Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Evaluation of the Ability of Fire Dynamic Simulator to Simulate Positive Pressure Ventilation in the Laboratory and Practical Scenarios

Published

Author(s)

Stephen Kerber

Abstract

Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV) is a tactic that is used on fire grounds across the world everyday, both to improve tenability after the extinguishment of a fire and/or offensively during fire attack to improve firefighting conditions. PPV has proven that it can be a useful tool on the fire ground, but it can also kill or injure fire fighters and civilians if used improperly. Data from three full-scale experiments are compared with simulations completed with the computational fluid dynamic model Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS). The full-scale experiments characterize a Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV) fan in an open atmosphere, in a simple room geometry and in a room fire. All experiments qualify and quantify the comparison of the experimental results with the FDS results. A concluding scenario is modeled utilizing the calibration of the full-scale experiments to examine the effects of PPV on a fire in a two-story, colonial style house.
Citation
NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 7315
Report Number
7315

Keywords

air flow, FDS, fire dynamic simulator, fire fighter, positive pressure ventilation, PPV, tactics, ventilation

Citation

Kerber, S. (2006), Evaluation of the Ability of Fire Dynamic Simulator to Simulate Positive Pressure Ventilation in the Laboratory and Practical Scenarios, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=861392 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created April 1, 2006, Updated July 30, 2009