Numerical Simulations on Fire Spread in Residential Building

The fire spread in residential building is affected by various factors, such as the burning point of furniture, the spatial arrangement and ventilation systems. The Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) code is used to assessment fire spread and smoke movement in residential building under different fire scenarios. Initially, a full-scale residential building was used to simulate the fire condition, and by selecting diverse material, the heat release rate and burning point of furniture was determined easily. Fire spread was then investigated under location. Simulated results show : affected by ventilation systems, fire develops rapidly resulting in consuming most oxygen quickly followed by early extinction of the fire. After extinction of the fire, with more ambient air drawn into residential building due to ventilation, re-ignition takes place with accelerated development. And more, the spatial arrangement affects fire spread, temperature distributions and orderliness of smoke movement. In addition, detailed field distributions of temperature and velocity vectors are given.