Numerical studies on closed chamber fires

With the rapid development of information technology, computer fire models are being used more widely than ever before. There are queries on whether those models are suitable for use, as many problems are encountered when using these models. Of the different approaches, fire field models or application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are used quite widely. The approach takes advantage of predicting the fire environment in a "microscopic" picture. Air flow pattern, pressure, and temperature contours can be predicted. However, it is not easy to judge the CFD-predicted results. Most of the field models are only verified by some experiments not specially designed for such a purpose. In this paper, the CFD tool fire dynamics simulator (FDS) developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in United States will be applied to study closed chamber fires commonly encountered in the marine industry. Pressure rise inside the chamber induced by a fire is simulated. Part of the experimental data on closed chamber fires reported by the Defence Research Establishment in Sweden was used. By comparing the predicted results with the simulations, how well CFD can be applied for simulating fires in a closed chamber can be determined.