Backdraft Experiments and Large Eddy Simulations in a scaled compartment

Published

December 13, 2023

Author(s)

Marcos Vanella, Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Thomas Cleary

Abstract

An extensive set of backdraft experiments has been performed at the NIST National Fire Research Laboratory. These experiments were conducted in a reduced scale compartment, and are part of defining the conditions conducive to backdraft. Further, the detailed chemistry and heat measurements are intended to evaluate computational fire models. In this article, we describe the modeling effort employing the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) in simulations involving different fuels and ignition source locations mirroring a subset of the named experiments. We focus on using default simulation parameters and study their effect on the backdraft outcomes. In particular, the ignition model's temperature threshold and ignition procedure play a primary role in developing a backdraft.

Citation

Fire Safety Journal

Volume

141

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103960

Local Download

Keywords

Backdraft Experiments, Fire Simulation, FDS, Large Eddy Simulation

Citation

Vanella, M. , Falkenstein-Smith, R. and Cleary, T. (2023), Backdraft Experiments and Large Eddy Simulations in a scaled compartment, Fire Safety Journal, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2023.103960, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936327 (Accessed October 10, 2025)