Experimental investigation of the “Ventilated Facade” system performance under fire conditions

The ventilated façade (VF) system is a double-wall construction, comprising an external lightweight cladding panel and the building's façade, which is used to increase the indoor comfort level (e.g. temperature, humidity) in buildings. Literature reports on VF systems focus mainly on investigating their behavior in terms of energy consumption reduction; there are only scarce reports on the fire behavior of such systems. However, during a fire event, VF systems may contribute to fire spreading on the facade, representing a significant risk to the upper floors of a building, especially in the case of externally venting flames. Aiming to investigate the fire behavior of the VF concept a large scale compartment fire test was carried out. An extensive set of sensors is installed both inside and outside the test compartment, aiming to record the temporal variation of several important physical parameters (gas and wall surface temperatures, gas velocities, mass loss rate). Particular emphasis has been given on the estimation of the thermal characteristics of the fire compartment and subsequent EVF, as these are the main physical parameters affecting the heat exposure of the VF façade system. Experimental results suggest that the VF system proved to sufficiently sustain the 900 s fire exposure.