Fire growth compartment fires

FIRAC is a computer code designed to estimate radioactive and chemical source-terms as.sociaied with a fire and predict fire-induced flows and thermal and material transport within facilities, especially transport through a ventilation system. It includes a fire compartment module based on the FIRIN computer code, which calculates fuel mass loss rates and energy generation rates within the fire compartment. A second fire module, FIRAC2, based on the CFAST computer code, is in the code to model fire growth and smoke transport in multicompartment stmetures. 

FIRE SIMULATOR predicts the effects of fire growth in a 1-room, 2-vent compartment with sprinkler and detector. It predicts temperature and smoke properties (Oj/CO/COj concentrations and optical densities), heat transfer through room walls and ceilings, sprinkler/heat and smoke detector activation time, heating history of sprinkler/heat detector links, smoke detector response, sprinkler activation, ceiling jet temperature and velocity history (at specified radius from the flre i, sprinkler suppression rate of fire, time to flashover, post-flashover burning rates and duration, doors and windows which open and close, forced ventilation, post-flashover ventilation-limited combustion, lower flammability limit, smoke emissivity, and generation rates of CO/CO, pro iri i post-flashover. 

Quintiere, J, 1977, Growth of Fire in Building Compartments, ASTM Special Tech. Pul... 

In a joint research project in Sweden under the main title "Fire hazard - Fire growth in compartments in the early stage of development (pre-flashover)" (1, 2) a number of different factors have been studied. In the process of developing a full-scale fire test method - "room-corner" configuration - for surface lining materials, Nordtest NT-FIRE 025, the emission of smoke and gas was studied. That study covers data from thirteen different single and... 

On the other hand, the presence of the small pores in the membranes (cell walls), due to the porofication treatment before foaming, increases the thermal insulation value of these membranes. According to Woolley [19], this can have a marked effect on the growth of fire in a compartment, due to the conservation of heat. 

This report presents experimental and theoretical results from a study within the project "Fire Hazard - Fire Growth in Compartments in the Early Stage of Development (Prefiashover)". The project is carried out jointly by the department of Fire Safety Engineering at Lund University and the Division of Fire Technology at the Swedish National Testing Institute. An outline of the research program is... 

Figure 8.24 Correlation of volumetric fire growth for a dwelling with similar compartment characteristics [24]...

Quintiere, J.G., The growth of fire in building compartments, in Fire Standards and Safety (ed. A. F. Robertson), ASTM STP614, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1977, pp. 131-67. 

Techniques are available to calculate conditions under which enclosed fires are ventilation- or fuel- controlled. Computer models are available to estimate compartment fire growth and temperature effects. In particular, the zone fire model C-FAST (Jones et al., 2000) is widely used. Additional information on models is contained in Appendix C. 

The rate at which heat is released in a compartment is the most important factor affecting fire growth toward flashover and the severity of subsequent post-flashover fire conditions. This can be illustrated as follows ... 

One of the simplest large-scale geometries relevant to real world fire growth modeling is vertical upward flame spread on a free-standing wall, meaning that the wall is not part of a compartment. Compartment effects, such as accumulation of a hot ceiling layer, do not come into play. 

FIGURE 20.8 Comparison of FDS4 calculations and experimental data for fire growth in real-scale mockup of train passenger compartment. Left Material A Right Material C. (Adapted from Capote, J.A. et al., Fire Mater., 32, 213, 2008.)... 

For the purpose of this article, fire tests are associated with the second strategy and defined as experimental methods to characterize the behavior of polymers under more severe thermal exposure conditions that are representative of the growth phase of a compartment fire. These conditions are simulated with a gas-fired or electrical heater or a large gas burner turbulent diffusion flame (flame length of the order of a meter or several feet). The incident heat flux to the specimen is primarily radiative when heaters are used, and mainly convective for flame exposure. Total incident heat flux varies from approximately 1 kW/m to more than 100 kW/m. Note that the maximum radiant heat flux from the sim on earth is approximately 1 kW/m. Polymers that are not treated with fire retardant chemicals typically ignite when exposed to heat fluxes of 10-20 kW/m in the presence of a small pilot flame or hot spark. 

MAKEFIRE models the growth, steady state, and decay phases of the each fuel element in the compartment. It consists of routines that create and edit fire files that specify the fire heat release rate and fuel pyrolysis rate as a function of time. 

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