Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical simulation of fire and smoke transport for an old-style apartment fire

C.S. Lin, T.C. Chen, C.C. Yu,M.E. Wu, Y.H. Tu¹

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan 320, ROC

Structural Longevity 2009, 1(3), 155-162. https://doi.org/10.3970/sl.2009.001.155

Abstract

Most old apartments in Taiwan lack fire prevention equipment, making fire awareness and escape difficult, as well as timely fire fighting, which leads to increased death tolls from fire incidents. This research utilizes Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software to analyze and simulate the fire accident that occurred in a single old-style five-story apartment on Siu-Lang Road, Chung-Ho City. In this event, many occupant vehicles were parked at the front door of the apartment building or in nearby parking lanes. The fire engine can only drive in after vehicles were cleared from the fire area, a situation that delayed emergency fire rescue and resulted in the casualty (1 dead and 7 injured). The computer simulation calculates the distribution of temperature field and smoke field at the fire scene, and is in reasonable agreement with the post report provided by the fire department and media. This study also reestablishes the original fire scenario for fire identification, analyzing the room temperature changes and Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentration field of the primitive fire scene. The simulation results provide parameters that influence personal escape, and suggestions to avoid future unfortunate events.

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Keywords

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