Toward predictive simulations of pool fires in mechanically ventilated compartments

The objective of this work is to propose an effective modeling to perform predictive simulations of pool fires in mechanically ventilated compartments, representative of a nuclear installation. These predictive simulations have been conducted using original boundary conditions (BCs) for the fuel mass loss rate and the ventilation mass flow rate, which depend on the surrounding environment. To validate the proposed modeling, the specific BCs were implemented in the ISIS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, developed at IRSN, and three fire tests of the PRISME-Door experimental campaign were simulated. They involved a hydrogenated tetrapropylene (HTP) pool fire in a confined room linked to another one by a doorway; the two rooms being connected to a mechanical ventilation system. The three fire scenarios offer different pool fire areas (0.4 and 1 m2) and air change rates (1.5 and 4.7 h-1). For the one square meter pool fire test, the study presents, in detail, the effects of the boundary conditions modeling. The influence of the ventilation and fuel BCs is analyzed using either fixed value, or variable, function of the surrounding environment, determined by a Bernoulli formulation for the ventilation mass flow rate and by the Peatross and Beyler correlation for the fuel mass loss rate. The results indicate that a full coupling between these two BCs is crucial to correctly predict the main parameters of a fire scenario as fire duration, temperature and oxygen fields, over- and under-pressure peaks in the fire compartment. Variable BCs for ventilation and fuel rates were afterward both used to predictively simulate the fire tests with a pool surface area of 0.4 m2. The predicted results are in good agreement with measurements signifying that the model allows to catch the main patterns characteristic of an under-ventilated fire. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd