There have been a number of concerns regarding the balcony spill plume equation provided in NFPA 92B (2005) and IBC (2006). These include:

1. Lack of verification by full-scale experiments.
2. Application of the equation for high atria even though it was developed for low-height atria.

This could lead to the fans used for atrium smoke management being undersized or oversized. While oversizing the fans results in wasted money, undersizing the fans results in failure of the smoke management system. As a result of these concerns, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) initiated a project to evaluate the balcony spill plume equation used in North American codes and standards.

The research undertaken in this project had three primary objectives:

1. To conduct full-scale experiments of fires located in rooms opening onto balconies and of fires beneath balconies.
2. To determine the extent of applicability of the balcony spill plume algebraic relationships.
3. To provide data for the development of new algebraic relationships.

Units: SI