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Fire Dynamics Simulator (Version 5): User's Guide

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. Preface The use of fire models currently extends beyond the fire research laboratories and into the engineering, fire service and legal communities. Surveys [1, 2] of available fire models show a significant increase in number over the last decade. Sufficient evaluation of any model is necessary to ensure that users can judge the adequacy of its technical basis, appropriateness of its use, and confidence level of its predictions. This document provides the theoretical basis for the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and a summary of the work performed to evaluate the model. This guide is based in part on the " Standard Guide for Evaluating the Predictive Capability of De-terministic Fire Models, " ASTM E 1355 [3]. ASTM E 1355 defines model evaluation as " the process of quantifying the accuracy of chosen results from a model when applied for a specific use. " The model evaluation process consists of two main components: verification and validation. Verification is a process to check the correctness of the solution of the governing equations. Verification does not imply that the governing equations are appropriate; only that the equations are being solved correctly. Validation is a process to determine the appropriateness of the governing equations as a mathematical model of the physical phenomena of interest. Typically, validation involves comparing model results with experimental measurement. Differences that cannot be explained in terms of numerical errors in the model or uncertainty in the measurements are attributed to the assumptions and simplifications of the physical model. Evaluation is critical to establishing both the acceptable uses and limitations of a model. Throughout its development, FDS has undergone various forms of evaluation, both at NIST and beyond. This guide provides a survey of work conducted to date to evaluate FDS. Roughly half of the referenced studies were aimed primarily at model evaluation, the other half describe limited work to validate FDS for a specific use. The latter group were performed mostly by practicing engineers who did not have the time or resources to comprehensively evaluate the model. Collectively, the body …

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Fire dynamics simulator (Version 3) - Technical reference guide

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations that include realistic combustion/emissions chemistry hold the promise of significantly shortening the development time for advanced high-efficiency, low-emission engines. However, significant challenges must be overcome to realize this potential. This paper discusses these challenges in the context of diesel combustion and outlines a technical program based on the use of surrogate fuels that sufficiently emulate the chemical complexity inherent in conventional diesel fuel. The essential components of such a program are discussed and include: (a) surrogate component selection; (b) the acquisition or estimation of requisite elementary chemical kinetic, thermochemical, and physical property data; (c) the development of accurate predictive chemical kinetic models, together with the measurement of the necessary fundamental laboratory data to validate these mechanisms; and (d) mechanism reduction tools to render the coupled chemistry/flow calculations feasible. In parallel to these efforts, the need exists to develop similarly robust models for fuel injection and spray processes involving multicomponent mixtures of wide distillation character, as well as methodologies to include all of these high fidelity submodels in computationally efficient CFD tools. Near- and longerterm research plans are proposed based on an application target of premixed diesel combustion. In the near term, the recommended surrogate components include n-decane, iso-octane, methylcyclohexane, and toluene. For the longer term, n-hexadecane, heptamethylnonane, n-decylbenzene, and 1-methylnaphthalene are proposed.

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Development of an Experimental Database and Kinetic Models for Surrogate Diesel Fuels

The experimental evaluation of a methodology for surrogate fuel formulation to emulate gas phase combustion kinetic phenomena

Experimental and numerical studies are carried out to develop a surrogate that can reproduce selected aspects of combustion of kerosene. Jet fuels, in particular Jet-A1, Jet-A, and JP-8 are kerosene type fuels. Surrogate fuels are defined as mixtures of few hydrocarbon compounds with combustion characteristics similar to those of commercial fuels. A mixture of n-decane 80% and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene 20% by weight, called the Aachen surrogate, is selected for consideration as a possible surrogate of kerosene. Experiments are carried out employing the counterflow configuration. The fuels tested are kerosene and the Aachen surrogate. Critical conditions of extinction, autoignition, and volume fraction of soot measured in laminar non premixed flows burning the Aachen surrogate are found to be similar to those in flames burning kerosene. A chemical-kinetic mechanism is developed to describe the combustion of the Aachen surrogate. This mechanism is assembled using previously developed chemical-kinetic mechanisms for the components: n-decane and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene. Improvements are made to the previously developed chemical-kinetic mechanism for n-decane. The combined mechanisms are validated using experimental data obtained from shock tubes, rapid compression machines, jet stirred reactor, burner stabilized premixed flames, and a freely propagating premixed flame. Numerical calculations are performed using the chemical-kinetic mechanism for the Aachen surrogate. The calculated values of the critical conditions of autoignition and soot volume fraction agree well with experimental data. The present study shows that the chemical-kinetic mechanism for the Aachen surrogate can be employed to predict non premixed combustion of kerosene.

A surrogate fuel for kerosene

Turbulence statistics in a fire room model by large eddy simulation

Advanced fire detection using multi-signature alarm algorithms *

An experimental investigation has been completed which examined the breaking of window glass by fire. The experiments were carried out in a compartment designed to achieve a two-layer fire environm...

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An Experimental Investigation of Glass Breakage in Compartment Fires

A gas stream with a reduced oxygen concentration relative to ambient air is used to vaporize a liquid fuel or liquefied higher hydrocarbon gas, or is mixed with a vaporized gas, and the reduced oxygen vaporized fuel gas is fed to a combustion device such as a premixed or diffusion combustor. Preferably, the oxygen content of the gas stream is less than the limiting oxygen index. By mixing the fuel with a gas stream that has an appropriately reduced oxygen content, auto-ignition prior to the desired flame location in the combustor can be avoided. In some embodiments, the reduced oxygen stream is generated from an air separator or taken from the exhaust of the combustion device.

System for vaporization of liquid fuels for combustion and method of use

It is known that many of the previously published global methane oxidation mechanisms used in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes do not accurately predict CH{sub 4} and CO concentrations under typical lean-premixed combustion turbine operating conditions. In an effort to improve the accuracy of the global oxidation mechanism under these conditions, an optimization method for selectively adjusting the reaction rate parameters of the global mechanisms (e.g., pre-exponential factor, activation temperature, and species concentration exponents) using chemical reactor modeling is developed herein. Traditional global mechanisms involve only hydrocarbon oxidation; that is, they do not allow for the prediction of NO directly from the kinetic mechanism. In this work, a two-step global mechanism for NO formation is proposed to be used in combination with a three-step oxidation mechanism. The resulting five-step global mechanism can be used with CFD codes to predict CO, CO{sub 2}, and NO emission directly. Results of the global mechanism optimization method are shown for a pressure of 1 atmosphere and for pressures of interest for gas turbine engines. CFD results showing predicted CO and NO emissions using the five-step global mechanism developed for elevated pressures are presented and compared to measured data.

Richard J. Roby

Papers

Turbulence statistics in a fire room model by large eddy simulation

Advanced fire detection using multi-signature alarm algorithms *

An Experimental Investigation of Glass Breakage in Compartment Fires

System for vaporization of liquid fuels for combustion and method of use

Development of a five-step global methane oxidation-NO formation mechanism for lean-premixed gas turbine combustion