Effects of PPV Attack on Thermal Conditions in a Compartment Downstream of a Fire

Abstract

There have been relatively few technical studies conducted on the effects of PPV on compartments downstream of the fire. Live fire tests in an acquired house were conducted in order to study the effect of PPV attack on the thermal environment downwind of the fire. Temperature measurements were made using 40 thermocouples located in a fire room, hallway, and downstream room referred to as “the victim room”. Video camera and infrared camera images were taken in several locations to visually record the progress of the fire and firefighting. A total of eleven cases are reported in this study. These cases correspond to three different fan configurations: no fan, a 45.7 cm (18″) diameter fan with a volumetric output of 3.06 m3/s (6,500 CFM), and a 61 cm (24″) diameter fan with a volumetric output of 4.31 m3/s (9,130 CFM). Two venting strategies were used: venting the fire room and venting the victim room. Fluctuations in environmental factors such as wind and the inherent statistical variation common in fire testing made it difficult to draw many absolute conclusions. In general, however, we found that cases with fire room venting and fan application had somewhat higher fire room or hallway temperatures when compared to cases without fan application. We also found that cases with victim room venting and fan application resulted in higher gas temperatures in the victim room at the higher elevations than both fire room vented cases and cases without fan application.