Experimental and Numerical Study of Smoke Plumes in Stable Thermally Stratified Environments

ABSTRACT: To get more information about early smoke movement in thermally stratified environments in large-volume spaces, a detailed study of low density and big density smoke plumes in thermally stratified environments in a small-scale enclosure was undertaken by means of experimental mea-surement and CFD simulation. The reasonably good agreement between the experimental results and the simulated results indicates that a thermally stratified environment intensifies the decrease of the axial temperature and velocity of a fire smoke plume with height until the upward plume movement terminates at a certain height. Comparisons of the maximum plume heights measured experimentally and integral equation results showed that the integral equation underestimates the actual maximum heights of fire smoke plumes, and is also unable to predict the smoke density influences upon the maximum heights. The previous available integral model should be improved for better applications in real fire situations. KEY WORDS: fire smoke plume, thermally stratified environments, integral model, FDS, smoke density, maximum height