Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

This paper presents a numerical exercise to investigate the effect of computation domain on simulation of compartment fires. Fire Dynamics Simulator was used to model steady state propane fires in a small compartment. The computation domain varied with its boundary set at the compartment wall containing an opening and extended beyond the wall at various distances. Simulations were conducted with different vent opening sizes and heat release rates. Both fuel controlled and ventilation controlled fire scenarios were investigated. The grid dependence and domain dependence were cross checked. It was demonstrated that there were significant differences in the predicted parameters between the domains with extensions and those without. Recommendations are provided on the basis of the current study for domain selection for the simulation of compartment fires.