Fire dynamics simulations of buoyant diffusion flames stabilized on a slot burner

Abstract

In recent years fire dynamics simulator (FDS) [1,2], a CFD model for buoyancy-driven flames developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been used in simulations of numerous fire scenarios and buoyancy-driven flows. FDS is based on a set of equations describing the behavior of thermally driven buoyant flows proposed by Rehm and Baum [3]. Validation of the various submodels in FDS has been performed using small-scale round plumes [4], small and large round pool fires [4–7], rectangular pool fires [8,9], and vertical wall fires [8]. Based on the confidence gained in these validation studies and also by a rapidly growing practical applications base, FDS has been applied to practical considerations of room airflows [10], fire and smoke behavior in large building fires including the World Trade Center fires [11], compartment fires [12,13], oil pool fire in a containment test facility [14], and tunnel fires [15]. To the best of our knowledge, FDS has not been used to simulate linear buoyant fire sources like line fires and slot burner flames. Fires above twodimensional fuel sources are important in some practical fires scenarios such as forest fires and wall fires. For round plumes and flames, 3D simulations were found to be necessary for capturing the mixing behavior, which was grossly underpredicted by the 2D simulations [4]. Given the two-dimensional source geometry, whether two-dimensional mixing considerations are adequate is an interesting question.