Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of a Post-Crash Aircraft Fire Test

Abstract

In this paper the computational fluid dynamics fire-field model SMARTFIRE is used to simulate a full-scale aircraft-cabin fire test conducted within the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration furnished C-133 test facility in order to provide further validation for the software. The experiment involves exposing the interior cabin materials to an external fuel fire, noting the subsequent spread of the external fire to the cabin interior and the onset of flashover, which occurs at approximately 210 s. The computational fluid dynamics fire simulations presented in this study make use of a range of sophisticated sub-models including a flame-spread model, the eddy-dissipation model, a toxicity model, and a multi-ray radiation model. The models’ ability to simulate the fire conditions within the aircraft cabin is demonstrated through its ability to 1) reproduce the measured trends in temperatures and heat fluxes at the seat tops, 2) reproduce toxic gases concentrations at locations of interest, 3) provide a reasonable prediction of the time to flashover (220 s), and 4) produce reasonable agreement with the observed fire dynamics. The predicted time to flashover is shown to be sensitive to material properties such as ignition temperature of seat materials and not very sensitive to the cabin panel thickness.