Zonal turbulence modeling approach for simulating compartment fire for initial hazard assessment

Abstract

The flow field driven by a compartment fire usually contains several flow zones with different physical structures. As each type of turbulence model has its own predominant application area, it is logical to apply two or more simple turbulence models to the same fire-induced flow field at different locations according to their predominant features to yield a comparatively simple, accurate, and stable zonal turbulence model. A zonal turbulence model, which is a hybrid of the standard k-ε model and its modification, is developed in this paper. The model is tested and compared with the experimental data. A promising improvement is observed when comparing it with the base turbulence model, i.e., the standard k-ε model, especially in the recirculating region near the corners of the compartment. This approach in having different zones in the plume region will be useful for handling more scenarios at the initial stage of fire hazard assessments.