Smoke dispersion around complex offshore structure

Fires on offshore installations can produce large quantities of smoke. Although it is important to know the fire behavior and its effects on the structures it is equally important to know the smoke behavior in and around the platform. High levels of smoke can affect the safety of the personnel. This work describes a comparison of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model with field experiments conducted on a North Sea Platform. The purpose of the work is to use CFD to assess the smoke behavior on offshore platforms. To validate the model for such studies, a series of experiments were performed during which small amounts ({approximately}0.5 kg/s) of synthetic smoke were released at given locations on the platform. The resulting plume concentration was measured at four points around the platform-n using optical densitometers. During the experiments the wind field at different locations around the platform was also measured. The results of this validation indicate that simulation tools can be used to predict global smoke movement and concentrations in complex offshore structures to within the required accuracies. On average, the predicted wind flow is to within a factor of 2 of the measured values and in some areas to within 50%.more » The predicted concentrations are to within a factor of two of the measured values except one point where the predictions were an order of magnitude less than the measurements.« less