Fire Dynamics Series

Compartment Fire
Ir. Yulianto S. Nugroho, MSc., PhD Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Indonesia
Reference: D. Drysdale, 2003

This module is intended as a general introduction to fire safety

OUTLINE

Introduction Fire Initiation Burning Objects / Items Fire Growth Stage Pre-Flashover Fire Flashover Post-Flashover

Ventilation controlled burning Fuel controlled burning

Design Fires Structural Safety

Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

Pendahuluan (1)
Kerugian akibat kebakaran
Kebakaran gedung dan bangunan dapat

menyebabkan kerugian ekonomi suatu negara mencapai 0,2 % PDB.

Di Jakarta sejak 1 Januari hingga 28 Maret

2007 telah terjadi 182 kali peristiwa kebakaran dengan perkiraan kerugian material sebesar Rp 24.482.640.000,-. ; korban jiwa : meninggal 3 Orang, luka-luka 8 Orang. [http://www.jakartafire.com/home/index.php]
Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

Pendahuluan (2)

The term compartment fire is used to describe a fire which is confined within a building.

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The fire triangle

Heat

Fuel + Oxidant = Combustion products CH4 + O2 => CO2 + 2H20

Reaction occurs when Oxygen/fuel mixture hot enough Fuel Oxygen
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Burning Objects

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Fire Initiation
Fire initiation includes ignition and the development of a self-

sustaining combustion reaction.

There are many possible sources of ignition both deliberate and

accidental. The ignition source is commonly very small and has low energy, but if it affects combustible materials it is often sufficient to start a fire. In many cases, ignition events have not started a significant fire because a small fire did not become self-sustaining and died out.

Ignition normally takes place in one of three ways:

Pilot ignition, normally initiated in a flammable vapor / air mixture by a "pilot", such as a flame or an electrical spark.
Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

Fire Initiation

(Auto-ignition) where flaming develops spontaneously due to a sufficiently high temperature within a flammable vapour/air mixture in the absence of a pilot flame or spark. Spontaneous combustion in bulk fuels. This is a less common means of fire initiation and is caused by self heating in bulk solids as a result of biological processes, chemical reactions or heating due to oxidation of drying oils, which can lead to smoldering combustion, normally starting deep within the mass of fuel.
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Flammability Limits

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Heat Release Rate

Heat release rate (HRR) is one of the most important information in fire safety. Heat release rates for many items of furniture can be measured using furniture calorimeters. The heat release rate for selected items of furniture are shown below.

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Flame growth

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Flame spread (1)

Propagation of premixed flame through a flammable

mixture in a duct following ignition () at the closed end.

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Flame spread (2)

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Flame spread (3)

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Flame spread (4)

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Flame spread (5)

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Flame spread (6)

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Growth to Flash over

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Compartment Fire

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Growth to Flash over

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Growth to Ventilation
Fuel + Oxidant => Combustion products CH4 + O2 => CO2 + 2H20

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Fire Growth Stage: t-squared Fire

There are several approaches to estimating the growth rate for a particular design fire. The most popular is the t2 (t-squared) fire growth rate with three categories for fire growth; slow, medium, and fast. These definitions are simply determined by the time required for the fire to reach 1.05 MW. A slow fire is defined as taking 600 seconds (10 minutes), a medium fire 300 seconds (5 minutes) and a fast fire less than 150 seconds to reach 1.05 MW (rounded to 1.00 MW in the calculations that follow).
Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

t-squared Fire

The t2 fire growth can be thought of in terms of a burning object with a constant heat release rate per unit area in which the fire is spreading in a circular pattern with a constant radial flame speed. Obviously more representative fuel geometries may or may not produce t2 fire growth. However, the implicit assumption in many cases is that the t2 approximation is close enough to make reasonable design decisions.
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t-squared Fire
An alternative formulation to describe the heat release rate Q (MW) for a t2 fire is by: Q = t2 where is the fire intensity coefficient (MW/s2). The terms and k are directly related by = 1.055 / k2

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Typical growth times for t-squared fire

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Heat release rates for t-squared fire

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Pre flashover for t-squared fire

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Pre flashover for t-squared fire

Fig below shows three heat release rate curves for a fire in office furniture.

Typical detector activation time, shown on HRR curve for a fast fire
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Fire Spread to Other Items

The t-squared fires described above can be used to construct pre-flashover design fires, as input for calculating fire growth in rooms. Fire can spread from the first burning object to a second object by flame contact if it is very close, or by radiant heat transfer if it is further away. The time to ignition of a second object depends on the intensity of radiation from the flame and the distance between the objects. There may be many more items involved, and the resulting combination may itself be approximated by a t-squared fire for simplicity.
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Fire Spread to Other Items

For example the first burns with medium growth rate for 10 minutes, followed by 1 minute of steady burning at its peak heat release rate of 4.0 MW. The second object ignites after 3 minutes, burning with fast growth rate for 4 minutes followed by steady burning at 2.5 MW for 2 minutes. The figure below shows the combined heat release rate curve for the two objects.

