Influence of the built environment on design fires

(in lingua inglese)

It has been shown that the building material used in a fire compartment might influence the growth rate of a design fire in a significant way; insulating wall/ceiling materials will probably increase the growth rate which in turn will mean that the time to critical conditions will be shorter compared to the expected result. However, if the building material used is thermally thin or has a large heat storing capacity the influence is rather negligible. The maximum heat release rate and transient behavior of the fire was shown to be very dependent on ventilation factor in combination with the building material; with only one door opening present the initial fire growth was rapid due to radiative feedback but was then hampered by the oxygen depletion which caused the heat release rate to decrease significantly during the course of the simulation duration.