The University of Nebraksa – Lincoln campus is currently in the process of constructing their new College of Business Administration building. The building consists of a 5-Story B Occupancy building with a central atrium that is 90 feet in height. The atrium measures 10,000 square feet in floor area.

Zari Consulting Group’s role on the project is providing smoke control special inspection and building code consulting services for the large atrium space.

The atrium will be provided with numerous exhaust fans at the ceiling in order to exhaust the required 200,000 cubic feet per minute of smoke from the space. The exhaust fans are required to be provided on emergency power. As a result, a very large generator with plenty of fuel will need to be provided in order to operate these large fans.

Make-up air for the smoke control system will be through natural means. Instead of using supply fans and injecting fresh air at the bottom of the atrium, exterior doors, located at the floor of the atrium, will automatically open when the smoke control system activates to allow fresh air to naturally flow into the building to equalize the pressure in the space.

Activation of the smoke control system will occur automatically from the fire alarm system. Beam smoke detectors and the fire sprinkler system will initiate the active smoke control exhaust system.

The atrium will be separated from adjacent spaces by 1-hour rated fire barriers.