Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics for Different Fire Strengths in a Compartment Using Combustion Modelling

Abstract

Fire field modelling (Computation Fluid Dynamics) has become more and more attractive as a critical design tool to meet Performance-based fire design on advanced modern buildings. This paper describes the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to predict velocities and temperature distributions induced by a fire in a Steckler's experimental data [1]. The experimental data of different fire loads is taken as case study for present investigation. The experiments of Steckler's compartment fire were conducted to investigate fire-induced flows through the opening in a compartment of size 2.8 m × 2.8 m × 2.18 m (height). The compartment has a doorway opening of 0.74 m × 1.83 m to account the ventilation condition. A porous gas burner is flushed at the floor in the centre of the room with the diameter of 0.3m in the compartment. With the above experimental data, simulation studies were performed with combustion modelling using commercial code of ANSYS CFX-5. The comparison of simulation results of fire field models with experimental domain for different strengths of fire 31.6, 62.9, 105.3 and 158.0 kW is reported. The boundary conditions of the simulation are kept constant, only fire strength is changed to see the performance of the CFD tool. The door centreline temperature, velocities and room corner temperatures are predicted and compared with experimental data as well as with FDS. The results are in good agreement with the experimental data.