Numerical simulation of the spread of smoke in an atrium under fire scenario

The Fire Dynamics Simulator code is used to investigate the smoke movement in an atrium under fire scenario. At first, by comparing with experimental data of the atrium fire under low and high heat release rates, reasonable model constants of C_s and Pr_t and appropriate grid system are determined for simulating smoke movement in the atrium, the simulation results are in good agreement with those experimental data. Then, the performance of different smoke exhaust methods in the atrium is studied. Smoke filling processes are investigated under different natural and enhanced smoke exhaust methods. Simulated results show that natural smoke exhaust method is preferred when the smoke exhaust vents are located at the ceiling of the atrium. On the other hand, when the smoke exhaust vents are located on the walls of the atrium, the higher positions of the smoke exhaust vents are preferred. In addition, the influence of the fire source locations on the smoke spreading process is presented in this paper, three kinds of fire source locations are studied, they are central fire, side wall fire and corner fire. Results indicate that the descending process of the smoke layer is the slowest when the fire source is at the corner of the atrium.