Modeling Fire Growth and Spread in Houses. (Abstract/Presentation/Visuals)

Published

December 1, 2003

Author(s)

Kevin B. McGrattan

Abstract

In cooperation with the fire protection engineering community, a numerical fire model, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), is being developed at NIST to study fire behavior and to evaluate the performance of fire protection systems in buildings. Version 1 of FDS was publicly released in February 2000, and Version 2 in December 2001. To date, about half of the applications of the model have been for design of smoke handling systems and sprinkler/detector activation studies. The other half consist of residential and industrial fire reconstructions. Throughout its early development, FDS had been aimed primarily at the first set of applications, but following the initial release it became clear that some improvements to the fundamental algorithms were needed to address the second set of applications. The two most obvious needs were for better combustion and radiation models to handle large, spreading fires in relatively small spaces like residences as opposed to industrial settings.

Citation

Special Publication (NIST SP) - 998

Report Number

998

NIST Pub Series

Special Publication (NIST SP)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Keywords

fire growth, fire spread, home fires

Citation

McGrattan, K. (2003), Modeling Fire Growth and Spread in Houses. (Abstract/Presentation/Visuals), Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (Accessed March 13, 2025)