Predicting Spill Plumes with the Fire Risk Zone Model B-RISK

Abstract

Recent experimental research on spill plume entrainment has developed a range of empirically-based formulae for smoke management design. These formulae form the spill plume entrainment model in B-RISK, a new fire risk zone model. This article describes the performance of B-RISK in predicting spill plume entrainment. Selected experimental data from the series of reduced-scale experiments used to form the new design formulae have been used for model validation, along with other full-scale experimental data from ‘hot smoke tests’ conducted to assess the performance of installed smoke management systems. B-RISK provides predictions of the plume clear-layer height that generally agree with experimental results within the range of experimental error. This gives confidence in its use to predict spill plume entrainment for smoke management design purposes.