Experimental and numerical investigation of visibility in compartment fires

This study presents the experimental and numerical investigation of visibility in a real scale compartment fire using an innovative experimental approach to measure spatio-temporal resolved extinction coefficients and the corresponding simulations with the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The temporal evolution of local measurements as well as profiles of the temperature and the extinction coefficient over the height of the compartment at certain points in time were considered. The measurements of the extinction coefficient profiles were locally verified by means of the well established MIREX-measurement technique. The results were in a good agreement. Thus, they can be considered as reliable. As part of the simulations a grid sensitivity analysis regarding the evolution of the temperature and the extinction coefficient was carried out