Reduced-Scale Experiments on the Water Suppression of a Rack-Storage Commodity Fire for Calibration of a CFD Fire Model

Published

June 16, 2003

Author(s)

Anthony P. Hamins, Kevin B. McGrattan

Abstract

The objective of this work was to provide measurements from reduced-scale experiments for use in the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator, a computational fluid dynamics model that calculates fire growth, spread, sprinkler activation, and water suppression of rack-storage commodity fires. The model requires implementable sub-grid algorithms and corresponding data that adequately represent the full-scale heat and mass transfer that occurs in a warehouse fire with rack-storage of a standard commodity. This paper describes experiments that investigated the effect of water application on the time to ignition and the heat release rate of the Group A Plastic Commodity. Several types of experiments were conducted including small-scale ignition measurements using the LIFT device and the cone calorimeter, and moderate-scale heat release rate measurements using oxygen consumption calorimetry. Both ignition and heat release rate measurements were made with and without water application. The results showed that the heat release rate is adequately described as a function of the water application rate in a form suitable for implementation in a CFD fire model.

Proceedings Title

Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. Seventh (7th) International Symposium. International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). June 16-21, 2003

Conference Dates

June 16-21, 2003

Conference Location

Worcester, MA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

fire research, sprinklers, pallet storage, experiments, water, computational fluid dynamics, fire models, fire suppression, equations, ignition, heat release rate

Citation

Hamins, A. and McGrattan, K. (2003), Reduced-Scale Experiments on the Water Suppression of a Rack-Storage Commodity Fire for Calibration of a CFD Fire Model, Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. Seventh (7th) International Symposium. International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). June 16-21, 2003 , Worcester, MA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909871 (Accessed April 25, 2024)