Heat and mass transfer due to a small-fire in an aircraft cargo compartment

The transport of smoke and hot gases induced by a prescribed fire-source in a confined enclosure is numerically studied. Large eddy simulations (LES) are performed using an open-source solver, the fire dynamics simulator (FDS) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For turbulence closure, the dynamic Smagorinsky and the constant-coefficient Vreman models, and for wall-shear, the Werner and Wengle model are employed. Due to the small size of the fire-source, radiation is neglected in the simulations, however, its anticipated effects are discussed in the results. Furthermore, significance of near-wall treatments for heat flux, particularly, at the plume impingement region, is demonstrated. Requirements for near-wall resolution and effectiveness of wall heat flux functions are evaluated. The results are compared with the existing experimental data collected during the full-scale fire tests of the same set-up in which the enclosure was an empty aircraft cargo compartment entirely closed with no ventilation or leakage, and the fire-source was placed close to the middle of the compartment on the floor.