Development of a smoke prediction model using numerical simulations

Abstract

Conducting a full-scale fire test is the best way to acquire information regarding smoke and fire conditions for the purpose of fire safety protection and prevention installation. However, a full-scale fire experiment is expensive, time consuming and unrepeatable due to the unstable nature of fire. The main goal of this study was to develop a quantitative tool to analyse the smoke temperature in a stairway by utilising a fire dynamic simulator software. A result of this study provides mathematical correlation that could predict temperatures in adjacent vertical shafts used as a stairway which is useful in performance based design. The smoke temperature predicted using the developed model compared with numerical data showed errors less than 30% were considered satisfactory and the equation considered acceptable for this study.