Challenge

Full-scale fire simulators are used to train fire crews using controlled gas fires distributed across representative structures such as aircraft or fuel-storage installations. The simulator structure is protected from excessive temperatures by a continuously flowing film of cooling water. The objective was to develop a user-friendly engineering application capable of predicting surface temperatures throughout the simulator and determining the water flow rates required to maintain acceptable structural temperatures.

Engineering Approach

A series of mathematical models representing the principal heat-transfer mechanisms were developed and integrated into a bespoke numerical solver. The model accounted for fire-source behaviour, three-dimensional thermal radiation, structural geometry, heat transfer through the structure and cooling by the flowing water film. The resulting numerical method calculated the temperature field across the simulator surface and allowed the effect of fire configuration, geometry and cooling-water flow to be investigated rapidly. A simple user interface was developed so that the model could be used without requiring specialist knowledge of the underlying mathematical analysis.

Outcome

The completed software provided a practical engineering tool for predicting simulator surface temperatures and establishing the cooling-water requirements for different fire, geometry and operating conditions.