| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 269909 | Fire Safety Journal | 2013 | 9 Pages |
Full-scale and reduced-scale measurements along with numerical simulations have been carried out in order to increase fire safety in car parks, with particular focus on the smoke back-layering (SBL). SBL is the distance covered by the smoke upstream of the ventilation flow with respect to the fire source. It has been measured in both full- and reduced-scales and the results are compared to the literature. The investigated car park (full- and reduced-scale) has been simplified: ceiling and walls are plain and the final layout is similar to a very wide road tunnel. Horizontal and vertical beams supporting the ceiling are not considered. Therefore the results obtained are only valid for large closed parks with a flat ceiling and uni-directional smoke and ventilation patterns within the investigated heat release rate range. The study serves double purposes:Empirical formulae can be obtained and the best model for SBL can be chosen from the existing correlations for road tunnel fires to be applied to car parks with the above described simplified geometries.If the results of the reduced-scale car park model are in accordance with the full-scale ones, the reduced-scale model can be used for more complex car park layouts, which is a very favorable solution in terms of both time and costs.In addition to the SBL investigation, unexpected flow phenomena at the entrance and extractors, respectively, are also explained by reduced-scale trials.
► Car fires are modeled by pool fire in a full-scale car park for fire safety reasons. ► Unexpected flow phenomena are explained by PIV on reduced-scale car park. ► Measured full- and reduced-scale smoke back-layering distances are in agreement. ► Smoke back-layering models for road tunnels can be applied to car parks with restrictions. ► Reduced-scale car park with isothermal fire modeling is applicable for complex layouts.
