EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION FOR AN ITEM-TOITEM FIRE SPREAD SUBMODEL

摘要

Research is underway to develop a new design tool that addresses risk and uncertainty usingnumerical simulation techniques with an existing deterministic fire zone model. Part of the project is todevelop a submodel that predicts when secondary fuel objects in a compartment will ignite due toradiation from the initial burning item, radiation from the smoke layer and radiation from the hotboundaries. The fire spread submodel is in turn part of a probabilistic “design fire generator” thatprovides inputs for the deterministic fire model. After a brief introduction to the theoretical basis, thepaper describes a programme of experimental validation for the submodel. The experiments were carriedout in a standard ISO 9705 Room enclosure using a propane burner and hydrocarbon pool fires to validateboth the radiation and ignition predictions made by the submodel. Both incident radiation and auto andpiloted time-to-ignition for upholstered furniture samples were measured. Using the experimental heatrelease rate data in the zone model, good agreement was found between the laboratory measurements andthe theoretical predictions of the submodel, thus demonstrating its capability.