BRAVENT
Efficient ventilation of smoke from small fires
There are over 100 fire incidents in Norwegian schools per year. Even though most of these fires are small, they can still produce a large amount of smoke.
Ideally, the existing comfort ventilation systems would be used to control the smoke movement from these fires spreads in order to increase the fire safety and limit the damage. Traditionally, this has been done by closing both exhaust and supply ducts to prevent the smoke spread to other rooms. However, this solution can be expensive because it requires fire-rated dampers to ensure that the ventilation ducts are closed properly. Furthermore, closing these ducts during a fire can also lead to a pressure-buildup that makes it difficult to open or close doors, thus complicating the evacuation process.
The BRAVENT project will explore an alternative strategy – smoke extraction – that does not rely on certified fire-rated dampers and helps to control the pressure buildup caused by the fire. This strategy may be especially suited for the most common fires in schools, namely small fires with moderate heat generation.
However, there are some challenges associated with adapting the extraction strategy for schools. For example, building layouts vary significantly and this results in a corresponding difference in the ventilation systems. In addition, smoke extraction may lead to soot accumulation in the ventilation system and this can compromise the indoor climate.
In order to address the above challenges, the BRAVENT project has mapped ventilation systems in a number of schools and collected information about fire incidents. The project will use this information to establish a best practice ventilation solution that ensures efficient smoke control in the event of a fire. The potential for soot accumulation will be assessed through fire testing of the key ventilation components. Finally, the effectiveness of the extraction strategy for small fires will be verified through large scale fire experiments and computer simulations.
Newsletters (in Norwegian) from BRAVENT can be found here:
Reports (in Norwegian):
- Meraner, C., Floyd, J., Chaudhari, D.M. et al. Modelling a Damper-Optimized Demand Control Ventilation System During a Fire. Fire Technol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-025-01736-8
- Meraner, C., Fjærestad, J.S. & Haukø, AM. On the Performance of Damper-Optimised Demand-Controlled Ventilation Systems During a Fire. Fire Technol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-025-01724-y
- A. Yang, A. Aamodt, P. H. Samuelsen, B. Garberg Olsø, A.-M. Haukø, and C. Meraner, “Fire safety of ventilation systems and fire incidence reports in Norwegian schools,” E3S Web Conf, vol. 356, 2022.
- H. Anne-Marit, O. Brynhild Garberg, Y. Aileen, A. Andreas, S. Per Henning, and M. Christoph, “Functional testing of ventilation systems in schools during activated fire alarm - Coherence with the fire safety strategy,” in NFSD Book of abstracts 2022, Lund, Sweden, 2022, pp. 63–64.
BRAVENT Reports (in Norwegian):
- BRAVENT Rapport D1.1: Brannforløp og ventilasjon i skoler
- BRAVENT Rapport D2.1: Storskala branntester (del 1) - Brannytelse for ikke-brannklassifiserte ventilasjonskomponenter
- BRAVENT Rapport D4.1: Storskala branntester (del 2) - Effekten av ventilasjonsstrategi på røykspredning og trykkontroll i en mock-up skolebygning
- BRAVENT Prosjektnotat D3.1: Kontrollplan – Ventilasjonsanleggets funksjon under brann. Vedlegget til kontrollplanen finnes her.
- BRAVENT Rapport D5.1: Veileder for brannteknisk prosjektering av ventilasjonsanlegg i skolebygg
Webinars (in Norwegian):
- BRAVENT webinar: Brann- og røykspredning i ventilasjonskanaler, video og pdf
- BRAVENT webinar: Effektiv røykventilering av små branner i skolebygg
Del 1: Kontrollplan – Ventilasjonsanleggets funksjon under brann
Del 2: Resultater fra storskala branntester
Del 3: Veileder for branntekniskprosjektering av ventilasjonsanlegg i skolebygg