International Journal of Ventilation

ISSN: 1473-3315 (Print) 2044-4044 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjov20

Possible Air Pumping Action in a Room Fire

C.L. Chow, G.W. Zuo & W.K. Chow

To cite this article: C.L. Chow, G.W. Zuo & W.K. Chow (2012) Possible Air Pumping Action in a
Room Fire, International Journal of Ventilation, 11:1, 79-90

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733315.2012.11683972

Published online: 29 Mar 2016.

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Download by: [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] Date: 11 June 2016, At: 02:12
 International Journal of Ventilation ISSN 1473-3315 Volume 11 No 1 June 2012
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Possible Air Pumping Action in a Room Fire

C.L. Chow1, G.W. Zuo2 and W.K. Chow3
1
Hong Kong Fire Engineers Ltd., Room 22D-F, 315 Lockhart Road,
Wanchai, Hong Kong.
2
Department of Building Engineering, Harbin Engineering University,
Harbin, Heilongjiang China.
3
Research Centre for Fire Engineering, Department of Building Services Engineering,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.

Abstract

The air pumping effect of a fire plume, proposed years ago, to give a higher air intake rate through vertical
openings in a compartment fire is further investigated in this paper. Equations for the air intake rate
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through vertical openings found in the literature are reviewed. As most of the reported correlation
expressions were derived empirically from experiments, results might be different if the fire geometry,
fuel type and ambient conditions are different. Furthermore, most of the data on heat release rates in
earlier experiments were measured from the mass loss rate of fuel, not by the oxygen consumption
method. Values used therefore might deviate from the actual heat release rates. Aerodynamic flow
through a doorway, induced by a compartment fire, is commonly simulated by Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD). Factors which are difficult to control in experiments but affecting the doorway airflow
can be studied more easily with CFD.

In the study presented in this paper a two-room structure with a fire room connected to an adjacent room
through a door was selected. Different door widths linking the two rooms were set to give different
ventilation factors. A total number of 16 simulations using the popular CFD software, Fire Dynamics
Simulator, based on large eddy simulations, were carried out with different heat release rates of a fire in
the fire room. Predicted horizontal velocity components were used to estimate the air intake rates through
the door to justify the air pumping action. It appears that there is an air pumping effect of the fire plume
for cases with lower ventilation factors, even for pre-flashover fires. Results further confirmed earlier
experimental data on post-flashover fires. Therefore, further study on possible air pump effects in a room
fire is strongly recommended.

Key words: air pumping, computational fluid dynamics, CFD, fire simulation, fire plume, validation,
dimensions of openings, compartment fire.

1. Introduction Quintiere, 2000; Nakaya et al, 1986; Prahl and

The airflow rate through an opening in a
compartment fire is important in determining the
potential fire hazards (Harmathy, 1993). This
factor, together with other key risk parameters
including hot gas temperature, heat release of
combustibles stored and heat fluxes acting at the
compartment boundaries, determines the nature of a
room fire.
Numerous efforts have been made to derive the
correlation of airflow rates across the opening
(Babrauskas, 1980; Chow and Zou, 2005; Chow et
al, 2003; Delichatsios et al, 2004; Harmathy, 1972a,
1972b, 1979, 1980; Kawagoe, 1958; Karlsson and
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Emmons, 1975; Quintiere and Braven, 1978;
Rockett, 1976; Steckler et al, 1982, 1984; Tanaka et
al, 1985; Thomas, 1981). The first such approach
was the pressure hydrostatic model by Kawagoe
(1958). The temperature difference between the
indoor hot gas and outside cool air gives the driving
force for drawing outside air in and ejecting hot gas
out. Full-scale burning tests were performed to
derive the correlation expressions empirically for
airflow rates across openings. A linear expression
was derived for relating the airflow rate across an
opening with the ventilation factor (e.g. Babrauskas,
1980; Harmathy, 1972a, 1979, 1980; Prahl and
Emmons, 1975; Quintiere and Braven, 1978;
Rockett, 1976; Steckler et al, 1982, 1984; Thomas,

