Numerical study of vertical compartmentation in compartments in fire situations

Abstract

The occurrence of fires can lead to accidents with high potential, and vertical fire compartmentation is a measure to reduce these incidents. Increasingly, computational numerical analyses play a crucial role in studying fire behavior for control and mitigation. The computational tool Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is one of the main programs aimed at numerically analyzing fire spread. By using the FDS program, this research aims to numerically analyze the effectiveness of using horizontal projection and the combination of horizontal and vertical projections simultaneously, as specified in the Technical Instruction of the Fire Department of the State of São Paulo in combating the propagation of external vertical fire to the facade. Temperature measurements on the compartment facade were used to compare temperatures on the upper floor with the autoignition of material values commonly found in facades. Models with only horizontal projections showed greater effectiveness compared to models with the combinations of projections, mainly due to the presence of the spandrel component, which has a harmful effect on fire propagation. Despite the lower effectiveness of combination models for a fire with a heat release rate of 300 MJ/m², there would be no external vertical fire propagation.

Keywords:
Fire Dynamics Simulator; computational numerical analyses; vertical compartmentation; projections; autoignition of materials