Applications of FASTLite.
Applications of FASTLite.
(572 K)
Bukowski, R. W.
Society of Fire Protection Engineers and WPI Center for
Firesafety Studies. Computer Applications in Fire
Protection Engineering. Technical Symposium.
Proceedings. Final Program. June 20-21, 1996,
Worcester, MA, 59-66 pp, 1996.
Keywords:
predictive models; fire protection engineering; egress;
evacuation time; fire growth; fire hazards assessment;
fire models; smoke filling
Abstract:
The use of computer supported fire safety engineering
calculations has grown significantly in recent years.
One of the early, favorite tools of the fire protection
engineer was FIREFORM and later FPEtool, both of which
were developed by Bud Nelson. Now NIST has release
FASTLite, the successor to these programs. FASTLite
retains the set of simple algebraic equations of
FIREFORM, but replaces the single room fire model FIRE
SIMULATOR with a (maximum) three room version of CFAST
modified to provide the operational features of FIRE
SIMULATOR which users have come to depend on. These
include simple construction of heat release rate curves,
pauses in execution to allow modification of the
scenario specification, and automatic output in
selectable engineering units; all with the
faster-than-real-time excuation speeds of the former
model. The platform for these developments is CFAST.
By integrating the CFAST zone model into FASTLite prior
work on its validation and accuracy assessment is
applicable and it is possible to add technical
improvements to FASTLite, CFAST, and HAZARD as a single
family of models. FASTLite also becomes entirely
compatible with the others so that users who begin an
analysis with FASTLite can build on the same basic input
file by adding additional compartments or features
supported in CFAST, such as HVAC modeling.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899