79

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1981). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
(Chow and Chow, 2009) can also be applied to
simulate the aerodynamics through a doorway
induced (e.g. Chow and Zou, 2005) by a
compartment fire. The predicted airflow pattern and
temperature contours were used to deduce the
airflow rates. The results can be applied to estimate
the minimum heat release rate to onset flashover
(Babrauskas, 1980) and the steady heat release rate
(e.g. Harmathy, 1993) for a ventilation-controlled
fire.
In addition to the driving force from the pressure
difference, derived from the thermal discontinuity in
the interface, the fire plume also entrains
(Harmathy, 1980, 1993) air into the room. However,
the air intake rate across the opening might not be
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proportional to the ventilation parameter as derived
from the pressure hydrostatic model approach. The
air pumping effect (Harmathy, 1980, 1993) of a fire
plume will give a much higher air intake rate
through openings than the value estimated from
empirical equations. The proportionality constant,
relating air intake rate with the ventilation factor, is
higher than that deduced from post-flashover fire
experiments. This phenomenon has been clearly
explained by Harmathy (1993). There are also
arguments that the oscillating airflow across
openings, particularly horizontal ceiling vents
(Epstein, 1989), are due to the relative magnitude of
the buoyancy and pressure-driven force (Chow
2009, 2010). The oscillation of airflow might lead
to flashover (Thomas, 1976) by taking the room fire
as a thermal system.
The air pumping action due to a fire plume reported
earlier by Chow and Zou (2005) is discussed in
terms of CFD analysis in this paper. Factors that are
difficult to control in experiments and affect the
resultant airflow can be adjusted relatively easily in
CFD simulations. However, there are always
queries about applying CFD to simulate building
fires (Chow and Chow, 2009). Consequently, hot
smoke tests (Chow, 2009) were used to justify
smoke exhaust design in large halls based on CFD.
Verification and validation of CFD predictions in a
fire environment (Mok and Chow, 2004) should be
carried out more vigorously. Studies on verifying
fire models including CFD (Chow, 2009) have been
undertaken with some preliminary reports published
(US Nuclear Regulatory Commission). In fact,
CFD has been demonstrated to be good for
estimating macroscopic flow parameters (Chow and
Chow, 2009). Therefore, CFD was applied to
estimate the airflow rate across a door in a room fire
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80
CL Chow, GW Zuo and WK Chow
in this paper. Equations describing the air intake
rate through vertical openings are described in the
literature as reviewed in the following. CFD
simulations were carried out (Chow and Zou, 2005)
on a two-room structure with a fire room connected
to an adjacent room by a door (Tanaka et al, 1985;
Nakaya et al, 1986). Different ventilation factors of
the door and heat release rates in the fire room have
been considered. The airflow rates across the
opening, estimated from CFD predicted air speeds
and temperatures, were then used to justify the air
pumping effect.
2. Hydrostatic Pressure Model
As reviewed by Harmathy (1993), Kawagoe (1958)
was the first to assume that air intake and smoke
spreading out through the opening are due to the
hydrostatic pressure induced by the temperature
difference between the outside cool air and inside
hot smoke. A smoke layer with discontinuous
density along the vertical direction was formed in a
room fire. The mass flow rate, due to temperature
differences, through a single vertical rectangular
opening connecting the rooms, was derived (e.g.
Quintiere and Braven, 1978) from Bernoulli’s
equation.
 g across the
The mass outflow rate of hot gas m
opening of height H and width W in a room with a
higher temperature TR on one side, and Ta on the
other (Tanaka et al, 1985; Chow and Zou, 2005) is:
g =
m
H 2g z 1 1
Co Wρ∞ T∞ ∫ ∫ ( − )dz′ ⋅ dz
N TR (z) N Ta (z′) TR (z′)
(1)
 a is:
The mass inflow rate of air to the room m
a =
m
N 2g N 1 1
Ci Wρ∞ T∞ ∫ ∫ ( − )dz′ ⋅ dz
0 Ta (z) z Ta (z′) TR (z′)
(2)
In the above equations, Co is the inflow coefficient,
Ci is the outflow coefficient and N is the neutral
plane height from the sill. The temperatures Ta(z)
and TR(z) are functions of the height z and z´ from
the sill. T∞ is the ambient air temperature and ρ∞ is
the ambient air density.
 International Journal of Ventilation ISSN 1473-3315 Volume 11 No 1 June 2012
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g
It is very complicated to calculate m and  a ∝ Vf
m (6)
 a using Equations (1) and (2). These equations
m
 g is the sum of
Note that the mass outflow rate m
were thus simplified by putting in values of
physical constants and appropriate experimental the inflow rate m f,
 a and the fuel supply rate m
data. A two-room structure with an opening
between a fire room and an adjacent room was g =m
m  a +m
f (7)
constructed by Tanaka and coworkers (Nakaya et
al, 1986; Tanaka et al, 1985). A pool fire was put
Typical values of m  f for common fuels
in the fire room. Airflow rates across the opening
were measured. Two equations on m  g and encountered in a fire are from 0.01 to 0.05 kgs-1 per
m3 of fuel. Therefore, m  f is much smaller than
 a were derived.
m
 a and can be ignored to give:
m
g =
m g ≈m
m a (8)

