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Applied Sciences
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Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science
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Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2022) | Viewed by 26521

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Thomas Rogaume

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut Pprime (UPR 3346 CNRS), Université de Poitiers, ISAE-ENSMA, 86861 Poitiers, France
Interests: fire safety science; thermal decomposition of solid fuel; ignition, combustion and gaseous emissions of solid fuel in the context of fire; flame propagation and wall (fuel) flame interaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Benjamin Batiot

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut Pprime (UPR 3346 CNRS), Université de Poitiers, ISAE-ENSMA, 86861 Poitiers, France
Interests: fire safety sciences; thermal decomposition of solid fuel; solid degradation kinetics; fire dynamics; flame spread
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fires remain a major risk with dramatic impacts on humans, buildings, structures, environment, economy, etc. It concerns a multitude of different applications, as the buildings, the industries, the transports and infrastructures, the vegetation, etc. Moreover, despite large past efforts and the important numerous existing regulations, standards and norms, the number of fires remains very high and unacceptable.

In this context, reinforcement of fire safety management is an essential topic. Since the end of the 20th century, significant improvement of the fire safety management remains to be developed in fire safety engineering. This approach is based on performance criterias defined specifically for each configuration studied. Fire safety engineering is associated with both experimental and numerical model investigations. It is predictive and reactive and then essential to support innovation and to take into account the new materials, the new designs, the new technologies, etc. considered. However, fires are quite complex phenomena and fire safety engineering is based on experimental investigations and predictive models which associate and combine several competences such as thermal exchanges, thermodynamic, fluid mechanics, chemistry. Furthermore, they concern various situations and applications, at large scales.

Moreover, these models are based on the scientific understanding issued both from experimental and numerical investigations. A special challenge consists thus in the development of the scientific skills necessaries for the fire safety investigations, with efforts to research programs.

A number of research groups, all over the world, develop experimental and numerical studies in order to improve the knowledge of the processes met as a function of the kind of fire and its configuration. It concerns both the fire reaction and the fire resistance.

Scientific investigations deal with the fire complexities by describing all fire processes and their interactions; for example, the thermal decomposition of the fuels, the flaming ignition, the flame propagation and the gaseous emissions, the extinction, in both configurations, dependent of the application (building, furniture, transport, industry, etc.). Finally, the challenges is to tackle the complexity of fire phenomena which come from the high number of processes and interaction involved. Actually, those challenges are addressed by up-scaling approaches. The studies concern laboratory-scale experiments, real-scale structures investigations and numerical models improvement and application.

In this context, the present Special Issue aims to address the recent efforts and advances in fire safety science. The topics of interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to the following topics, both bringing together experimental investigations and numerical model development:

  • Thermal decomposition of solid fuel, thermophysical properties, and model of pyrolysis
  • Flaming ignition process
  • Fluid mechanics in fire, diffusion and aerolic phenomenon
  • Gaseous combustion, finite and non-finite chemistry
  • Solid / gas interactions and couplings
  • Flame propagation and characteristics
  • Gaseous emissions and their impact
  • Wall / Flame interaction and description, convective models
  • Influence of the ventilation on the fire characteristics
  • Radiative thermal exchange and radiation models
  • Extinction process and its description
  • Specific case of charring material thermal decomposition and combustion
  • Smoldering combustion and its characteristics
  • Advance in facade fire
  • Advance in timber combustion

Prof. Dr. Thomas Rogaume
Dr. Benjamin Batiot
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Thermal decomposition
  • Fluid mechanics in fire
  • Ignition process
  • Gaseous combustion
  • Flame propagation
  • Wall flame interaction
  • Chemical kinetics
  • Gaseous combustion
  • Radiation
  • Heat release rate
  • Smoldering combustion
  • Fire ventilation
  • Flame extinction
  • Charing material combustion
  • Facade combustion
  • Timber combustion