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Growth to Flashover
The plume above the fire carries smoke and hot gases into the upper layer along with a considerable volume of entrained air. Temperatures in the upper layer rise rapidly due to the heat of the combustion products carried up in the plume. When the plume reaches the ceiling, hot gases travel along the ceiling, moving radially away from the fire. This flow of hot gases is known as the "ceiling jet", which will trigger operation of heat detectors or sprinklers.

Once the temperature in the upper layer reaches approximately 600oC and the direct radiation at floor level reaches about 20 kW/m2, all exposed combustible surfaces ignite rapidly and burn fiercely. This transition is known as flashover
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Post-Flashover Fires
The behavior of the fire changes dramatically after flashover. The flows of air and combustion gases become very turbulent. The very high temperatures and radiant heat fluxes throughout the room cause all exposed combustible surfaces to pyrolize, producing large quantities of combustible gases, which burn where there is sufficient oxygen. The most important information for structural design is the temperature in the room during the post-flashover fire. Sometimes the burning rates are also useful. The objective of design for a post-flashover fire is to contain the fire and prevent structural collapse, as necessary to meet the performance requirements. In the post flashover phase of a fire all of the combustible objects in the compartment are burning and the heat release rate is limited either by the fuel surface area or the available air supply.
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Design Fires
When designing a structure to resist exposure to fire, it is often necessary to select a design fire. Alternative methods to obtaining design fires include hand calculations, published curves or parametric fire equations.

HAND METHOD
A very simple, but crude, method is to assume the fire has a constant temperature throughout the burning period. Such a time-temperature curve is sufficiently accurate for simple design.
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Published Curves

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Concrete stress-strain curves at high temperatures

Normalised stress

Concrete also loses strength and stiffness from 100C upwards. Does not regain strength on cooling. High temperature properties depend mainly on aggregate type used.

1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

20C 200C

400C 600C 800C 1000C 1 2 3 4

Ref. EC3 and EC4

Strain (%)
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Structural Safety

September 11, 2001

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Stages of a natural fire - and the standard fire test curve

Temperature Pre-Flashover Flashover
Ref. EC3 and EC4

Post-Flashover 1000-1200C

Natural fire curve ISO834 standard fire curve Time Ignition - Smouldering Heating Cooling . Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

Steel stress-strain curves at high temperatures 2

Stress (N/mm ) 300

20C 200C 300C 400C 500C 600C 700C 800C

Steel softens progressively from 100-200C up. Only 23% of ambienttemperature strength remains at 700C. At 800C strength reduced to 11% and at 900C to 6%. Melts at about 1500C.

250 200 150 100 50 0

0.5

Ref. EC3 and EC4

1.0 1.5 Strain (%)

2.0

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Time-equivalence
Load-bearing resistance

Matches times to given temperature in a natural fire and in Standard Fire. Used to rate fire severity or element performance relative to furnace test. Fire severity time equivalent Fire resistance time equivalent

Natural fire

Standard fire

Time Temperature Compartment Element

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Ref. EC3 and EC4

Time

Furnace tests on structural elements

Fire Testing Load kept constant, fire temperature increased using Standard Fire curve.

Problems Limited range of spans feasible, simply supported beams only.

Maximum deflection criterion for fire resistance of beams. Load capacity criterion for fire resistance of columns.

Effects of continuity ignored. Beams fail by run-away. Restraint to thermal expansion by surrounding structure ignored.
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Ref. EC3 and EC4

Standard fire resistance furnace test

Deflection (mm) 300

200

100

0
Ref. EC3 and EC4

1200 2400 3600 (sec) Dr.Time YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI

Standard fire resistance furnace test

Deflection (mm) 300 Span2/400d 200 If rate < span2/9000d Span/30 100 Standard Fire 0
Ref. EC3 and EC4

1200 2400 Time (sec)

3600

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Structural fire protection: Passive Protection

Insulating Board Gypsum, Mineral fibre, Vermiculite. Easy to apply, aesthetically acceptable. Difficulties with complex details. Cementitious Sprays Mineral fibre or vermiculite in cement binder. Cheap to apply, but messy; clean-up may be expensive. Poor aesthetics; normally used behind suspended ceilings. Intumescent Paints Decorative finish under normal conditions. Expands on heating to produce insulating layer. Can now be done off-site.
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Ref. EC3 and EC4

Thank you
Corresponding address: Ir. Yulianto S. Nugroho, MSc., PhD Department of Mechanical Engineering MT (S2) Program in Fire Protection Engineering University of Indonesia Kampus UI Depok 16424, Indonesia E-mail : yulianto.nugroho@ui.edu
Dr. YS. Nugroho DTM FTUI