Large Fire Experiments for Fire Model Evaluation.
Large Fire Experiments for Fire Model Evaluation.
(464 K)
Evans, D. D.
Interscience Communications Ltd.; National Institute of
Standards and Technology; Building Research
Establishment; and Society of Fire Protection Engineers;
Swedish National Testing and Research Institute.
Interflam '96. International Interflam Conference, 7th
Proceedings. March 26-28, 1996, Cambridge, England,
Interscience Communications Ltd., London, England,
Franks, C. A.; Grayson, S., Editor(s)(s), 329-334 pp,
1996.
Keywords:
fire safety; large scale fire tests; fire research; fire
tests; hydrocarbon fuels; predictive models; oil spills;
smoke yield; field tests; performance based codes;
research facilities
Abstract:
Recent movement towards performance based evaluation of
building safety has placed a premium on demonstrating
the accuracy of engineering methods and increased the
demand for fire performance data from large scale
experiments. Data from large scale experiments are
generally the basis for development and evaluation of
fire models. Verification of engineering methods for
prediction of fire related performance of structures,
contents, and fire protection systems has become a
priority need to support the development of performance
based codes and standards. Generally a great impediment
to model verification is the lack of means to quantify
the degree of agreement between experiments and
predictions or repeated experiments. Today, the most
widely used fire models are based on two-zone predictive
methods for fire flow in buildings. These methods along
with implementation of engineering correlations
developed from large scale fire experiments which
include those for prediction of the performance of fire
protection systems form the basis of modern fire safety
engineering practice. The widespread availability of
fast computing power, particularly in the fire research
community, has made it possible to model fires in
buildings using high resolution field modeling
techniques. These are available commercially from
engineering software developers and as research tools
developed in many of the fire safety laboratories around
the world. As an example, NIST has experimented with
the capabilities of Large Eddy Simulation technology to
predict fire driven flows inside and outside of
structures. The results have shown that modeling of
building fire flows at a resolution of several
centimeters is feasible. The advent of high resolution
calculations for use in fire safety analysis has
increased the demand for high resolution measurements of
fire conditions in buildings. To meet the demands of
the user community, large scale fire testing is
increasing in scale, in the number of quantities
measured, and in temporal and spacial resolution of the
measurements. In addition, means are being developed to
readily exchange data among users and research
facilities.
