Computational analysis of pyrolysis and flame spread for MDF panels placed in a corner configuration

There is an increased interest in accurately modeling the fire growth behavior in corner fire scenarios in the fire safety community. This is due to the fact that corner fires are known to spread more intensely in comparison with single wall fires. This work focuses on simulating available Single Burning Item (SBI) experiments with Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) panels placed in a corner configuration. The computational analysis is conducted using FireFOAM, an open source fire modeling code which integrates key physical models relating to material pyrolysis, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, combustion, and multiphase flows. The non-uniform nature of the through-thickness density of MDF is considered and simulated along with a uniform density simulation to examine its importance on the fire growth predictions. The simulations are evaluated against the experimental measurements of total Heat Release Rate (HRR) and total heat fluxes at several characteristic locations. In addition, the simulations are compared with video recordings of the SBI experiments