External fire spread analysis

Ruxandra Dârmon1, a *, Mircea Suciu2, b

1
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Daicoviciu 15, Cluj-Napoca 400020, Romania
2
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Daicoviciu 15, Cluj-Napoca 400020, Romania
a b
Ruxandra.Darmon@ccm.utcluj.ro, Mircea.Suciu@cfdp.utcluj.ro

Keywords: incident radiation flux, cylindrical flame model, adjacent facade.

Abstract. The fire safety regulations in Romania require that in case of a fire occurring into a
building, it should be prevented to spread to any adjacent structure or neighbouring façade. Apart
from the minimum prescribed distances between the buildings, there is no other benchmark or
guidance for an approved calculation method to prove compliance with this provision. The British
regulations have specified that the heat fluxes on the surfaces exposed to radiation from a fire within
the adjacent buildings should not exceed a heat flux of 12.6 kW/m2. The purpose of this article is to
review some of the empirical calculation methods for the incident radion flux given in the
international literature and to compare thir results for a practical aplication.

Introduction
The worldwide fire regulations have set different limits for the maximum allowed distances
between the buildings on the same site. Usually those values have been dictated by practical needs
as the fire service truck dimensions. In Romania, the minimum distance between two separate
buildings is 6 m. In practice, this is not always the case. For example, in some old city centers where
medieval buildings have been built long before the Construction Law enforcement, there are small
streets which let only 5 m or less between the opposite facades of the buildings. Most of these
patrimony sites are important touristic attractions and the main destination of the ground floor level
is commercial and retail units.
Given that the Romanian regulations do not give a specific method or a benchmark for the
maximum allowed incident radiation flux on the surfaces exposed to the heat from a fire within the
adjacent building, it is difficult to prove that these buildings will be safe in case of a fire occurrence.
In this article, several empirical calculation methods existent in the international literature will be
used to estimate the incident heat flux on the opposite façade radiated from a fire, when the distance
between the buildings is 4.5m. Various series of ignition experiments have been carried out in
several research centers in order to estimate the limiting values of radiated heat fluxes for different
materials. Babrauskas [1] stated that the easy ignitable materials as paper and cardboard could be set
to fire if the radiated heat is about 10kW/m2. The maximum incident heat flux on the adjacent
façade from the British Regulations [2], and the method derived by Law [3], give values within a
range of 12 - 12.6 kW/m2.
For this article, as a calculation example, it has been chosen a small retail shop, localized in Cluj-
Napoca old city centre, having a fully glazed façade towards the Iuliu Maniu street. The height of
the glass window is approximately 3.2 m. Given that the walking side of the street is variable and
the street has only one circulation sense, the distance to the adjacent façade is less than 7 m. This
article aim is to evaluate the intensity of the thermal radiation to which would be exposed a
neghbouring building, assuming a distance of 4.5 m between the two facades.

Heat release rate. It is assumed that the fire occurred within this shop will only grow to a
maximum 2500 kW and spread to a squared surface area of 4 m2. Therefore, the equivalent diameter
for the fire source will be 2.25 m.
 Mean flame height. For estimating the mean flame height it has been used the formula derived
by Heskestad [4]:

L f  0.235Q 2 / 5  1.02D  3.08m

(1)
Where:
D is the diameter of a circular source (m); and
Q is the heat release rate (KW).
Average temperature of the flame
The mean temperature within the flaming region of the fire plume, can be determined using
McCaffrey’s correlations [4], choosing the constants η = 1/2 and κ = 6.8, from Table 4.1 [5] and an
ambient temperature = 20˚C:

(2)
Where:
Tf is the mean flame temperature;
T∞ is the ambient temperature.
Incident heat flux to a surface
The incident radiant heat flux to a target surface is calculated using the formula given in PD 7974-
1:2003[6]:

(3)
Where:
Φ is the configuration factor
E represents the total radiation emitted by unit area of a grey surface (emissive power).
ε the emissivity of the flame

σ = 5.67 x 10-11 [kW/m2] is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.