2g ⎡ 1 1 12 2 1 1 −1
Co Wρ∞ T∞ ⎢( − ) (H h − N)3 2 + ( − ) The air intake rate is taken to be same as the hot gas
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TR ⎢⎣ Ta1 TR 3 Ta 2 TR out flow rate through the opening for a post-

⎧⎡ flashover fire.
⎤ ⎫
32

⎪ ⎢( 1 − 1 )(H h − N) + ( 1 − 1 )(H − H h ) ⎥ ⎪
⎪⎪⎣⎢ Ta1 TR Ta 2 TR ⎦⎥ ⎪⎪ Putting the experimental results into Equation (4),
⋅⎨ 32 ⎬ the following expression was reported by Tanaka
⎪ ⎡ 1 1 ⎤ ⎪
⎪− ⎢( − )(H h − N) ⎥ ⎪ and coworkers (Nakaya et al, 1986; Tanaka et al,
⎩⎪ ⎣⎢ Ta1 TR ⎦⎥ ⎭⎪ 1985):
(3)
 a = 0.46Vf
m (9)
32
2 1 Ta ⎛N⎞
 a = C i WH 3 2
m ρ ∞ T∞ 2g (1 − 1 )1 2 ⎜ ⎟ An earlier study by Chow and Zou (2005) on
3 Ta1 TR ⎝H⎠ further simplifying Equation (4), based on CFD
(4) g
simulation, gave the following expression on m
in terms of Vf :
In the above equation, H h is the height of the
boundary between the hot gas and cold air layers in  a = 0.47 Vf
m (10)
the adjacent room, Ta1 and Ta 2 are the
temperatures of the cold air and hot gas layers in the Equation (10) is very similar to the empirical
room adjacent to the fire room. These two correlation equation given by Equation (9) reported
equations, derived from hydrostatics, are still by Tanaka and coworkers (Nakaya et al, 1986;
complicated for evaluating m  g and m a. Tanaka et al, 1985).

A common equation, deduced in the literature (e.g.

