CFD Simulation Evaluation Instruction Document – Fire Safety

The Fire Safety Engineering Community of Practice, an initiative of the Academy of Fire Services of NIPV and FSE professionals from Safety Districts, has developed an aid document for evaluating a CFD fire simulation. This help document is intended to support Safety Zone Consultants in evaluating a CFD fire simulation.

In the Community of Practice for Fire Safety Engineering (CoP FSE), FSE professionals from the Safety Districts and the Academy of Fire Services work together to uniformly share, increase, and apply knowledge and experience about fire safety engineering. CoP FSE was created to develop, share and disseminate knowledge in an accessible manner.

simulation tool

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a simulation tool that makes it possible to calculate turbulent air flows in a room. For example, a CFD fire simulation is used to provide insight into smoke propagation (length of view) and its identification at specific locations within a room. Creating a CFD simulation is complicated. It is therefore important to make a comprehensive assessment of the correct use and quality of the simulation.

Why a help document?

He. She Help document To review CFD simulations Posted October 29, 2021. It arose from the need in the security area business for some direction in CFD fire simulation testing. CFD fire simulation is increasingly used as part of goal-oriented design. It does not work in a rule-oriented manner, but rather is focused on the goal. A potential process for goal-oriented design is described in SFPE Performance Based Fire Protection Engineering Handbook† When operating in a targeted manner, the specific hazards of an activity/building are identified, analyzed and tested in accordance with pre-established evaluation criteria. A CFD fire simulation can be part of the risk assessment.

Choosing the correct starting points for the simulation and the correct interpretation of the simulation output are complex tasks. Simulation evaluation is also complex. For this reason, the help document provides points of attention for the evaluation process, for the targeted approach and offers handles for the objective evaluation of a CFD fire simulation.

Help Document Content

The help document consists of the following parts:

  • points of interest for the operation.
  • Points of interest for objective assessment are divided into:
  1. Calculation of the objective, method and test criteria.
  2. CFD software package.
  3. Input into the form.
  4. output / result.

Points to pay attention to in connection with the operation include issues such as determining which points to coordinate with the security area before running the simulation. This also includes that it should be clear in advance what the simulation objective is, what testing criteria are applied and whether a CFD fire simulation is the best way to demonstrate that objective and test criteria are met.

Points to pay attention to in an objective evaluation are, for example, that it must be checked whether the software package has been validated for the application for which it was used. Things like fire development and spread, controlled fires with a high degree of oxygen, and the interaction of water with fire cannot be calculated reliably using CFD software. Points of interest and tips for determining the firepower curve and number of scenarios/variables required to obtain a reliable result are also provided. Often these two things strongly determine the outcome of the calculation.

In the end, the help document became 25 pages long. This size also does justice to the complexity of creating a CFD fire simulation. The scale also immediately shows how many different things you should pay attention to when running a CFD fire simulation.

Further development of the help document

The current help document is the first set of points to pay attention to and advice collected by FSE professionals from the regions during the daily practice of CFD simulation evaluation. It is certain that the help document is not yet out and has been granted “Permanent Trial” status. This means that it is constantly evolving. This also fits with the ongoing development of CFD fire simulation software.

We would like to hear from the security areas how the document works in practice. We’d also love to hear from our consultants what they think of the help document. Questions, comments and additions to the document can be sent via e-mail: [email protected]. CoP FSE ensures that this document remains up to date.

Arjen Barreveld, Haaglanden Security District

Jean-Michel Bellos, Twente Security District

Rod van Limped, NIPV

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