Case Report I Indoor and and Built uilt Environment Performance verification and enhancement of mechanical smoke exhaust system in full-scale hot smoke test for a large space ChungHwei Su 1 , ShiuanCheng Wang 1 , ShenWen Chien 2 and YaoHan Chen 3 Abstract Full-scale hot smoke test standards have been issued in a number of countries, but the common method of judgment is a visual determination. As Marine Museum K has used a performance-based fire safety design and a numerical simulation during its design stage, this study employs instruments to measure and obtain quantitative comparisons, while enhancing the performance of the smoke exhaust system in different vent-opening modes. The results prove that the measured performance is consistent with the simulation results. The existing model observed that light attenuation is slight at less than 2%, 6% and 10% on the third, fifth and seventh floors, respectively. The effects of the open state of the front and rear vents on the first floor and the vent on the third floor are also discussed. The open mode of the upper and lower vents in Case 2 created a better performance than the other cases due to the excellent flow pattern. In Cases 3 and 4, the fire plumes were significantly disturbed by makeup-air through the vents on the lower floor after all fans were actuated, and the smoke diffused everywhere in the lower floors. This paper also found the disadvantages caused by the makeup air. Keywords Performance verification, Smoke exhaust system, Full-scale hot smoke test, Performance-based design, Smoke layer, Makeup air Accepted: 2 November 2019 Research motivation Description of full-scale hot smoke test Woolley et al. 1 found decades ago that the smoke at a fire scene is a key factor in casualties. In recent years, Shi et al. 2 and Ayala et al. 3 successively analysed the smoke state of a fire field in an experimental manner. Efficient smoke exhaust equipment can protect fire- fighters at the fire scene and is helpful for disaster relief operations. Lougheed and Hadjisophocleous 4 and Fan et al. 5 studied the effectiveness of smoke exhaust systems in an atrium and a tunnel, respectively. Su et al. 6 analysed the differences in the performances of various types of smoke exhaust systems in compli- ance with regulations. 1 Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City 2 Department of Fire Science, Central Police University, Taoyuan City 3 Department of Fire Science, WuFeng University, Chiayi County Corresponding author: ChungHwei Su, Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Daxue Rd., Yanchao Dist., Kaohsiung City 82445, Taiwan. Email: such@nkust.edu.tw Indoor and Built Environment 0(0) 1–16 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals- permissions DOI: 10.1177/1420326X19890903 journals.sagepub.com/home/ibe