Numerical experiments in fire science: a study of ceiling jets

In this paper, a numerical experiment, consisting of 90 simulations in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), is conducted for two different purposes. Firstly, numerical experiments are explored as a research method in fire science, and it is demonstrated that numerical experiments could be used as a complement to traditional fire experiments in fire science research. Secondly, an evaluation of previously derived correlations for ceiling jet excess temperatures and velocities is performed with the help of the results from the numerical experiment. The procedure used in this evaluation constitutes an outline for how a numerical experiment can be conducted in fire science. The evaluation indicates that the existing correlations will give a good estimate of the average temperature in a ceiling jet calculated by FDS. However, the correlations do not give a good estimate of the maximum excess temperature. A new correlation to estimate the maximum temperature has therefor been developed and is presented in the paper. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.