Publications

Numerical predictions and experimental results of a dry bay fire environment

Black, Amalia R.; Black, Amalia R.; Gill, Walt; Suo-Anttila, Jill M.

The primary objective of the Safety and Survivability of Aircraft Initiative is to improve the safety and survivability of systems by using validated computational models to predict the hazard posed by a fire. To meet this need, computational model predictions and experimental data have been obtained to provide insight into the thermal environment inside an aircraft dry bay. The calculations were performed using the Vulcan fire code, and the experiments were completed using a specially designed full-scale fixture. The focus of this report is to present comparisons of the Vulcan results with experimental data for a selected test scenario and to assess the capability of the Vulcan fire field model to accurately predict dry bay fire scenarios. Also included is an assessment of the sensitivity of the fire model predictions to boundary condition distribution and grid resolution. To facilitate the comparison with experimental results, a brief description of the dry bay fire test fixture and a detailed specification of the geometry and boundary conditions are included. Overall, the Vulcan fire field model has shown the capability to predict the thermal hazard posed by a sustained pool fire within a dry bay compartment of an aircraft; although, more extensive experimental data and rigorous comparison are required for model validation.