Citation

Miles SD, Cox G. Fire Safety J. 1996; 27(4): 265-287.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper describes the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the task of predicting fire product emissions from warehouses containing hazardous materials. A growing pool fire is modelled inside a warehouse with automatic, heat-detector-operated roof vents and various prescribed external wind flows. The first 5 min of the fire are simulated, by which time the heat release rate of the fire has reached 26 MW and all vents have opened. It is found that the strong thermal and entrainment processes associated with the fire are such that moderate external winds have only a second-order influence on the mass, momentum and buoyancy fluxes of the emissions. The response time of the roof vents is found to have a significant effect on the transient behaviour of the emissions. The potential and limitations for using CFD models as part of a broader environmental hazard analysis are reviewed.