Effect of ventilation ducts on smoke spread between two adjacent cabins arranged along a corridor: An experimental and numerical investigation

Abstract

When a fire occurs onboard a ship, ventilation ducts may become hidden pathways for smoke to spread, and this issue has long attracted attention in the industry. In this paper, an experimental and numerical investigation on the smoke movement and indoor temperature characteristics were carried out. The results show that under the effect of thermal buoyancy, ducts with the openings located on the ceiling can easily become pathways for smoke to spread across the cabins. Compared with the scenario where the ducts are removed, the smoke jets from the ducts make the smoke movement in the adjacent cabin more complicated, and the maximum temperature in the cabin is also significantly increased. Moreover, it is found that the mass flow rate (MFR) of the gas in the duct is mainly determined by the pressure difference Δp between the two ends of the duct, and the MFR increases linearly with the increase of Aflow(2Δp)1/2, but its maximum value is limited by the cross-sectional area of the duct. The research results will help to better understand the cross-compartment smoke spread under the effect of ventilation ducts and serve as a reference for the quantitative evaluation of the smoke flow in ducts.