Numerical studies on fire-induced flow in a highrise residential building

In contrast to commercial buildings, most of the local highrise residential buildings are designed with openable windows. In case a fire occurs in such a flat with windows opened, convection due to hot indoor smoke and cool outdoor air would take place in regions near the windows. Numerical studies on the fire-induced air velocity, temperature, and pressure fields under steady burning in a highrise building are reported in this paper. A high building with 12 rooms (four storeys and three rows) of length 5 m, width 12 m, and height 15.2 m was considered. Every room is of length 5 m, width 4 m, and height 3.8 m. To allow complete development of the flow at the opening, the computational domain was extended 4 m in length, 2 m in width on both sides, and 5.5 m in height outside the building. A fire of size 0.83 m by 1.2 m by 0.4 m and of constant heat release rate was located. The technique of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used. Effects of hot air moving out of a compartment on its adjacent upper level were studied by simulating the amount of hot air moving in and the resultant temperature fields. Results are useful in understanding a highrise building fire and from those predicted velocity, temperature, and pressure fields, workable fire safety design can be made. Extensive simulations were carried out under different conditions.Department of Building Services Engineerin