Atria are now a common feature in high-spec residential developments as well as in upper-end office and hotel buildings. They introduce additional natural lighting and open-space environment into the building design.

AFEC was recently involved in the design of 3 residential atrium buildings in Dublin (one at Island Street and two at Grace Park Road). In these three projects CFD computer modelling was used to validate the results of hand calculations for smoke control

The CFD modelling was carried out using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) developed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (US). Compared with hand calculations, CFD modelling allows a more in-depth investigation of possible smoke flows within a building.

The use of CFD software in these and other projects allowed AFEC to gain the reputation for being the leaders in the area of computer fire modelling in the Irish market.