Dynamic design of hazardous chemical storage in high-rise R&D building based on numerical simulation

Abstract

With the increasing demand for research on hazardous chemicals in high-rise research and development (R&D) buildings, the use of a large number of flammable chemicals increases the fire risk significantly. Therefore, the research on the storage of hazardous chemicals in high-rise R&D buildings becomes more and more important. This paper presents a maximum dynamic design method for hazardous chemical storage. A set of fire risk indicators has been established in the research, including temperature, carbon monoxide concentration, and visibility. The representative hazardous chemicals are selected through the investigation of the distribution and quantity of hazardous chemicals. Through numerical simulation of high-rise building fire with different stocks of dangerous chemicals and evacuation simulation of different fire floors, the time when the risk factors of fire occurrence reach the critical threshold of human body (ASET) and the necessary time for human evacuation (RSET) are obtained. By adjusting the amount of hazardous chemicals stored, the time to reach the hazardous critical threshold (RSET) and the time to evacuate (ASET) are changed accordingly. When RSET < ASET, the storage capacity of hazardous chemicals in the high-rise R&D building meets the target requirements. In the case study, ethanol was selected as the representative substance, and numerical simulation and example calculation were carried out on a 16-story R&D building. The amount of ethanol stored on each floor was calculated. Among them, the eighth layer has the largest ethanol storage capacity (1.81 L/m2) and the ninth layer has the smallest ethanol storage capacity (0.89 L/m2).