- Author
-
Beard, A. N.
- Title
- Evaluation of Fire Models: Report 4. FIRST: Qualitative Assessment.
- Coporate
- Edinburgh Univ., Scotland
- Report
-
Report 4
January 1990
22 p.
- Keywords
-
fire models
|
evaluation
|
computer models
|
fire risk
|
computer programs
- Identifiers
- FIRST--Fire Simulation Technique
- Abstract
- FIRST: Qualitative Assessment [1] Production of the Model: FIRST has been produced at the Center for Fire Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly NBS), Gaithersburg, U. S. A. It is a development of the final version (Mark 5) in the 'Harvard Code' series of versions of a model originally developed at Harvard University for a single-room fire. 'FIRST' is an acronym for 'Fire Simulation Technique'. 1.1 The only documentation available which is explicitly concerned with FIRST is the users' guide. It is said that FIRST incorporates "numerouc improvements and enrichments" on Mark 5. Reference in (1) is made to earlier documentation, especially (2) and (3). Whilst some account of the differences between FIRST and Mark 5 is given, the precise differences are not always clear. It is stated that analogous documentation to that in reference (3) is being prepared for FIRST. (The stated position as of November 1989, however, is that further documentation on FIRST is not currently being contemplated.) In this report, if an assumption has not been explicitly indicated in reference (1), the implied assumption of reference (3) or (2) has been taken. [2] Availability of the Model: The model FIRST is in the public domain in the U. S. A. and is available from the Center for Fire Research. The cost of obtaining it would be expected to relatively low. [3] State of Development and Support: Work is no longer taking place to develop FIRST (November 1989) although it has been said that it is hoped that work will resume on the model at some time in the future. The model is not 'supported' as such although it may be assumed that staff at the Center for Fire Research would be informally willing to assist with any problems which might arise in using it. [4] Overall Model Type: FIRST is a zone model in which the fire is assumed to produce a gradually descenting upper smoke layer.