Probabilistic simulation of fire scenarios

A risk analysis tool is developed for computation of the distributions of fire model output variables. The tool, called Probabilistic Fire Simulator (PFS), combines Monte Carlo simulation and CFAST, a two-zone fire model. In this work, the tool is used to estimate the failure probability of redundant cables in a cable tunnel fire, and the failure and smoke filling probabilities in an electronics room during an electronics cabinet fire. Sensitivity of the output variables to the input variables is calculated in terms of the rank order correlations. The use of the rank order correlations allows the user to identify both modelling parameters and actual facility properties that have the most influence on the results. Various steps of the simulation process, i.e. data collection, generation of the input distributions, modelling assumptions, definition of the output variables and the actual simulation, are described.     

CFD Simulations of Fire Propagation in Horizontal Cable Trays Using a Pyrolysis Model with Stochastically Determined Geometry

In this paper, a pyrolysis model for a PVC cable is constructed using results from thermogravimetric analysis, microscale combustion calorimeter and cone calorimeter experiments. The pyrolysis model is used to simulate fire propagation in horizontal cable trays. The simulated arrangement corresponds to a cable tray fire experiment from OECD PRISME 2 project. As laying the cables loosely along the horizontal trays is a random process, a novel stochastic method is developed for making the simplified cable tray geometries for the computational fluid dynamics model. In addition, as the simplified cable tray geometry has significantly smaller surface area than a real tray full of cables, the surface area was parametrically adjusted. In contrast to most of the earlier published numerical approaches for simulating cable tray fires, the presented approach does not use empirical correlations for predicting fire propagation and does not require any results from full-scale experiments for calibrating the model. The simulation results are compared to experimental results in terms of heat release rate, mass loss, tray ignition times and lateral flame spread rates. The maximum heat release rate was overpredicted by 8% on average.

     

Modeling and Simulation of High Pressure Water Mist Systems

This paper describes work done to improve and validate the capability of fire dynamics simulator (FDS) to predict the dynamics of water mist sprays. Three single orifice and five multi-orifice spray heads are modeled with FDS based on information on the flow-rate, spray angle, operating pressure and experimentally determined particle size distribution. The capability of FDS to predict the drop size, velocity, mist flux and number concentration profiles within the spray cone is assessed. The effects of turbulence modeling on the predictions of the spray dynamics is investigated. The capability of FDS to predict the air entrainment by high-speed water sprays is validated using experiments in rectangular channels with open ends.     

Impact of Firefighting Sprays on the Fire Performance of Structural Steel Members

Fire Technology - The feasibility of coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element (FE) simulations to aid the planning of fire intervention tactics and the effectiveness of...     

Multiphysics Modelling of Stone Wool Fire Resistance

Fire Technology - In fire resistance tests, stone wool’s organic matter undergoes exothermic oxidative reactions sustained by external heat, causing mass transfer in the structure. The...     

Probabilistic simulation of cable performance and water based protection in cable tunnel fires

Nuclear power plants contain a significant amount of fire load in form of electrical cables. The performance of the cables is interesting both from the fire development and system failure viewpoints. In this work, cable tunnel fires are studied using numerical simulations, focusing on the fire spreading along power cables and the efficiency of the water suppression in preventing the cable failures. Probabilistic simulations are performed using Monte Carlo technique and the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) as the deterministic fire model. The primary fire load, i.e. the power cables are modelled using the one-dimensional pyrolysis model, for which the material parameters are estimated from the experimental data. Two different water suppression systems are studied. The simulation results indicate that using either suppression system decreased the heat release rate in the tunnel to less than 10% of the non-suppressed case. Without water suppression, the cables of the second sub-system were damaged in almost all fires, but when either of the studied water suppression systems was used, the probability of the cable failures was decreased to less than 1%. This result indicates that in current scenario, the probability of losing both sub-systems is determined directly by the suppression system unavailability.     

Experiments and Numerical Simulations of Pressure Effects in Apartment Fires

The fire induced pressure and its influence on ventilation flows within a compartment have not been studied in detail previously. In this research work, we have investigated the development of gas pressure and the resulting flows in compartment fires first experimentally, by burning a series of heptane pool and polyurethane mattress fires inside a real, 58.6 m\(^2\) by 2.57 m high, apartment and then by carrying out numerical simulations of the experiments with the FDS code. The experiments were conducted with three different ventilation duct configurations to simulate three different airtightness conditions. The peak heat release rates were less than 1 MW and the burning times were about 180 s. The experimental results indicate that the gas pressure in relatively closed apartment can become high enough to revert the flows of the ventilation system, prevent escape through inwards-opening doors, and even break some structures. The peak gas temperatures under the ceiling of the burn room were about 300°C. The pool fires remained well-ventilated. The pressure ranges encountered in the experiments were between 100 Pa to 1650 Pa and the pressure occured within 50 s of ignition. We also report the FDS validation for this type of simulations and discuss the process of modelling the ventilation system and leakages.     

Experimental and numerical studies of liquid dispersal from a soft projectile impacting a wall

A medium-scale IMPACT test programme is currently being implemented at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). In these tests, deformable cylindrical steel or aluminium projectiles impact a solid concrete wall or a steel force plate. One part of the test is conducted with a missile filled with liquid water to study liquid dispersal phenomena (i.e., wet missile tests).The fluid-filled missile ranged in length from 0.5 to 1.5 m, the water mass inside the missile from 15 to 68 kg, and the impact velocity of missile from 70 to 177 m/s.This paper describes the methods used to measure the liquid dispersal processes, and presents the main results for preliminary simulations of liquid spread. Because the IMPACT tests have focused on structural aspects, it was necessary to develop cost-effective methods for measuring liquid phenomena. The tests measured some important parameters associated with liquid: the discharge speed and direction of the liquid core released from the ruptured missile, propagation speed of the spray front, liquid pooling on the floor, extent of liquid dispersal away from the target, and the drop size of the liquid spray.The experimental findings indicate that the liquid release starts along the surface almost perpendicularly to the incoming direction of the missile and forms a fairly “flat” and uniform splash pattern around the missile. Although the discharge speed of the liquid core may be initially much higher than the impact velocity of the missile, the propagation speed of the spray front decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the source. Results of the preliminary simulations show that the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) program is a usable tool for simulating two-phase flows involving high-speed droplets, provided that the initial conditions (angle and speed of liquid release, droplet size, and initial air speed) can be specified appropriately. Given these requirements, FDS can reasonably well predict the formation of the water spray cloud and final distribution of water.     

Two-Dimensional Analysis on Ceiling Jet Temperature Characteristics in a Semicircular Tunnel

Fire Technology - In order to reveal the evolution of ceiling jet temperature characteristics beneath curved ceiling in two-dimensional view, experimental and theoretical studies were conducted to...