Calculation methods for the incident heat flux

In order to estimate the incident heat flux from a localized pool fire of maximum 2.25m diameter to
a remote surface, several methods are available in the literature, with different levels of complexity.
Point source model
The very simple models, based on empirical correlations approximate the fire as a point source and
the radiation is propagated radially. One of the simple calculation models has been developed by
Shokri and Beyler [7] based on test measurements. The method is given in SFPE Handbook, 3 rd.
edition. The incident heat flux, depends only on the flame diameter D, and the distance from the
centre of the pool fire to the target edge. The following empirical relation has been derived:

(4)
Radiant plane surface
The method, based on BRE 187 paper and detailed by Drysdale [8], assumes that the flame is
“seen” by the receiver as a rectangular plane having the dimensions equal with the flame projections
as the width as D- flame diameter and the height as Lf –mean flame height. The radiant flux is
calculated in the centre of the opposite plane divided into four squared panels. The total
configuration factor, Φ, for direct radiation from a rectangular plane to a parallel small element of
surface lying on the perpendicular from a point on the radiant rectangle is egual with the sum of the
partial configuration factors for the four panels as:

(5)
The incident radiant heat flux is estimated using the equation (3) from above, as:

(6)
Cylindrical flame model
Other more complex methods model the flame as a homogeneous cylinder of uniform temperature
having the radius r = D/2 m and the height equal with the mean flame height. The target is
considered a vertical surface at a distance L, away from the fire source. The configuration factors
are calculated using analytical relationships. The reference system can be taken in the centre of the
target surface, as in the Dayan and Tien method, or in the centre of the flame, as in Shokri and
Beyler method.
a) Dayan and Tian cylindrical flame model (described in [5])
The incident radiant flux to a vertical target is estimated as:

(7)
The normal vector of the element is perpendicular to the cylinder (the target surface is vertical),
so the unit normal vectors on x and z axis will be u = w = 0, and v = 1. Thus, the geometric factors
F1 and F3 are equal to zero in this case. The factor F2 has been calculated as:

(8)

Figure 1 Cylindrical flame source (adapted from Dayan and Tien [9])
The absorption coefficient, for plastics, is given as κ = 1.3.

(9)
The emissivity is approximated as:

(10)
Therefore, the incident radiant heat flux is:

(11)
 Results and discussion

The flame has been modelled using several models of different complexity available in the
literature. The summary of the results is given in Table 1, below:

Table 1 Summary of the results for the maximum radiative flux

Calculation method Maximum radiation heat flux Flame model

[kW/m2]
Shokri and Beyler 3.59 Point source
Configuration factors 2.02 Plane surface (D x Lf)
Dayan and Tien 4.67 Cylindrical flame

The average value for the incident radiation flux on the opposite façade is less than half of the
maximum admissible radiation level and is conservative because it is assumed that the flame has a
uniform temperature of 852 ˚C. In reality, the temperature will vary and it will be lower within the
upper plume.

Conclusion
The radiant incident heat flux on the adjacent façade has been evaluated based on the assumption
that the fire will only grow to 2500 kW and will not spread more than 2m x 2m, using empirical
calculation methods contained in PD 7974-1 and SFPE Handbook.
The analysis indicates that the radiation which would be received at the relevant boundary would
be less than the threshold of 12.6 kW/m2 recommended by the British Regulations.

References
[1] V.Babrauskas, Will the second item ignite?, National Bureau of Standards, Center for Fire
Research, Washington, DC, NBSIR 81-2271, 1981, pp.27-28.
[2] R.Chitty, External fire spread and building separation distances, BRE Fire Conference, June
2015.
[3] BRE 187:2014 British Research Establishment Report. External fire spread: building separation
and boundary distance, Part 2: Heat radiation from fires and building separation.
[4] G.Heskestad, Fire Plumes, SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering 2 nd. Ed. NFPA,
Quincy, MA, 1995.
[5] B.Karlsson, J.Quintiere, Enclosure Fire Dynamics, CRC Press, Boca Raton London,
Washington DC, 2000.
[6] PD 7974-1:2003 Part 1: Initiation and development of fire within the enclosure of origin.
[7] M. Shokri, C.L. Beyler, Radiation from larger pool fires, SFPE Journal of Fire Protection
Engineering, 4, 1, pp. 141-150, 1989.
[8] D.Drysdale, Introduction to fire dynamics, 3 rd. ed. University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK,
2014.
[9] C.L. Tien, K.Y. Stretton, Radiation heat transfer, SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection
Engineering 2 nd.ed., NFPA, Quincy, MA, 1995.