A numerical study of wind effect on wood chipboard with a gasoline fire in a compartment

Wind action plays a very important role in a flashover triggered by a room fire in a high-rise building with high window-to-wall area ratio or with openable windows. Under the action of wind, more air will be supplied through openings at the upper levels of tall buildings to burn the fuel and thus give rise to a bigger fire. This paper presents a numerical study on the heat release rate (HRR) of wood chipboard in a gasoline fire that breaks out in a compartment with two opposite openings under different wind speeds of 1.0 ms1, 2.0 ms-1, 5.0 ms1 and 10.0 ms-1. Three different grid sizes were tested. For each grid resolution, three slice file output quantities suggested for measuring errors in the velocity and scalar fields were selected for comparison. The predicted results show that wind action would increase the HRR of a ventilation-controlled fire, and decrease the HRR of a fuel-controlled fire due to cooling and dilution of air. The HRR in the fire growth phase of wood in a gasoline fire in the same compartment with a single door opening was validated with full-scale burning experiments without wind action. The HRR in the fire growth phase in the compartment with two openings on opposite walls was then compared with the experimental data.