisionals for natural ventilation of the
refuge floor have been made mandatory in all fire codes as it is not wise to
rely only on mechanical methods to remove the smoke-logged inside the refuge
floor. However, the effectiveness of such provisions has been questioned in
many studies as it highly depends on factors such as wind direction and
building geometry. In this study, using three-dimensional computational fluid
dynamics modelling, it is shown that careful analysis of smoke distribution can
provide the opportunity to integrate natural ventilation in an effective manner
to maintain prolonged habitable conditions on a refugee floor, even without
mechanical ventilation. Consequently, the performance of a refugee floor
natural ventilation strategy of a proposed 70-storey building is evaluated in
this study by evaluating the distribution of temperature, visibility, smoke,
and Carbon Monoxide concentration during a fire breakout, with a special
emphasis on windows placement and the size of the opening area. Initial windows
placement was as per the code requirements and later the windows layout and the
opening size were altered step by step based on the simulation findings until a
safe configuration is achieved. Results showed that adequate cross-ventilation
is a prime factor to establish a safe refugee floor area. Also, fire safety
strategies in a building need to be evaluated to confirm their effectiveness
since the dominant parameters such as wind direction, building geometry, and
building orientation are not identical for each building.
