Numerical simulation of dormitory building fire and personnel escape based on Pyrosim and Pathfinder

Abstract

To analyze the fire risk in dormitory buildings, one dormitory of a university was taken as the subject to build a model using Pyrosim. This paper has analyzed the temperature, visibility, smoke layer height, heat flow, and smoke movement with all windows and doors opened and compared these with conditions when the fire origin room had closed windows. The results show that, with all windows opened, the highest temperature area is the fire origin room and the fire floor temperature is higher than the other floors. The closer to the fire source, the lower the visibility. With window closed, the fire origin room temperature and heat flow are much higher than with window open while the smoke layer height is much lower. Horizontal corridors and stairs are more seriously influenced by the smoke. When all windows are opened, rooms above are more seriously influenced by the smoke. Pathfinder simulation results show that the best time to escape is within 164.8s. In order not to affect the safety of personnel evacuation, the width of exit doors should be no less than 3 m and stair width should be no less than 1.75 m.