The spread of fire from an open car park on the ground floor of a residential building

Abstract

Introduction. The problem of car parks and parking spaces is relevant in many large cities, and it requiresthe optimization of parking spaces. The arrangement of open car parks on the ground floors of apartment buil­dings is an effective way to organize car parks in a house in addition to covered parking lots. In this regard, in order to assess the fire hazard of such a design solution, it is necessary to study the spreadability of fire from an open ground floor parking lot to upper floors and develop reasonable proposals for the development of new and optimization of effective fire safety requirements.Goals and objectives. The goal of this work is to study the spread of fire hazards using the field modeling of the car burning process in an open parking lot on the ground floor of an apartment building and to assess the possibility of the fire safe arrangement of such parking lots in residential buildings.Method. To achieve the purpose of the study, the field (CFD) modeling of the fire development pattern was performed using FDS computer software. In the course of modeling, the authors analyzed the spread of the fire hazard from an open parking lot, located on the ground floor, to the upper floors of a residential building.Results and discussion. Temperature distributions, smoke and heat flows at various points in time were obtained as a result of modeling the development of fire in a parking lot. The results of calculations allowed to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of fire barriers and determine their parameters to meet the condition of the non-proliferation of fire. The most optimal solution is a non-combustible visor made of fire-resistant materials and installed above the opening leading to a parking lot. Given the results of the work, a set of necessary fire-figh­ting actions are proposed to ensure the possibility of arranging open parking lots in residential apartment buildings.Conclusions. It is shown that the fire safety of residential apartment buildings that have open single-level parking lots is achievable in case of the use of fire-resistant bearing and enclosing building structures, non-combustible materials for cladding, finishing the facade of a building, as well as in the case of making a canopy, a balcony or a gallery above the opening that leads to the parking lot.