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Author
Davis, W. D. | Notarianni, K. A. | McGrattan, K. B.
Title
Comparison of Fire Model Predictions With Experiments Conducted in a Hangar With a Ceiling Height of 14.9 m.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Report
NISTIR 5904, October 1996,
Distribution
Available from National Technical Information Service
Book or Conf
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Annual Conference on Fire Research: Book of Abstracts. October 28-31, 1996, Gaithersburg, MD, 75-76 p., 1996
Keywords
fire research | fire science | aircraft hangars | predictive models | ceiling height | fire models | experiments
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive capabilities of fire models using the results of two fire experiments conducted in an aircraft hangar with a ceiling height of 14.9 m (49 ft.). The fire experiments were conducted at Barbers Point, Hawaii by NIST in conjunction with the United States Navy. This study is designed to investigate fire model applicability at a ceiling height where only a limited amount of experimental data is available. Some earlier efforts to compare computer fire models with experimental data at heights above 14 m include Walton, Duong and Notarianni and Davis. Model predictions compared with the experiments include: plume centerline temperature at the ceiling, temperature, ceiling jet velocity, draft curtain filling and spilling times, temperature variation across the draft curtain and smoke detector activation. The fire models included in the study are the plume correlations of Heskestad and McCaffrey, the ceiling jet correlation of Alpert, the zone models CFAST, FPETool, and LAVENT, and the computational fluid dynamics models (CFD) CFX and LES.