Further progress in smoke extraction at new Berlin airport: Second segment of the OPLC complete

Today saw completion of the second segment of the smoke extraction systems in the BER terminal. On 30 November and by completing the first segment of the smoke extraction system, the airport company reached an overriding goal in the schedule presented in December 2014 until the official BER opening. Now complete, the second segment controls smoke extraction and backflow in the Main Pier South terminal section.

Technical Director Jörg Marks: “We have meanwhile managed to get the smoke extraction system under control. Two segments are complete and work on the third section is almost finished. Parallel to completion of the remaining sections, we will also be testing the interfaces to other safety-based equipment such as the fire alarm system.”

The “overriding programmable logic controller” (OPLC) comprises a total of seven segments and a central ring. Installation of the OPLC represents a solution to one of the core problems to date, i.e. the non-functioning smoke extraction system at BER. In the event of a fire, more than 120 smoke extraction units must ensure smoke-free visibility of 2.50 metres for at least 15 minutes to enable people in the vicinity of the fire source to safely leave the building. As indicated by hot gas smoke tests, this did not work entirely reliably. One problem was that backflow elements for fresh air (e.g. from facade openings in the Main Pier) were to be controlled directly by the fire alarm system and therefore separate from the controls for the actual mechanical smoke extraction system (e.g. of smoke extraction ventilators and valves). Accordingly, in October 2013, FBB and Siemens AG signed a contract for the rebuilding of the smoke extraction control system