• Fire Protection Technology
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• s.22
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• pp.9-16
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• 1997

This paper has two objectives. One is to introduce a software package, "FASTLite" for fire safety engineering calculation, the other to show the modeling result of a backdraft incident on the 62 WATTS street. A classic backdraft usually persists only seconds before exhausting their fuel supply but in this case the flame had persists for at least 6 and a half minutes. It is truly necessary to find out where the fuel came from to feed this flame for so long. The backdraft is successfully modelled by using FASTLite. To help understanding of this backdraft, the calculation with the door open is also carried out and compared to the backdraft.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.6-10
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• 2013

A numerical reproducibility of the backdraft phenomena in a compartment was investigated. The prediction performance of two combustion models, the mixture fraction and finite chemistry models, were tested for the backdraft phenomena using the FDS code developed by the NIST. The mixture fraction model could not predict the flame propagation in a fuel-air mixture as well as the backdraft phenomena. However, the finite chemistry model predicted the flame propagation in the mixture inside a tube reasonably. In addition, the finite chemistry model predicted well the backdraft phenomena in a compartment qualitatively. The flame propagation inside the compartment, fuel and oxygen distribution and explosive fire ball behavior were well simulated with the finite chemistry model. It showed that the FDS adopted with the finite chemistry model can be an effective simulation tool for the investigation of backdraft in a compartment.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.48-54
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• 2019

A Large Eddy Simulation (LES), adopting the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) 1-step model, was successfully performed for backdraft phenomena. The activation energy of the finite chemistry reaction in the EDC 1-step model was adjusted to simulate the backdraft. The prediction of the EDC 1-step model was similar to that of the Mixing-Controlled Fast Chemistry (MCFC) model, except when the backdraft occurred. The EDC 1-step model could be used to simulate the experimental peak pressure, but not the first peak pressure of the backdraft.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2019

Mixing characteristics and backdraft dynamics were investigated using large eddy simulation for compartments initially filled with methane fuel. Four different opening geometries, i.e. conventional door opening case (Door) and the cases where horizontal door was implemented on the upper ($Slot_U$), middle ($Slot_M$) and lower part ($Slot_L$) of side wall, were considered in the simulations. For cases without ignition, the amounts of inflow oxygen and outflow fuel from the compartment opening were, from largest to smallest, Door > $Slot_U$ ~ $Slot_M$ > $Slot_L$. However, the fuel and oxygen were the best mixed for the $Slot_U$ case while the fuel and oxygen were not well mixed and in relatively separated two layers for the $Slot_L$ case. The global equivalence ratio defined by the amounts of fuel and oxygen in the compartment was not correlated reasonably with the peak pressure of backdraft. The peak pressure during backdraft was the highest for the $Slot_U$ case, a well mixed condition of fuel and air, and backdraft was not found for the $Slot_L$ where the pressure rise was not so high due to the mixing status. The peak pressures for the Door and $Slot_M$ cases were in between Door and $Slot_L$ cases. The peak pressure during backdraft was well correlated with the total amount of heat release until the instance of backdraft occurrence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

The behavior of backdraft in the compartment with different ignition locations and times was numerically investigated. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) v5.5.3 with a model-free simulation option was used in the numerical simulation of backdraft. The ignition source was located near the inside wall, at the compartment center and near the window opening, respectively. The ignition was started at the instance when the fresh air reached the ignition location or when a sufficient time passed compare to the instance of the arriving of the fresh air to the ignition location. As a result, for the ignition source was located near the inside wall, a strong fire ball was observed at once and the result was similar to the previous experimental result. For the ignition source was located at the center of the compartment, a strong fire ball was occurred and two strong fire balls were observed consecutively for the ignition time was delayed. For the ignition source was located near the window opening and longer time was given for the ignition compare the duration of the fresh air arriving to the ignition location, the rapid temperature variation was not observed because there was no flame. However, for the ignition was started at the instance when the fresh air reached the ignition location, the ignition could be initiated and a intensive fire ball was observed. The pressure measured at the upper inside part of the window opening provided a similar trend with the previous experimental result of compartment backdraft.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.35-42
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• 2017

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) was peformed for the backdraft occurred in a compartment filled with high-temperature methane fuel using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) of version 6. The prediction performance of FDS, adopted the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) combustion model with five different chemical reaction mechanisms, was evaluated. The temporal distributions of temperature, fuel mass fraction, velocity and pressure were discussed with numerical results and the pressure variation in time was compared with that of previous experiment. The FDS adopted the EDC model showed the possibility of LES for the backdraft phenomena. However, the prediction performance of the LES with EDC model strongly depended on the chemical reaction mechanism considered. It is necessary that the suitability of the chemical reaction mechanism should be validated in advance for LES with the FDS v6 to be applied to the simulation of backdraft.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.60-61
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• 2013

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.91-92
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• 2013

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.29-42
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• 1998

The use of computer supported fire safety engineering calculations has grown significantly in recent years and will be increased rapidly. In this study, in order to examine for fire dynamics of the enclosed compartment with window glass(3mm, 4mm thickness) when the window glass breaks, we conducted numerical computer simulations about foam sofa fire with the zone type computer mode, FASTLite package(version 1.1.2) and the Berkeley algorithm for breaking window glass in a compartment fire, BREAK1 program (version 1.0). The analysis of the results in this paper shows that there are differences of fire dynamics between open-or enclosed-state compartment fire and the enclosed compartment fire with window glass breaking. It is also shown in this study that backdraft phenomenum occurs due to accumulated unburned combustible fuel when the glass of 4mm thickness breaks, and that temperature differences between the inner-and outer-surfaces of 3mm and 4mm thick glasses are appreciable. This study will help fire fighter to establish fire suppression or occupant's refuge strategies and fire safety engineer to enhance simulation techniques about the five dynamics of compartment fire.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.18-25
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• 2015

Computational study of a gravity current prior to the backdraft was conducted using fire dynamic simulator (FDS). Various initial conditions of mixture compositions and compartment temperature as well as four opening geometries (Horizontal, Door, Vertical, and Full opening) were considered to figure out their effects on the gravity current. The density difference ratio (${\beta}$) between inside and outside of compartment, the gravity current time ($t_{grav}$) and velocity ($v_{grav}$), and non-dimensional velocity ($v^*$) were introduced to quantify the flow characteristics of the gravity current. Overall fluid structure of the gravity current at the fixed opening geometry showed similar development process for different ${\beta}$ conditions. However, $t_{grav}$ for entering air to reach the opposed wall to the opening geometry increased with ${\beta}$. Door, Vertical, and Horizontal openings where openings are attached on the ground showed similar development process of the gravity current except for Horizontal opening, which located on the middle of the opening wall. The magnitude of $v_{grav}$ at fixed ${\beta}$ was, from largest to smallest, Full > Vertical > Door > Horizontal, but it depended on both the size and location of the opening. On the other hand, $v^*$ was found to be independent to ${\beta}$, and only depended on the geometry of the opening.