Making sure smoke management systems are designed correctly is imperative since they cannot be adjusted in the field under fire conditions. "Smoke management systems are different from most other engineering systems in that they cannot be adjusted under fire conditions in the field
to assure that they work as intended," said John Klote, co-author of Principles of Smoke Management published by ASHRAE (Atlanta).
"Building owners take a dim view of making large design-size fires in their new buildings to test systems. We design these systems with confidence by relying on engineering principles that have been experimentally verified." These principles are described in the book and verified with a smoke management system analysis CD included with the publication. The CD contains programs that can be used for design calculations related to smoke management systems, according to Klote.