Chemfire : a zone model for predicting chemical effects of pool fire in a single forced ventilation enclosure

Abstract : Zone models have been developed since the early 60s for the prediction of fire parameters such as smoke temperature, smoke filling and movement in multi-compartment buildings. Unfortunately, one major difficulty in current zone models is that heat and chemical species release rates in relation with a given fire source term are usually to be provided as input data. A new zone model for prediction of thermal and chemical effects of pool fire in a forced ventilated enclosure has been developed. The novelty of the approach relies in particular on the provision of three sub-models that are used for reducing the number of input data needed for a given simulation. The burning rate history of liquid pool fire is calculated from a vaporisation sub-model. A solid flame sub-model is used for predicting radiative properties of flame. Yields of chemical species are estimated from a dedicated sub-model of combustion. This zone model has received some validation for use in forced ventilated enclosures only. Promising results have been obtained.