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Predicting Spill Plumes with the Fire Risk Zone Model B-RISK

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Abstract

Recent experimental research on spill plume entrainment has developed a range of empirically-based formulae for smoke management design. These formulae form the spill plume entrainment model in B-RISK, a new fire risk zone model. This article describes the performance of B-RISK in predicting spill plume entrainment. Selected experimental data from the series of reduced-scale experiments used to form the new design formulae have been used for model validation, along with other full-scale experimental data from ‘hot smoke tests’ conducted to assess the performance of installed smoke management systems. B-RISK provides predictions of the plume clear-layer height that generally agree with experimental results within the range of experimental error. This gives confidence in its use to predict spill plume entrainment for smoke management design purposes.

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Abbreviations

b :

Breadth of balcony or soffit (m)

d :

Depth of gas layer (m)

h b :

Height of balcony or soffit above the floor (m)

h c :

Height of fire compartment opening above the floor (m)

\( \dot{m} \) :

Mass flow rate of gases (kg/s)

\( \dot{Q}_{c} \) :

Convective heat flow of gases below the spill edge (kW)

V :

Volume flow rate of mechanical exhaust (m3/s)

\( W_{c} \) :

Width of fire compartment opening (m)

\( W_{s} \) :

Lateral extent of gas flow below the spill edge (m)

\( z_{s} \) :

Height of rise of the plume above the spill edge (m)

\( z_{trans} \) :

Height of rise of plume above the spill edge where there is a transition in the rate of entrainment to that of an axisymmetric plume (m)

c :

Variable evaluated in the layer flow at the compartment opening

p :

Variable evaluated in the plume at an arbitrary height of rise

s :

Variable evaluated in the layer flow below the spill edge

2D :

Property of the 2-D spill plume

3D :

Property of the 3-D spill plume

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank BRANZ for providing funding from the Building Research Levy in support of this article. And the New Zealand government’s research, science and technology funding agency, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for their funding contributing to the development of B-RISK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AECOM Fire and Risk Engineering, St Albans, UK

    Roger Harrison

  2. BRANZ Ltd, Porirua City, New Zealand

    Colleen Wade

  3. Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Michael Spearpoint

Authors
  1. Roger Harrison
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  2. Colleen Wade
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  3. Michael Spearpoint
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Correspondence to Roger Harrison.

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Harrison, R., Wade, C. & Spearpoint, M. Predicting Spill Plumes with the Fire Risk Zone Model B-RISK. Fire Technol 50, 205–231 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-013-0364-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-013-0364-3

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