Scaling realistic fire scenarios

A review is made of work on scale modeling in fire and presented from the experience of the author. Primarily, scale modeling in air is discussed but there is a brief discussion of a scale model with salt and fresh water for smoke movement. A complete set of dimensionless groups is presented for fire, then it is illustrated how selections were made for the partial scaling of specific fire scenarios. Studies have been motivated by basic research interests as well as for fire investigations. The dynamics of floorcovering fire spread in a corridor is studied to reveal many features of fire behavior and validation is made with full-scale. Smoke movement in a department store atrium is studied to reveal flaws in the fire suppression system. The challenge was to develop a water mist system that passed fire testing, and was systematically done using a scale model and confirmed at full-scale. Fire effects on steel structures were studied at various scales, and a related classroom project examined one floor of the World Trade Center collapse on September 9, 2001. Finally, scaling was examined for a fire development in a furnished bedroom, pushing the limits of modeling to its utmost but finding some success in illustrating very similar overall behavior