Several Problems with Froude-Number Based Scale Modeling of Fires in Small Compartments

Mateusz Zimny, Piotr Antosiewicz, Grzegorz Krajewski, Tomasz Burdzy, Adam Krasuski and Wojciech Węgrzyński
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Mateusz Zimny: Faculty of Fire Safety Engineering, The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP), 01-629 Warsaw, Poland
Piotr Antosiewicz: Fire Research Department, Building Research Institute (ITB), 00-611 Warsaw, Poland
Grzegorz Krajewski: Fire Research Department, Building Research Institute (ITB), 00-611 Warsaw, Poland
Tomasz Burdzy: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Adam Krasuski: Faculty of Fire Safety Engineering, The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP), 01-629 Warsaw, Poland
Wojciech Węgrzyński: Fire Research Department, Building Research Institute (ITB), 00-611 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: The Froude-number based reduced-scale modeling is a technique commonly used to investigate the flow of heat and mass in building fires. The root of the method is the thermodynamic model of a flow in a compartment and several non-dimensional flow numbers based on the proportionalities of the Navier-Stokes and heat transfer equations. The ratio of inertial forces to the buoyancy forces, known as the Froude-number, plays a pivotal role within these proportionalities. This paper is an attempt to define the range of credible scale modeling using the Froude-number. We verify the credibility of the modeling by small fire (approximately 150 kW) in a small compartment, comparing data from a physical test (scale 1:1 and 1:4) and the numerical model’s data (Fire Dynamics Simulator, scales 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:10, 1:20, and 1:50). The scope of the research covers a wide range of fires, with observed change of the flow from turbulent to laminar. The results show that the applicability of Froude-number reduced-scale modeling has limitations related to the scale. Therefore, it should be applied with care following sensibility analysis. We propose a method for sensibility analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.

Keywords: fire; Froude number; scale modeling; fire modeling; CFD; FDS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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