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Follow NFPA 204 for the correct design of facilities for emergency venting of combustion products from fires in non-sprinklered, single-story buildings.

Manual and computer-modeled solution methods aid in design calculations. The equations or models provide the designer with the necessary tools to develop vent designs based on selected performance objectives related to a specific building and a specific set of circumstances.

Engineering equations are included for calculating vent flows, layer depths, and upper-layer temperatures based on a prescribed burning rate.

Concepts were developed for venting fires in large, undivided floor areas with ceiling heights sufficient to allow the design fire plume and smoke layer to develop (normally 4.6 m or greater). A limited amount of information regarding venting in sprinklered buildings is included. These provisions do not attempt to specify under what conditions venting is to be provided; such conditions depend on an analysis of the individual situation and on local building code and fire code requirements.