- Author
- Hamins, A. | Johnsson, E. L. | Donnelly, M. K. | Maranghides, A.
- Title
- Energy Balance in a Large Compartment Fire.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 43, No. 3, 180-188, April 2008
- Sponsor
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
- Keywords
- compartment fires | energy balance | experiments | computational fluid dynamics | validation | fire models | equations | temperature | heat release rate | calorimetry | oxygen consumption | heat loss | walls | ceilings | floors | mass flux | heat flux | gas temperature | enthalpy | heat loss | doorways
- Identifiers
- location of thermocouple trees; fuel delivery system and fire; gas temperatures and layer height; heat loss to surfaces; Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS); doorway flows; heat loss to compartment surfaces
- Abstract
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are collaborating to assess and validate fire computer codes for nuclear power plant applications. This evaluation is being conducted through a series of benchmarking and validation exercises. The goal of the present study was to provide data from a large-scale fire test of a simulated nuclear power plant cable room. The experiments consisted of a hydrocarbon spray fire with a 1 MW heat release rate, burning in a single compartment 7 m wide, 22 m long, and 4 m high. Measurements included the vertical temperature profiles, heat flux to the compartment surfaces, the velocity and temperature at the compartment doorway, and the total heat release rate. From these measurements, an energy balance was considered, in which it was determined that nearly 74% of the fire's energy went to heat compartment surfaces, 22% escaped through the doorway, and 4% heated gases in the compartment.