COLUMN ENGINEERS NOTEBOOK

This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, July 2014. Copyright 2014 ASHRAE. Posted at www.ashrae.org. This article may not
be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE. For more information about ASHRAE
Journal, visit www.ashrae.org.

Stephen W. Duda

Fire & Smoke Damper

Application Requirements
BY STEPHEN W. DUDA, P.E., BEAP, HBDP, HFDP, FELLOW ASHRAE

Anecdotally, I am aware that some HVAC engineers and designers are uncertain of
the requirements for fire dampers and smoke dampers, especially with regard to
the difference between partition types. Some play it safe and specify fire and smoke
dampers where they really are not required. Some may even find they have been overspecifying protective dampers throughout their career. So I have compiled this Fire
and Smoke Damper Summary for HVAC engineers and designers based on the 2012
International Building Code1 (the 2009 edition has the same requirements but with
different paragraph numbering). Most states and local jurisdictions in North America
use the International Building Code, either outright or as a state adaptation. Where
the IBC is not enforced, NFPA 90A2 can be used for guidance.
Fire-Rated Construction
There are four types of fire-resistance rated walls.
Before you can know what type (if any) fire damper to
use, you first must know which of the four types of walls
you have.
Fire Walls (IBC Section 706) are major separation
walls between buildings or are used to divide one
building into separate buildings. A fire wall actually
allows you to treat the spaces on opposite sides of the
wall as totally separate buildings. These are usually
three- to four-hour rated, and are usually structurally
independent. You cannot run a duct or air transfer
opening through a fire wall located on a property or
lot linenot at allnot even with a fire damper. If
you run a duct or air transfer opening through a fire
wall located within a building, use a three-hour fire
damper. This is the most restrictive of the various
types of fire-rated walls, and is rather rare on most
building projects. Most fire-rated walls within buildings are not this extreme.
Fire Barriers (IBC Section 707) are the medium-rating
level of the various types of fire-rated walls. Examples
aNFPA 90A is slightly more forgiving here. It allows omission of a fire damper at ducted penetrations
of fire barriers and partitions rated less than two hours, even if the building is not fully sprinklered
(5.3.1.1).

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include exit passageway enclosures, atrium boundaries,

stairwell enclosures, and separations between occupancies in a mixed-use building. These are usually twohour rated, but there are exceptions, so check with the
architect.
You cannot run a duct or air transfer opening
through an exit passageway enclosure or stairwell
enclosure (not at all; not even with a fire damper)
unless that duct is for the purpose of independent
stairwell pressurization. If you run a duct through
other types of fire barriers, use a 1.5 hour fire damper.
But there is an exception: If the fire barrier is only onehour rated, and if the building is fully sprinklered,a
and if the system is fully ducted (not an air transfer
opening), then you dont need a fire damper (IBC
717.5.2, Exception #3).
Shaft Enclosures (Section 713) are a special type of fire
barrier used to enclose shafts. These are usually twohour rated. Shaft enclosures are not required if all of the
following are true: (a) fully sprinklered building; (b) not
a hospital or prison; (c) connects only two floors and no
more. In this case, use a 1.5 hour horizontal fire damper
at the floor line. Other than the previous item, shaft
Stephen W. Duda, P.E., is a senior mechanical engineer at Ross & Baruzzini, Inc. in St. Louis.

COLUMN ENGINEERS NOTEBOOK

enclosures are required anytime a duct travels vertically

floor-to-floor. A 1.5 hour fire damper and Class I or II
smoke damperb (or combination damper meeting both
requirements) is required at each penetration of a shaft
enclosure.
Tip: You can avoid the fire/smoke damper at the shaft
penetration if you have a vertical shaft with exhaust
ducts entering the shaft on every floor (such as in a highrise hotel or dormitory), and if you build steel sub-ducts
that extend vertically upward into the vertical riser by
at least 22 in. (0.56 m), and if there is a continuous flow
of air upward to the outdoors (e.g., the exhaust fan is
on the roof and is always on). In some jurisdictions, the
fan must be on emergency power for this exception to
qualify.
If the shaft does not extend all the way to the bottom
of the building, some code officials will allow you to
place a horizontal fire/smoke damper at the floor level
where the duct emerges from the bottom of the shaft.
Others will argue this is not permissible and will instead
require that the shaft be extended down into the ceiling
cavity of the floor below, so that your duct can emerge
from the side of the shaft with a vertical fire/smoke
damper. Note that where horizontal fire dampers at a
floor penetration are permitted, most manufacturers
require that the damper be supported by and framed
with a concrete floor; the dampers are not listed to be
supported by gypsum board. So you must coordinate
with the structural engineer to provide an opening in
the concrete floor sized precisely for the damper plus
space for expansion and contraction as required by the
damper listing.
Fire Partitions (IBC Section 708) are the minimumrating level of the various types of fire-rated walls.
Examples include corridor walls, tenant-separation
walls, and walls dividing dwelling units in a multi-family housing building. They are usually one-hour rated.
Note that corridor walls in most fully sprinklered buildings are not required to be rated at all (IBC 1018.1). If a
given fire partition is not more than one-hour rated, and
if the building is fully sprinklered,a and if the system is
ducted (not a transfer opening), then you dont need a
fire damper (IBC 717.5.4, Exception #4). Otherwise, in
non-sprinklered buildings and/or in transfer openings,
use a 1.5-hour fire damper.