Published Papers (8 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 174 KiB  
Editorial
Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science, Volume 1
by Thomas Rogaume and Benjamin Batiot
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 324; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13010324 - 27 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1093
Abstract
Fires remain a major risk with dramatic impacts on humans, buildings, structures, the environment, the economy, etc [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

26 pages, 7873 KiB  
Article
Development and Validation of a Zone Fire Model Embedding Multi-Fuel Combustion
by Bernard Porterie, Yannick Pizzo, Maxime Mense, Nicolas Sardoy, Julien Louiche, Nina Dizet, Timothé Porterie and Priscilla Pouschat
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(8), 3951; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12083951 - 13 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1705
Abstract
This paper presents the development and validation of a two-zone model to predict fire development in a compartment. The model includes the effects of the ceiling jet on the convective heat transfer to enclosure walls and, unlike existing models, a new concept of [...] Read more.
This paper presents the development and validation of a two-zone model to predict fire development in a compartment. The model includes the effects of the ceiling jet on the convective heat transfer to enclosure walls and, unlike existing models, a new concept of surrogate fuel molecule (SFM) to model multi-fuel combustion, and a momentum equation to accurately track the displacement of the smoke layer interface over time. The paper presents a series of full-scale fire experiments conducted in the IUSTI fire laboratory, involving different combinations of solid and liquid fuels, and varying the compartment confinement level. The model results are compared to the experimental data. It was found that for all fire scenarios, the experimental trends are well reproduced by the model. The SFM concept predicts oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the extracted smoke to within a few percent of the measurements, which is a good agreement considering the sensitivity of the model to chemical formulas and combustion properties of fuels. Comparison with other measurements, namely average gas and wall temperatures, is also good. For the large fires reported in this study, the impact of the ceiling jet leads to a slight underestimation of wall temperatures, while the model gives conservative estimates for small fires. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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9 pages, 2276 KiB  
Article
An Approach to Determine the Median Diameter of Droplets in a Water-Mist Spray
by H. M. Iqbal Mahmud, Graham Thorpe and Khalid A. M. Moinuddin
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(3), 1073; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12031073 - 20 Jan 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2236
Abstract
The physical characteristics of water sprays profoundly influence the efficacy with which fires are extinguished. One of the most important physical characteristics of water sprays is the median diameter of the water droplets. However, this parameter is difficult to measure without resorting to [...] Read more.
The physical characteristics of water sprays profoundly influence the efficacy with which fires are extinguished. One of the most important physical characteristics of water sprays is the median diameter of the water droplets. However, this parameter is difficult to measure without resorting to the use of specialised equipment. Furthermore, the distribution of the size of water droplets and their initial velocity are profoundly sensitive to the pressure at the nozzle head. This paper presents a simple technique to determine the median droplet size of a water spray produced by a nozzle. The method required only two experiments to determine the mass flux distribution generated by a nozzle operating at two known pressures. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program was then used to estimate the median diameter of the water spray under these conditions. The median droplets generated when the nozzle was operating under a different pressure can be calculated using an established empirical relationship. The approach advocated in this paper is supported by invoking Whewell’s principle of consilience of inductions. This was achieved by observing that the CFD software accurately predicts the mass flux distribution when the new pressure and estimated median diameter of the droplets were used as inputs. This provides independent evidence that the proposed approach has some merit. The findings of this research may contribute to establish a technique in calculating the median diameter of droplets when direct measurement of droplet diameter is not available. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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15 pages, 3662 KiB  
Article
Simulation of Wood Combustion in PATO Using a Detailed Pyrolysis Model Coupled to fireFoam
by Hermes Scandelli, Azita Ahmadi-Senichault, Franck Richard and Jean Lachaud
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(22), 10570; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app112210570 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5129
Abstract
The numerical simulation of fire propagation requires capturing the coupling between wood pyrolysis, which leads to the production of various gaseous species, and the combustion of these species in the flame, which produces the energy that sustains the pyrolysis process. Experimental and numerical [...] Read more.
