Field Model Simulation and Analysis for a Residential Building Fire: Fid-Bau Portal

Field Model Simulation and Analysis for a Residential Building Fire

Lin, Cherng Shing / Chen, Meng Yin / Pan, Lung Sheng

Under the effects of rapid social-economic development and urbanization, populations dwelling in large community housing buildings have become more concentrated than ever in Taiwan. This might lead to major casualties and property loss if a fire occurs. Therefore, research on fire protection engineering is particularly critical for large buildings. If fire protection engineering considerations are addressed extensively, fire damage can be minimized. This study simulated an actual building fire case of New Taipei City and analyzed the fire field by using the Fire Dynamics Simulator, developed by NIST/USA. In this case, the dwellers of the building had illegally used the patio space to store combustibles. Additionally, the interior of this dwelling contained numerous combustible decorative materials that resulted in a fast expanding fire inside the dwelling. The high temperature smoke generated by the fire moved upwards through the patio because of the stack effect. The dweller had installed a steel window on the opening of the patio illegally, which considerably narrowed the opening and caused the smoke to rapidly accumulate in the patio. This caused the materials inside the patio to burn quickly, and finally resulted in numerous casualties and substantial property loss. The fire characteristics were investigated to obtain transient results regarding influential parameters, such as the temperature of the fire field and concentration of CO, to analyze and discuss the state of the fire field and allowable time for escaping. These results may be applicable for preventing and reducing the future occurrence of such disasters.