Large Eddy Simulation of Fire Extinction Phenomena

Abstract

The simulation of fire phenomena using classical Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods has made remarkable progress in the past 20 years. However, the occurrence of flame extinction is still a challenge for combustion modeling in general, and for fire modeling in particular. The study is performed using FireFOAM; FireFOAM is an advanced Large Eddy Simulation (LES) fire modeling software developed by FM Global and is based on a general-purpose open-source software called OpenFOAM. A new flame extinction model based on the concept of a critical value of the flame Damk ̈ohler number is incorporated into FireFOAM. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the ability of CFD-based fire models to simulate the effects of flame extinction in two different configurations (under-ventilated compartment fire and turbulent line fire in controlled co-flow, i.e. nitrogen or water-mist). Comparisons between experimental data and numerical results provide a suitable test bed to evaluate the ability of CFD-based fire models to describe the transition from extinction-free conditions to conditions in which the flame experiences partial or total quenching.