The numerical simulation of fire propagation requires capturing the coupling between wood pyrolysis, which leads to the production of various gaseous species, and the combustion of these species in the flame, which produces the energy that sustains the pyrolysis process. Experimental and numerical works of the fire community are targeted towards improving the description of the pyrolysis process to better predict the rate of production and the chemical nature of the pyrolysis gases. We know that wood pyrolysis leads to the production of a large variety of chemical species: water, methane, propane, carbon monoxide and dioxide, phenol, cresol, hydrogen, etc. With the idea of being able to capitalize on such developments to study more accurately the physics of fire propagation, we have developed a numerical framework that couples a detailed three-dimensional pyrolysis model and fireFoam. In this article, we illustrate the capability of the simulation tool by treating the combustion of a wood log. Wood is considered to be composed of three phases (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin), each undergoing parallel degradation processes leading to the production of methane and hydrogen. We chose to simplify the gas mixture for this first proof of concept of the coupling of a multi-species pyrolysis process and a flame. In the flame, we consider two separate finite-rate combustion reactions for methane and hydrogen. The flame evolves during the simulation according to the concentration of the two gaseous species produced from the material. It appears that introducing different pyrolysis species impacts the temperature and behavior of the flame. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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24 pages, 1286 KiB  
Article
Review of Convective Heat Transfer Modelling in CFD Simulations of Fire-Driven Flows
by Georgios Maragkos and Tarek Beji
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 5240; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11115240 - 4 Jun 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6343
Abstract
Progress in fire safety science strongly relies on the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate a wide range of scenarios, involving complex geometries, multiple length/time scales and multi-physics (e.g., turbulence, combustion, heat transfer, soot generation, solid pyrolysis, flame spread and liquid [...] Read more.
Progress in fire safety science strongly relies on the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate a wide range of scenarios, involving complex geometries, multiple length/time scales and multi-physics (e.g., turbulence, combustion, heat transfer, soot generation, solid pyrolysis, flame spread and liquid evaporation), that could not be studied easily with analytical solutions and zone models. It has been recently well recognised in the fire community that there is need for better modelling of the physics in the near-wall region of boundary layer combustion. Within this context, heat transfer modelling is an important aspect since the fuel gasification rate for solid pyrolysis and liquid evaporation is determined by a heat feedback mechanism that depends on both convection and radiation. The paper focuses on convection and reviews the most commonly used approaches for modelling convective heat transfer with CFD using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) in the context of fire-driven flows. The considered test cases include pool fires and turbulent wall fires. The main assumptions, advantages and disadvantages of each modelling approach are outlined. Finally, a selection of numerical results from the application of the different approaches in pool fire and flame spread cases, is presented in order to demonstrate the impact that convective heat transfer modelling can have in such scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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15 pages, 2791 KiB  
Article
Origin and Justification of the Use of the Arrhenius Relation to Represent the Reaction Rate of the Thermal Decomposition of a Solid
by Benjamin Batiot, Thomas Rogaume, Franck Richard, Jocelyn Luche, Anthony Collin, Eric Guillaume and José Luis Torero
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(9), 4075; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11094075 - 29 Apr 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3117
Abstract
Degradation models are commonly used to describe the generation of combustible gases when predicting fire behavior. A model may include many sub-models, such as heat and mass transfer models, pyrolysis models or mechanical models. The pyrolysis sub-models require the definition of a decomposition [...] Read more.
Degradation models are commonly used to describe the generation of combustible gases when predicting fire behavior. A model may include many sub-models, such as heat and mass transfer models, pyrolysis models or mechanical models. The pyrolysis sub-models require the definition of a decomposition mechanism and the associated reaction rates. Arrhenius-type equations are commonly used to quantify the reaction rates. Arrhenius-type equations allow the representation of chemical decomposition as a function of temperature. This representation of the reaction rate originated from the study of gas-phase reactions, but it has been extrapolated to liquid and solid decomposition. Its extension to solid degradation needs to be justified because using an Arrhenius-type formulation implies important simplifications that are potentially questionable. This study describes these simplifications and their potential consequences when it comes to the quantification of solid-phase reaction rates. Furthermore, a critical analysis of the existing thermal degradation models is presented to evaluate the implications of using an Arrhenius-type equation to quantify mass-loss rates and gaseous fuel production for fire predictions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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20 pages, 5206 KiB  