Babrauskas, 1980), used for estimating air intake
3. Simplification of the Flow Equation
rate through openings in a room fire is:
Equations (3) and (4) based on the hydrostatic
 a = 0.5 Vf
m (11)
pressure model (Nakaya et al, 1986; Tanaka et al,
1985) appear to be simpler than Equations (1) and
(2). Equation (3) is further simplified to calculate
the mass outflow rate m  g using the ventilation 4. Air Pumping Action
factor Vf given by: As reported by Rockett (1976), a hydrostatic
pressure equation can be set up that relates the
Vf = WH 3/2
(5) pressure inside and outside the fire room. The total
plume flow upward at the height with thermal
 a is proportional to Vf
For a fully-developed fire, m discontinuity at the layer interface must be equal to
giving: the flow of gas out of the room. The total air
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81
 CL Chow, GW Zuo and WK Chow
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entrainment rate below the thermal discontinuity is Thus for the convenience of changing dimensions
equal to the airflow rate into the room. An empirical this term replaces Vf .
expression of the plume flow gives the neutral plane
height. The burning rate of fuel R is found to be not too
sensitive and contributes to a maximum of only 10%
The pumping effect due to fire-induced current in of m a under extreme conditions. The value of α
the room was studied by Harmathy (1972, 1993) was initially set at approximately 0.7 and later taken
using an analytical model. In this work the airflow to be 0.81.
rate across the door m  a deduced from the
hydrostatic pressure model for hot gas of  a is approximately constant.
For Tg above 300 oC, m
temperature Tg, and air of temperature Ta was
A dimensionless ratio on airflow rate β can be
written in terms of the burning rate of fuel R, a
defined as m  a over Φ and used to simplify the
constant α and the ventilation parameter Φ as:
calculation:
1
T
α(1 + a ) 2 a
m 8
8 Tg β= = αY (14)
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a =
m 3
Φ (12) Φ 3
3
⎡ Tg 13 R 3⎤
2 2
where
⎢1 + ( ) (1 + ) ⎥
⎣ Ta a ⎦
m Ta
1+
Tg
The ventilation parameter Φ was defined by Y= 3
(15)
Harmathy as: ⎡ Tg ⎤ 1 2

⎢1 + ( ) ⎥
3

Φ = ρ a g Vf (13) ⎣ Ta ⎦

α = 0.81

0.14
0.135
0.46
0.47
β

α = 0.7

Tg/ Ta

Figure 1. Airflow rate against hot gas temperature.

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82
 International Journal of Ventilation ISSN 1473-3315 Volume 11 No 1 June 2012
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Curves of β against Tg/Ta for α of 0.7 and 0.81 are R can be neglected as argued above. The value of
shown in Figure 1. It is observed that β approaches a 1

constant for higher Tg. The value of β was found to χ is usually between 1 to 2 and is very close to 1
2

be 0.1 as reported by Prahl and Emmons (1975) 1

using experimental data on a bedroom fire described for large openings. In general χ can be taken as
2

by Croce and Emmons (Harmathy, 1993; Croce and 1.15 as reviewed by Harmathy (1993).
Emmons, 1973). However, a higher value of 0.145
by Harmathy (1972, 1993) was reported. Approximating Equation (16) by neglecting R and
1

Taking ρ a as 1.184 kgm at 25 C and g as 9.8 ms ,

-3 o -2 taking χ as 1.15 gives:
2

ρa g is approximately 1.184 9.8 or

 a = 0.138 ∗ 1.15Φ
-2 -2
m (17)
3.71 kgm s . The value of β is then 0.5/3.71 or
0.135 using Equation (14); and of value 0.46/3.71 or This gives β a value of 0.1587.
0.124 from Equation (9); and of 0.47/3.71 or 0.127
from Equation (10). These values are all closer to The airflow rate with pumping effect is therefore
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that of 0.145 used by Harmathy (1980, 1993), and related to Vf as follows:

higher than 0.1 used by many others (Harmathy
1972, 1980, 1993; Croce and Emmons, 1973) as  a = 0.5888Vf
m (18)
shown in Figure 1.

 a , with the pumping action of a

An equation for m
5. Numerical Experiments
fire plume specified by a constant χ was proposed
by Harmathy (1979, 1993): Airflow rates across an opening induced by a fire in
a two-room structure of size similar to that used by
1
Tanaka and co-workers (Nakaya et al, 1986; Tanaka
 a = 0.138Φχ − 0.53R
m 2
(16)
et al, 1985) has been studied (Chow and Zou, 2005)

Fire room Adjacent room

1.80
W
2.40

2.35 1.60 1.80

0.60
z 0.60
y
3.45

x
3.55 3.45
All measurements in m
Figure 2. The two-room structure.

