Full-scale experimental and numerical study of smoke spread characteristics in a long-closed channel with one lateral opening

Abstract

This paper aims to study the characteristics of smoke flow in a long-closed channel with one lateral opening at one end. A series of full-scale experiments with different longitudinal positions and heat release rates of fire sources were carried out. And, the corresponding numerical simulations were conducted to help explain the law of smoke flow field. The characteristics of the smoke spread on both sides of the fire source, the thermal plume distribution within the channel, and the maximum ceiling excess temperature were analyzed. Results show that the existence of the end walls in the long channel causes the smoke to accumulate, which further results in the smoke settlement going through three stages. The lateral opening causes a significant difference of smoke flow and other characteristics from the channel with both ends open. When the fire source approaches the closed end without opening, the vertical fire-induced plume inclines to the closed end because of the asymmetrical air supplementation. Due to the limited air supply, the combustion will change to ventilation-controlled as the fire source heat release rate increases. The maximum ceiling excess temperature is higher than that with both ends open and is basically not influenced by fire positions studied in this work. It has been verified that the dimensionless maximum ceiling excess temperature of the smoke is also proportional to the dimensionless heat release rate. This study can provide a reference for fire prevention and smoke exhaust strategies for long channels.