Chapter 7 of the International Building Code (IBC)1 requires life safety dampers to protect duct and air transfer openings within building separations — fire walls, fire barriers, fire partitions, horizontal assemblies, smoke barriers, and smoke partitions. It also focuses on compartmentation and the dampers used to prevent the spread of heat, fire, and smoke as they contain products of combustion. Chapter 9 of the IBC contains requirements for engineered smoke control system dampers. These are more varied in use, as they could be normally closed then opened to provide makeup air for atria, opened to pressurize a space to prevent smoke movement, or opened to exhaust smoke.
There is frequent confusion about the types of dampers and their applications. This article explains the differences among the damper types and provides a brief overview of the control system requirements affecting their applications.