Computer simulation of the King’s Cross fire: effect of radiative heat transfer on fire spread

A mathematical model has been applied to simulate model experiments of the 1987 King’s Cross undergroundjire by the Department of Health and Safety Executive. The predicted growth of thejire is compared with the experimental data and in particular the predicted and measured times to pashover ’ are compared. The comparisons show exceptional agreement which, in part, may befortuitous due to the need to facilitate the prediction of the early stages of the growth with the aid of an experimentally estimatedjire strength. The good agreement nonetheless is also due to the full description of the radiation transfer which is a feature of the mathematical model. I t is concluded that theflashover phenomenon that occurred at King’s Cross was thermal radiation driven and that future research should be devoted to modelling the details ofjire spread across a combustible surface