Article
Polyisocyanurate Foam Pyrolysis and Flame Spread Modeling
by Dushyant M. Chaudhari, Stanislav I. Stoliarov, Mark W. Beach and Kali A. Suryadevara
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(8), 3463; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11083463 - 13 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3121
Abstract
Polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam is a robust thermal insulation material utilized widely in the modern construction. In this work, the flammability of one representative example of this material was studied systematically using experiments and modeling. The thermal decomposition of this material was analyzed through [...] Read more.
Polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam is a robust thermal insulation material utilized widely in the modern construction. In this work, the flammability of one representative example of this material was studied systematically using experiments and modeling. The thermal decomposition of this material was analyzed through thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and microscale combustion calorimetry. The thermal transport properties of the pyrolyzing foam were evaluated using Controlled Atmosphere Pyrolysis Apparatus II experiments. Cone calorimetry tests were also carried out on the foam samples to quantify the contribution of the blowing agent (contained within the foam) to its flammability, which was found to be significant. A complete pyrolysis property set was developed and was shown to accurately predict the results of all aforementioned measurements. The foam was also subjected to full-scale flame spread tests, similar to the Single Burning Item test. A previously developed modeling approach based on a coupling between detailed pyrolysis simulations and a spatially-resolved relationship between the total heat release rate and heat feedback from the flame, derived from the experiments on a different material in the same experimental setup, was found to successfully predict the evolution of the heat release rate measured in the full-scale tests on the PIR foam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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24 pages, 9403 KiB  
Article
Experimental and Numerical Study for the Effect of Horizontal Openings on the External Plume and Potential Fire Spread in Informal Settlements
by Mohamed Beshir, Karim Omar, Felipe Roman Centeno, Samuel Stevens, Lesley Gibson and David Rush
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2380; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11052380 - 8 Mar 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2430
Abstract
According to recent UN reports, it is estimated that more than one billion people live in informal settlements globally, exposing them to a large potential fire risk. In previous research, it was found that the main fire spread mechanism between dwellings is the [...] Read more.
According to recent UN reports, it is estimated that more than one billion people live in informal settlements globally, exposing them to a large potential fire risk. In previous research, it was found that the main fire spread mechanism between dwellings is the external flaming (plume) and radiative heat fluxes from the vertical openings at the dwelling of origin to the surroundings. In this paper, an experimental and numerical study was conducted to quantify the effect of adding horizontal roof openings to the design of informal settlement dwellings to reduce the fire spread risk by decreasing the length of flames and radiation from the external plumes at the vertical openings. In total, 19 quarter scale ISO-9705 compartment fire experiments were conducted using an identical fuel load (80 MJ/m2) of polypropylene and were used to validate a physical computational fluid dynamics model for future studies. Five different total horizontal openings areas (0.0025, 0.01, 0.04, 0.09, and 0.16 m2) were investigated using two horizontal openings designs: (1) four square openings at the four corners of the compartment and (2) one slot cut at the middle of the compartment. It was found that adding horizontal openings decreased the average heat flux measured at the door by up to 65% and 69% for corner and slot cases, respectively. Heat flux reductions were achieved at opening areas as low as 0.01 m2 for slot cases, whereas reductions were only achieved at areas of at least 0.09 m2 for corner cases. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was validated using the experimental results. It successfully captured the main fire dynamics within the compartment in addition to the values of the external radiative heat flux. Further, a new empirical ventilation factor was generated to describe the flow field through both openings configurations which showed strong coupling with the inlet mass of fresh air to the compartment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Combustion and Fluid Mechanics, Advance in Fire Safety Science)
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