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83
 CL Chow, GW Zuo and WK Chow
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

numerically with Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS)
(McGrattan et al, 2008a, 2008b). This is a CFD
software based on large eddy simulation developed
at the Building and Fire Research Laboratory,
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
USA. Turbulent motion is decomposed into large
and small-scale motions. Small-scale motions are
simulated by subgrid-scale modelling and large-
scale flows calculated numerically by solving the
differential equations concerned.
The above two-room structure with a fire room
connected to an adjacent room through a door is
illustrated in Figure 2. The fire room is of length
3.55 m, width 3.45 m and height 2.35 m. A square
burner of size 0.6 m by 0.6 m was located at the
centre of the fire room. The adjacent room is of
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A three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system
was assigned with 86400 cells divided into 100, 36,
and 24 parts along the x, y and z directions. The
computing domain was extended 2.5 m outside the
adjacent room to give a proper description of free
boundaries. This coarse grid system has been
demonstrated by Chow and Zou (2005) to be good
enough for simulating airflow across the door
between the two rooms of this particular problem.
The door connecting the two rooms was of height
1.6 m and variable widths W of 0.29 m, 0.44 m,
0.59 m and 0.89 m, giving values of Vf for the door
from 0.59 m5/2 to 1.80 m5/2 as shown in Table 1. The
thermal power of the fire varied from 86 kW to
600 kW in the CFD-FDS study.

length 3.45 m, width 3.45 m and height 2.40 m; with A total of 16 sets of CFD-FDS simulations for
a door 1.8 m wide and 1.8 m high to the outside. different W and thermal power values of the fire

Table 1. CFD predicted mass flow rates.

Coarse grid Fine grid

Opening Fuel Heat  a from 0.5 Vf by FDS version by FDS version
Vf m
width 5/2 supply rate release rate 3.01 5.5.3
/m / kgs-1
W/m / lmin-1 / kW  a / kgs-1
m  a / kgs-1
m
50 86 0.27 0.24
100 171 0.31 0.28
0.29 0.59 0.295
250 428 0.32 0.32
350 600 0.34 0.34
100 171 0.425 0.38
0.44 0.89 200 342 0.445 0.47 0.44
300 514 0.48 0.47
50 86 0.465 0.40
150 257 0.57 0.53
200 342 0.58 0.56
0.59 1.19 0.595
250 428 0.58 0.57
300 514 0.56 0.58
350 600 0.56 0.59
150 257 0.76 0.66

0.89 1.80 300 514 0.9 0.80 0.77

350 600 0.80 0.78

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84
 International Journal of Ventilation ISSN 1473-3315 Volume 11 No 1 June 2012
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were previously carried out as summarised in
Table 1 (Chow and Zou, 2005). Air temperature
and horizontal air speed across the door between the
two adjacent rooms were predicted. The intake
airflow rate at each computing cell of the door was
computed from the predicted horizontal air speed
and vertical plane area of each control volume. The
air intake rate was calculated by summing up all the
intake airflow rate across each computing cell of the
door.
These simulations have subsequently been repeated
using a much more powerful version of FDS
(version 5.5.3). In this revised approach, a much
finer grid system of 1382400 cells, divided into 400,
72 and 48 cells along the x-, y- and z-directions was
used. The simulation time of every case was 300 s.
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Vf in Figure 3. The correlation expression relating
m a and Vf with correlation 0.9799 was derived
based on CFD-FDS version 3.01 results with coarse
grids:
 a = 0.4619 Vf
m (19)
The correlation expression between m  a and Vf
fitted from CFD-FDS version 5.5.3 results with fine
grids with correlation 0.8413 is fitted:
 a = 0.4397 Vf
m (20)
Equation (19) with a coarse grid is very similar to
the expression deduced from the experiments as

