Backdraft experiments and large eddy simulations in a scaled compartment

Abstract

An extensive set of backdraft experiments has been performed at the NIST National Fire Research Laboratory. These experiments were conducted in a reduced scale compartment, and are part of defining the conditions conducive to backdraft. Further, the detailed chemistry and heat measurements are intended to evaluate computational fire models. In this article, we describe the modeling effort employing the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) in simulations involving different fuels and ignition source locations mirroring a subset of the named experiments. We focus on using default simulation parameters and study their effect on the backdraft outcomes. In particular, the ignition model’s temperature threshold and ignition procedure play a primary role in developing a backdraft.