ADVANCES IN CFD ASSESSMENT OF FIRE AND SMOKE MOVEMENT

Risk assessment for offshore installations frequently calls for appraisal of the hazards posed by gas dispersion, fire, and smoke movement, in the context of structural integrity, survivability, and evacuation. A variety of tools are available for such assessments. Empirically-based codes are perfectly adequate, and cost effective, provided circumstances being considered are not far removed from the conditions upon which they are based. In some cases, however, the situation is so different that a more realistic method is required. In certain situations the empirical model is not conservative. For these reasons, increasing use is made by industry of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes. These costs of CFD simulations have dropped dramatically in recent years, due to advances in both hardware and the software packages themselves. AEA Technology, together with its industrial and government partners, has investigated heavily in validation of its own CFD package. In particular, the authors are active in validation against experimental data on unconfined pool fires and compartment fires. The paper will describe some of this activity and will provide illustrations of applications to practical geometries. Specifically, the examples will show how damage due to an explosion on an offshore platform can influence smoke movement during a subsequentmore » fire.« less