reported by Tanaka and coworkers (Nakaya et al,

The computing time on a personal computer with 1986; Tanaka et al, 1985) given by Equation (9).
2.0 GHz CPU was about 16 days for the 16 Equation (20) with a fine grid gave lower airflow
simulations. rates. The lines given by the common expression
described by Equation (11) and Equations (19) and
The revised results are also shown in Table 1. (20) deduced from CFD-FDS, with coarse and fine
grids respectively, are plotted together with the CFD
predicted results in Figure 3.
6. Deriving an Empirical Equation from the
CFD Analysis It is observed from Table 1 that for low Vf of
0.59 m5/2 for a fire with a higher heat release rate,
 a deduced from
Airflow rates across the door on m the CFD-FDS predicted m  a , for both fine and
CFD-FDS are shown in Table 1 and plotted against coarse grids, is higher than the values deduced from

A
Air mass flow rate ma / kgs-1

B
C
D
.
Air pumping
A 0.5888 Vf
action
B 0.5 Vf
C 0.4619 Vf
Low heat D 0.4397 Vf
release
× Harmathy (1980)
rate 86 kW
O Quintiere et al. (1984)

• CFD-FDS coarse grids

+ CFD-FDS fine grids

Ventilation factor Vf / m5/2

Figure 3. Air mass flow rate against ventilation factor.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

