Analyzing fire-induced dispersion and detector response in complex enclosures using salt-water modeling

The current investigation examines suitability of the hydraulic analog for analysis of fire-induced dispersion within a complex enclosure. This analog has been implemented using salt-water modeling and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) diagnostics providing quantitative visualization of simulated fire-induced flows. The non-intrusive PLIF diagnostics are used to temporally and spatially characterize dispersion from a buoyant source within a 1/7th scale room-corridor-room enclosure. This configuration is geometrically similar to a full-scale fire test facility, where local fire conditions were characterized near five ionization type smoke detectors placed throughout the enclosure. The full-scale fire and salt-water model results were scaled according to the dimensionless fundamental equations that govern source dispersion. An evaluation of the local conditions and dispersive event times for both the systems was used to explore the ability of the hydraulic analog to predict smoke detector response times. The dispersive event (front arrival) times predicted by the salt-water model, which represents a necessary event for detector activation, were in excellent agreement with the fire test data. A methodology using these front arrival times along with local conditions at the detector location is introduced in this paper. However, the complex nature of detector response and fidelity limitations of the analog make precise predictions of detector response time challenging. The predicted dimensionless response times were within 25% for all detector locations, with the exception of the first-room ceiling detector location. For this latter, a shorter dimensionless response time by less than 40% of that in the actual fire was predicted. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.