Numerical Simulation of Fire Spread on Polyurethane Foam Slabs.
Numerical Simulation of Fire Spread on Polyurethane Foam
Slabs.
(204 K)
Prasad, K. R.; Kramer, R.; Marsh, N.; Nyden, M. R.
Fire and Materials 2009. 11th International Conference.
Conference Papers. Proceedings. Organised by
Interscience Communications Limited. January 26-28,
2009, San Francisco, CA, Interscience Communications
Limited, London, England, 697-708 pp, 2009.
Keywords:
polyurethane foams; fire spread; simulation; material
properties; computational fluid dynamics; experiments;
kinetics; thermal decomposition; cone calorimeters;
pyrolysis; flame spread; nitrogen; temperature; heat
release rate; thermophysical properties; heat flux;
polyols; ignition
Abstract:
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are used
extensively by fire protection engineers for performance
based design and forensic analysis. The equations of
motion describing the gas phase are relatively well
known and the approximations in the various gas phase
sub-models have been extensively studied. However,
coupling of the gas phase and the condensed phase to
describe flame spread over a burning solid, has proven
to be difficult to model. This is due to a lack of
understanding of the underlying physical phenomena that
take place during the decomposition of the solid as well
as poor characterization of the fundamental material
properties that control the burning process. The overall
goal of this project is to improve the capability of the
fire models to predict flame spread over materials that
typically burn in a compartment fire. In this paper, we
attempt to simulate fire growth and spread on 10 cm
thick slabs of polyurethane foam. A multi-layered,
multi-material model was developed to simulate flame
spread, and material properties were obtained from
various small scale experiments. Model predictions were
compared with large scale experiments on polyurethane
foam slabs, ignited on one edge. Results indicate that
the model is capable of qualitatively predicting the
observed trends in heat release rate, flame spread rate
and heat fluxes measured in the experiments. This report
will describe the progress that has been made to date on
modeling fire growth and spread on polyurethane foam
slabs and the comparison of these results with
experimental data.