85

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the hydrostatic pressure model given by Equation
(11). A possible explanation is due to the air
pumping effect resulting from air entrainment of the
fire plume. Such an air pumping effect, studied
through CFD-FDS, appears for cases with lower
ventilation factors, up to Vf valuesof 0.89 m5/2.
The equation describing air pumping action, given
by Equation (18), is also plotted. The CFD-FDS
results agreed with Equation (18) for low Vf.
Further, experimental results on post-flashover fires
with lower Vf up to 0.125 m5/2 reported by
Harmathy (1980, 1993) are also plotted in Figure 3.
The measured values of m  a are higher than those
deduced from the hydrostatic equations for low Vf.
This further confirms that the air pumping effect of
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the fire plume is very obvious for openings with low
ventilation factor.
However, the CFD results illustrated that the air
pumping effect (Harmathy 1980, 1993) is not
significant for ventilation factors higher than
0.89 m5/2. Possibly this is because large openings
might give lower pressure differences between
inside and outside for a fire with a low heat release
rate. This is very obvious for the simulation of Vf of
1.19 m5/2 and a 86 kW fire as shown in Figure 3.
Experimental data by Quintiere et al. (1984) on
room fire tests are also shown. The value of m a
estimated by the common empirical expression
given by Equation (11), deduced from the
hydrostatic pressure model, should be watched for
large openings with a high ventilation factor.
Central to the credibility of any results coming from
such a study is the quality of the numerical
predictions with in-depth experimental validation
and verification. This is a global problem referred
to all similar studies on fire-induced airflow
(Kumar, 2009; Kumar et al, 2010) and indoor
aerodynamics (Chen, 2009). Accurate and
meaningful estimates of the mass flow rate depends
not only upon the CFD prediction of the flow in the
rising fire plume, the vertical stratification and the
exchange of air across the compartment opening,
but also on in-depth experimental studies. CFD
software capable of simulating thermal radiation,
combustion in burning fuel and turbulent flow
simultaneously in a room fire is not yet available.
CFD predictions with FDS on the current airflow
problem related to turbulent exchange flow across
the opening has been justified (Chow and Zou,
2005). Grid size analysis of earlier versions of the
CFD-FDS package to resolve the flow in the a
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
86
CL Chow, GW Zuo and WK Chow
turbulent fire plume was reported by Ma and
Quintiere (2003), and comparisons of different
versions in a close chamber fire by Chow and Zou
(2009). However, in depth studies on how the
location of the external (i.e. external to the
compartment) boundary conditions influences the
predictions and main result have just started (Chow
and Chow, 2009; Chow and Cai 2012).
7. Conclusion
CFD was applied to study possible air pumping
action (Harmathy 1980, 1993) due to a plume in a
compartment fire. It was demonstrated that a fire
plume would entrain more air through openings in
the compartment. Consequently, air intake rates
through the opening would be higher than estimated
from a hydrostatic pressure model. This explains
why the proportionality constant in relating air
intake rate to ventilation factor in Equation (18) is
higher. This point is illustrated by CFD predictions
even with a pre-flashover fire. A room fire before
flashover would have a thermal plume, and so the
pumping effect is very obvious. A fire plume might
not form in a post-flashover fire, depending on the
amount of combustibles. Air pumping action will
be higher for openings of lower ventilation factors.
This agrees with the empirical equation on airflow
rate across openings deduced by Harmathy (1980,
1993) with experimental data on post-flashover
fires.
As demonstrated in the above, based on preliminary
numerical analysis using CFD-FDS and measured
results reported in the literature (Harmathy, 1980;
Quintiere et al, 1984), an insight into the rates of air
exchange across a doorway induced by a fire plume
is offered. Even such preliminary CFD predictions
agree with the early proposals of Harmathy (1980,
1993) on the presence of an air pumping effect of a
fire plume, at least under low ventilation factors and
fire with higher heat release rates. This would give
more air to ignite combustible vapours easily,
particularly for fuel vapours mixed with those which
are easier to ignite through bridge-mixing (Chow et
al, 2006). Therefore, a big post-flashover fire would
have a higher heat release rate and longer duration
in drawing more air to sustain combustion.
It shouuld be noted that most building fires at the
post-flashover stage are labelled as ventilation-
controlled. At least four key factors (Harmathy,
1993) would affect the burning duration of the post-
flashover fire. These are the air intake rate, hot gas
 International Journal of Ventilation ISSN 1473-3315 Volume 11 No 1 June 2012
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
temperature, heat release rate of the combustibles,
and heat flux lost at the compartment boundaries. A
higher air intake rate due to the pumping action of
the fire plume would give a bigger fire.
The understanding of post-flashover fire is very
limited. This might explain why several firemen
were killed recently while fighting against post-
flashover fires (The Standard 2007, 2010). More
studies on post-flashover fires should be carried out
to identify the right fire-fighting techniques. It is
proposed to study airflow rate across openings with
heat release rate measured simultaneously as
reported earlier (Chow et al. 2003) on justifying
flashover equations.
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Acknowledgement
The work described in this paper is supported by a
grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region, China for the
project “Appropriate safety for lift shafts and
adjacent lobbies of evacuation elevator systems for
supertall buildings under big fires” (PolyU
5148/08E) with account number B-q11T.
Nomenclature
Ci outflow coefficient of vent
Co inflow coefficient of vent
H height of opening
Hh height of boundary between hot gas
and cold air layers in the adjacent
room
a
m mass inflow rate of air to the room
f
m fuel supply rate
g
m mass outflow rate of hot gas
N neutral plane height from the sill
R burning rate of fuel
Ta air temperature in the room
Tg hot gas temperature
TR air temperature in the adjacent room
T∞ ambient air temperature
Ta1 , Ta 2 temperatures of cold air and hot gas
layers in the room adjacent to the fire
room
Ta (z) , TR (z) temperatures
Vf ventilation factor
W width of opening
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87
z , z′ height from the sill
α a constant in air flow rate equation
β a dimensionless ratio on air flow rate
ρ∞ ambient air density
Φ ventilation parameter of opening
χ pumping action constant
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