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Large eddy simulation of room fire spread using a medium scale compartment made of medium density fibreboard (MDF) panels

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  • Indoor/Outdoor Airflow and Air Quality
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Abstract

At present, there is a shortage of experimental and simulation studies on fire spread in medium- and large-scale compartments while the existing models of the fire spread are limited for typical engineering applications. This paper proposes a new model for large-scale fire spread on medium density fibreboard (MDF) panels. Validating the model with single burning item (SBI) experiments, it is found that the numerical simulation closely predicts the experimental heat release rate (HRR) with some error near the peak. The predicted heat flux and distance of lateral flame spread are consistent with the experiments and an existing model. The effects of kinetic properties and heat of combustion are identified through a sensitivity analysis. The decrease of activation energy and increase of pre-exponential factor make the MDF easier to pyrolyze and the increase of heat of combustion enhances the flame temperature and thus provide more heat feedback to the sample surface. The low activation energy (71.9 kJ/mol) and high heat of combustion (46.5 MJ/kg) of the model ensure the occurrence of flame spread. Furthermore, the model was validated using medium-scale compartment fire experiments and the results showed that the model can accurately predict the HRR after flashover (the error is within 7%). While the burner is ignited, the predictions of in-compartment gas temperature and heat flux are more accurate. However, when the burner is extinguished, the modelled in-compartment gas temperature is lower than the experimental values, resulting in a lower heat flux prediction. The model leads to easier flame spread; therefore, the modelled flame spreads faster in the compartment compared to the experiment, and thus the HRR increases more rapidly.

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Abbreviations

A :

pre-exponential factor (s−1)

A W :

water pre-exponential factor (s−1)

a eff.c :

char MDF effective absorptivity

a eff.v :

virgin MDF effective absorptivity

a eff.w :

water effective absorptivity

C :

empirical coefficient for natural convection

c p.c :

char MDF specific heat capacity (J·kg−1·K−1)

c p.v :

virgin MDF specific heat capacity (J·kg−1·K−1)

c p.w :

water specific heat capacity (J·kg−1·K−1)

DTG:

derivative thermogravimetry

E :

activation energy (J·mol−1)

E a :

activation energy (J·mol−1)

E a.w :

water activation energy (J·mol−1)

H pyr :

heat of pyrolysis (J·kg−1)

Δh f,α :

enthalpy of formation (heat of combustion)

ΔH MDF :

MDF material heat of combustion (J·kg−1)

ΔHpropane :

heat of combustion of propane (46.45 MJ·kg−1)

h :

convective heat transfer coefficient

k :

thermal conductivity of the gas

L :

characteristic length related to the size of the physical obstruction

LES:

large eddy simulation

ṁ ″MDF :

original mass flux of pyrolysis gas of MDF plate (kg·s−1)

ṁ ″panel :

adjusted mass flux of pyrolysis gas (propane) in numerical

ṁ ‴ α :

mass yield per unit volume of lumped material

Nu :

Nusselt number

n :

reaction order

n w :

water reaction order

δn :

normal grid spacing

\(\dot q_{\rm{c}}^{\prime \prime }\) :

convective flux

\({\dot q^{\prime \prime \prime }}\) :

heat release rate per unit volume

T g :

gas temperature in the center of the first gas phase cell

T w :

wall surface temperature

X rad :

radiant fraction of chemical HRR

α :

conversion rates

Δ :

LES filter size (m)

ε :

emissivity

ε eff.c :

char MDF effective emissivity

ε eff.v :

virgin MDF effective emissivity

ε eff.w :

water effective emissivity

λ :

thermal conductivity (W·m−1·K−1)

λ c :

char MDF thermal conductivity (W·m−1·K−1)

λ v :

virgin MDF thermal conductivity (W·m−1·K−1)

λ w :

water thermal conductivity (W·m−1·K−1)

ρ :

panel density (kg·m−3)

ρ c :

char MDF panel density (kg·m−3)

ρ v :

virgin MDF panel density (kg·m−3)

ρ w :

water density (kg·m−3)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research & Development (R&D) Plan of China under (No. 2020YFC 1522800) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51876148) and the Science and Technology Project of State Grid Anhui Electric Corporation of China (No. 52120518001S).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Luoshi Road 122, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Jiayidaer Baolati, Kaiyuan Li & Yanyan Zou

  2. BRANZ, Private Bag 50 908, Porirua, 5240, New Zealand

    Kevin Frank & George Hare

  3. Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Anhui Electric Power Co. LTD, Hefei, 230601, China

    Jiaqing Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China

    Fanliang Ge

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  1. Jiayidaer Baolati
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  2. Kaiyuan Li
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Correspondence to Kaiyuan Li or Yanyan Zou.

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Large eddy simulation of room fire spread using a medium scale compartment made of medium density fibreboard (MDF) panels

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Baolati, J., Li, K., Zou, Y. et al. Large eddy simulation of room fire spread using a medium scale compartment made of medium density fibreboard (MDF) panels. Build. Simul. 15, 495–510 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-021-0822-7

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