Compartment Fire-Generated Environment and Smoke Filling.
Compartment Fire-Generated Environment and Smoke
Filling.
(2553 K)
Cooper, L. Y.
NFPA SFPE 95; LC Card Number 95-68247;
SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. 2nd
Edition. Section 3. Chapter 10, National Fire
Protection Assoc., Quincy, MA, DiNenno, P. J.; Beyler,
C. L.; Custer, R. L. P.; Walton, W. D., Editor(s),
3/174-196 p., 1995.
Keywords:
fire protection; fire protection engineering;
compartment fires; smoke; fire safety; building design;
egress; equations; smoke spread; scenarios; mathematical
models; temperature; time; thickness; combustion
products; detection time; ignition; smoke filling
Abstract:
The following generic problem must be solved if one is
to be able to establish the fire safety of building
designs: [*] Given: Initiation of a fire in a
compartment or enclosed space, [*] Predict: The
environment that developes at likely locations of
occupancy, at likely locations of fire/smoke sensor
hardware (e.g., detectors and sprinkler links), and in
locations of safe refuge and along likely egress paths,
[*] Compute: The time of fire/smoke sensor hardware
response and the time of onset of conditions untenable
to life and/or property. This computation would be
carried out from the above predictions, using known
response characteristics of people, hardware, and
materials. The above is only a simple sketch of the
overall problem that is likely to be associated with the
interesting details of many real fire scenarios. A
long-term challenge of fire science and technology is to
solve the above type of problem, even when it is
formulated in elaborate detail. Compartment fire
modeling is the branch of fire science and technology
which develops the necessary tools to address this
generic problem. This chapter will describe some of the
key phenomena that occur in compartment fires, and it
will focus on smoke filling which is one of the simplest
quantitative global descriptions of these phenomena. A
specific smoke-filling model will be presented, and
solutions to its model equations will be discussed along
with example applications.
