Simultaneous pool fires Modeling Using Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS)

Fire is the most likely type of accident which occurs both in municipal areas and industrial units. Among all different types of fire, pool fire is the most frequent one, so there are extensive researches done about pool fire. One of the research fields that has drawn a lot of attention in theseyears, is pool fire modeling. Fire modeling is a complex process and this complexity increases when simultaneous pool fires take place. There are a considerable number of accidents in the past,in which more than one single pool fire has occurred [1]. Occurrence of more than one pool fire at once makes the modeling hard and also the consequences worse. In the recent years Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models have been applied to overcome this complexity. Using CFD models is one of the most advanced techniques for fire simulation and modeling; in this paper Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a well-known CFD software has been used to simulate simultaneous fire scenario for several cases studies. Influence of adjacent fires on other firedynamic and growth has been investigated by modeling simultaneous fire scenario in adjacent fuel tanks. Heat Release Rate, temperature and velocity profiles has been provided as main outputs of simulation. Based on the simulation results, amount of mass burning rate, Radiation energy andpool fire height were significantly higher in multiple fires. Moreover, the effects of grid sizes on the predicted radiative characteristics involved in a multiple pool fire, using CFD simulations, with the aim of selecting the appropriate grid size under the consideration of prediction accuracy andcomputing cost, has been investigated. The grid size suggested in this paper can assist the CFDsimulators of multiple pool fires in obtaining the accurate enough predictions with reasonable computing time.

Keywords:

Pool Fire , Multiple Pool Fire , modeling , CFD , FDS