Smoke-Rated Construction
There are three types of smoke-rated walls. Before you
can know what type (if any) smoke damper to use, you
first must know which of the three types of smoke walls
you have to address.
Smoke Barriers (Section 709) are found in hospitals and
prisons, and are used to completely divide a building
floor into two compartments. A telltale sign of a smoke
barrier on a hospital floor is to look for a double opposite-swing door in the corridor; that door will be on the
smoke barrier wall. Smoke barriers are a more restrictive classification than smoke partitions. A Class I or
II smoke damper is required at each duct penetration
of a smoke barrier. Smoke barriers are also automatically one-hour fire partitions, so review the relevant
section above to determine a possible fire damper
requirement.
In a hospital, every floor that features patient
care or patient sleeping rooms (as opposed to floors
that are exclusively administrative or educational)
must have a smoke barrier that runs straight (or
reasonably close to straight) across the entire floor,
from one exterior wall to the other, that divides
the floor into two distinct halves. The purpose is
that patients may not be mobile enough to evacuate the building very quickly in a fire. To give them
additional time to exit, and to help give rescue
personnel additional time to provide assistance, all
the patients on the fire side of the smoke barrier
will be moved to the other side of the barrier. If the
floors footprint is so big that one side of the smoke
barrier exceeds 22,500 ft2 (2090 m), then an additional smoke barrier is required to divide the floor
into thirds.
Ask the architects you work with to be very careful
about their terminology used on the drawings. Some
use the terms smoke partition and smoke barrier interchangeably, or worsethey just call both a
smoke wall. For HVAC reasons, architects must use
the terms correctly, and to only use the term smoke
barrier where they truly apply. If the terminology is
used correctly, we can eliminate a lot of unnecessary
smoke dampers. Use smoke dampers only in smoke
barriers (or unducted transfer openings in smoke
partitions).

bClass I smoke dampers are rated for a maximum leakage of 8 cfm/ft2 at 4.0 in. static pressure (3.8 L/s at 1 kPa). Class II smoke dampers are rated for a maximum leakage of 20 cfm/ft2 at 4.0 in. static

pressure (9.4 L/s at 1 kPa). Either is acceptable under the codes quoted.

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Smoke Partitions (Section 710) are used to enclose

storage rooms, trash rooms, boiler and furnace
rooms, and similar rooms that have a higher-thanaverage chance of fire. These are not as significant
as smoke barriers. Smoke partitions are intended to
contain the smoke and heat resulting from a fire just
long enough to activate sprinklers or smoke detectors quickly. A Class I or II smoke damper is required
at each air transfer opening in a smoke partition.
Nothing is required in ducted penetrations of smoke
partitions, and this is where I most often see overspecification. Ducted penetrations of smoke partitions do not require smoke dampers.
The final type of smoke boundaries we encounter
are corridor walls in a hospital, which are required
to form barriers to limit the transfer of smoke but
are not smoke barriers. If corridor walls were smoke
barriers, then every single patient room that opens to
the corridor would have to have listed/labeled doors
and automatic door closers, which is not the case. The
difference between a barrier to limit the transfer of
smoke and a smoke barrier is subtle in syntax, but
important to an HVAC designer. Corridor walls in a
hospital are actually considered smoke partitions,
not smoke barriers (IBC 407.3). This is another area
where some designers use smoke dampers unnecessarily. No dampers are required in ducted penetrations of smoke partitions, including those in hospital
corridor walls.

Other Rules
1. Do not put any dampers in Type 1 grease exhaust
and clothes dryer exhaust systems (IBC 717.5.3). If your
hood or dryer exhaust duct crosses a rated wall or floor,
then instead of a damper you must encase the duct itself
in a rated enclosure such as a fire-rated gypsum board
shaft or a listed/labeled fire-wrap insulation material.
Use sub-ducts in lieu of dampers at vertical shafts.
2. If a fire or smoke damper placement will interfere
with the operation of an engineered smoke exhaust
system (such as for an atrium), approved alternate protection shall be used (IBC 717.2.1). What I have usually
done in this case is to specify a remotely resettable fire/
smoke damper addressable by the fire department at a
fire command center.
3. Fire dampers are available in 1.5 hour and threehour ratings. Those are generally the only two choices.
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Use a 1.5 hour fire damper in one-hour or two-hour

walls. Use a three-hour fire damper in three-hour or
four-hour walls.
4. Fire dampers are available as static or dynamic.
Static fire dampers are only tested to close without air
moving in the duct. Dynamic fire dampers are tested to
close with or without air moving in the duct. I recommend you always specify dynamic fire dampers since the
cost difference is trivial.
5. Fire damper Frames: Frame A means the blades,
in the open position, partially block the free area
of the duct. Frame B means the blades, in the open
position, are completely outside the free area of the
duct. Frame C is for round ducts. These frame types
apply only to curtain-type fire dampers, not to multiblade type dampers like most combination fire/smoke
dampers.
6. Fire dampers and smoke dampers must be accessible for service. If reaching inside the duct is necessary
(for example, to re-open a closed fire damper) then you
must provide a duct access door and a ceiling access
panel or an accessible ceiling type.
7. For buildings where engineered smoke control is
required by code, such as high-rise buildings and atria,
smoke damper open/closed status indication is required
for all dampers that affect the proper operation of the
smoke control system. Typically, status is indicated by
switches that are physically connected to the damper
blade, or auxiliary end-switches from direct-coupled
actuators.

Summary
It is important to learn the differences between a
fire wall, fire barrier, and fire partition and between
a smoke barrier and smoke partition, so that you can
properly apply (or not apply) fire and smoke dampers. Unwillingness by some mechanical engineers and
designers to explore the architectural portions of the
International Building Code, and not learn of these distinctions, has led some to over-specify fire and smoke
dampers in HVAC systems.

References
1. ICC. 2012. International Building Code. Chicago: International
Code Council, Inc.
2. NFPA. 2012. Standard 90A, Standard for the Installation of Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Systems. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection
Association.