Round-robin study of a priori modelling predictions of the Dalmarnock Fire Test One

Abstract

An international study of fire modelling was conducted prior to the Dalmarnock Fire Test One in order to assess the state-of-the-art of fire simulations using a round-robin approach. This test forms part of the Dalmarnock Fire Tests, a series of experiments conducted in 2006 in a high-rise building. The philosophy behind the tests was to provide measurements in a realistic fire scenario involving multiple fuel packages and non-trivial fire growth, and with an instrumentation density suitable for comparison with computational fluid dynamics models. Each of the seven round-robin teams independently simulated the test scenario a priori using a common detailed description of the compartment geometry, fuel packages, ignition source and ventilation conditions. The aim of the exercise was to forecast the fire development as accurately as possible and compare the results. The aim was not to provide an engineering analysis with conservative assumptions or safety factors. Comparison of the modelling results shows a large scatter and considerable disparity among the predictions, and between predictions and experimental measurements. The scatter of the simulations is much larger than the error and variability expected in the experiments. The study emphasises on the inherent difficulty of modelling fire dynamics in complex fire scenarios like Dalmarnock, and shows that the accuracy to predict fire growth (i.e. evolution of the heat released rate) is, in general, poor.

The philosophy of fire safety engineering in the shaping of civil engineering development

“…Due to their complex nature, they are very prone to the user's mistake [29]. Estimation of this error was possible through round-robin comparison studies, carried prior to, and after extensive fire experiments, out of which the most important one was the Dalmarock fire experiment [30,31]. The results of these studies show that even with detailed information about the parameters of a fire (obtained through an experiment), predictions of the outcome have error ranging from 20% to 200%, along with high inconsistency between various FPEs who performed the analysis.…”

Numerical Simulation of Fire Growth, Transition to Flashover, and Post-Flashover Dynamics in the Dalmarnock Fire Test

“…A computer representation of the fire test geometry was produced based on the description, blueprints and photographs made available by the University of Edinburgh [6][7][8][9]. The numerical configuration is presented in Fig.…”

“…We consider in the following a test configuration corresponding to a full-scale fire test known as the Dalmarnock fire test [6][7][8][9] (two tests were in fact conducted, but we limit here the scope of our discussion to test 1, see Refs. [6][7]9] for details). The Dalmarnock test was performed in July 2006 by the fire research group at the University of Edinburgh in a high-rise building located in Glasgow, UK.…”

“…The Dalmarnock fire test data have been used by the University of Edinburgh to organize a "round-robin" study [6][7]9]. The "round-robin" study consisted in bringing together several independent teams of fire model practitioners and in asking each team to perform a priori simulations (i.e., blind simulations without access to experimental results) of the Dalmarnock test configuration.…”

“…[6][7]9] and an extension to a posteriori simulations (i.e., simulations conducted with full access to experimental results). This study is similar to the one recently presented in Ref.…”