The Application of Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry to Measure the Flow of Air into an Enclosure Containing a Fire

Published

July 26, 2009

Author(s)

Rodney A. Bryant

Abstract

Flow fields encountered in full-scale enclosure fires are highly three-dimensional and span over a large spatial extent.  Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV) was applied to provide a large-scale planar interrogation of the flow of air available to a series of fires burning inside an enclosure.  Mean velocity fields across the doorway of the enclosure are presented.  The flow across the doorway is bi-directional and SPIV reveals that the height of the flow interface depends on location within the doorway.  The volume flow rate of available air computed using simplifying assumptions agrees well with the ideal computation.  Good agreement between the measured velocities for SPIV configurations optimized for seed particle displacements along the laser sheet axis and optimized for displacements perpendicular to the laser sheet demonstrate that large-scale SPIV measurements can be conducted with very good precision.

Citation

Experiments in Fluids

Volume

47

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry, Fire, Flow Measurement

Citation

Bryant, R. (2009), The Application of Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry to Measure the Flow of Air into an Enclosure Containing a Fire, Experiments in Fluids, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=861524 (Accessed October 11, 2025)