Assume that people are trapped in the southeast stairway above the 12th floor (
ID: 926359 • Letter: A
Question
Assume that people are trapped in the southeast stairway above the 12th floor ( total 37 floor) when smoke enters that stairway at the 12th floor. Assume the smoke in the stairway has the following uniform composition throughout the stairway:
• CO concentration increases linearly from 0 ppm at t=0 to 6000 ppm at t=3 minutes, then decreases linearly back to 0 ppm at t=10 minutes
• CO2 concentration increases linearly from 0 % at t=0 to 3% at t=3 minutes, then decreases linearly back to 0% at t=11 minutes.
a. The calculated time, to the nearest minute, to incapacitation of people attempting to descend within the stairway above the 12th floor. If incapacitation does not occur, discuss why.
b. The calculated time, to the nearest minute, to lethality for people attempting to descend within the stairway above the 12th floor. Assume people stop moving once they have become incapacitated, as calculated in part a. If lethality does not occur, discuss why. c. The calculated time, to the nearest minute, to incapacitation for people trying to ascend in the stairway in order to move further away from the 12th floor once they realized they were trapped in the stairway. Explain why this answer is or is not different from your answer to part (a).
Explanation / Answer
Answer:
There exists equlibrium between CO and CO2.
CO CO2
There occurs incapacitation, due increase in CO2 level (as CO2 is the gas resultant gas of respiration of humans) at the 12th floor shits the equlibrium towards CO side. Increase in CO level at 12th floor causes the incapacitation.