Underground Car Park Smoke Management System Design Validation Using CFD Simulation: Car Fire Products Yields Rates system

Abstract

Smoke management systems design is very important as it affect saving human lives in case of fire. The majority of firerelated deaths are caused by smoke inhalation of toxic gases, only 30% of deaths are due to fire burns. Recently, a great attention has been given to smoke management systems design validation using CFD simulations to ensure its effectiveness and compliance with fire codes regulations. CFD smoke simulation usually conducted using the inert fire species transport model, in which the fire source values specified at the fire inlet are assumed to be equivalent to an actual car fire products generation rates. Nonetheless, with the lack of a comprehensive conclusion on actual car fire products generation rates in literature, fire codes usually specify a certain fuel to represent a car fire, such as polyurethane as per UAE fire code. Considering the aforementioned, this work reviews literature on both polyurethane and actual car fires products generation rates, in an effort to conclude a proper fire products generation rates for CFD smoke simulations. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the use of the concluded fire source values to validate an underground car park smoke management systems design of a residential tower in UAE. The design is validated in compliance with the UAE fire code regulations considering both fire products concentrations and visibility analysis. The simulation results shows considerable difference in smoke generation between actual car fire and polyurethane fire. Mainly due to polyurethane higher fire growth rate and soot generation rates. On the other hand, the results illustrate that the smoke management system design satisfies the fire code CO and CO2 concentrations limits, yet it failed to comply with the fire code visibility requirements when polyurethane was used as fire source.