Study on the Fire Spread Characteristics of High-Rise Building Facades Under Strong Wind Conditions Based on the Combination of WRF and CFD

Abstract

The spread of fires on the facades of high-rise buildings is highly influenced by atmospheric wind conditions, particularly in strong wind environments. A strong wind environment refers to the situation where the wind speed reaches level 6 or above, or the wind speed is between 10.8 m/s and 13.8 m/s. We conducted an in-depth study of the characteristics of flame spread on the facades of high-rise buildings under strong wind conditions. A nested coupling method based on WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software (Ansys Fluent 2021) was used. The mesoscale meteorological simulation software WRF was utilized to obtain regional airflow variation data within a radius of 2 km around the high-rise building. Subsequently, these data were coupled with the CFD software (Ansys Fluent 2021) to simulate and obtain realistic wind field data within a 400 m range around the building. Finally, these realistic wind field data were used for FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) fire simulations and model experiments to accurately replicate building fire scenarios under strong wind conditions. The results indicate that using grid nesting for boundary condition division would help to improve the accuracy of fire spread characteristics on the facades of high-rise buildings under strong wind conditions. For a high-rise building, both headwinds and tailwinds promote vertical and horizontal flame spread, with a more significant impact on vertical flame spread speed. Side winds enhance horizontal flame spread but inhibit vertical flame spread. These findings provide a reference for the effective design of fire protection systems for the facades of high-rise buildings.