Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The paper deals with the comparison of the first series of measured data in a laboratory shaft model with the results gained by mathematical modeling. By its cross sectional dimensions the half-scale shaft model corresponds to a flat plumbing shaft in residential buildings and its height corresponds to one and a half of a storey approximately. This situation is modeled by the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software using the principles of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The measured and simulated results of temperature, total heat flux and flow velocity distributions for the narrow and tall shaft space are presented. Mutual comparison between laboratory measurement and simulation is provided and discussed. The paper also presents a basic structural solution of plumbing shafts partially related with the experiment and problematic combustible utility cores, including plumbing shaft spaces in older prefabricated blocks of flats in the Czech Republic.