Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T21:51:39.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CFD fire simulation of the Swissair flight 111 in-flight fire – Part 1: Prediction of the pre-fire air flow within the cockpit and surrounding areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

F. Jia ,
M. K. Patel ,
E. R. Galea ,
A. Grandison  and
J. Ewer
F. Jia
Affiliation:
Fire Safety Engineering Group, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK
M. K. Patel
Affiliation:
Fire Safety Engineering Group, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK
E. R. Galea
Affiliation:
Fire Safety Engineering Group, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK
A. Grandison
Affiliation:
Fire Safety Engineering Group, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK
J. Ewer
Affiliation:
Fire Safety Engineering Group, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The SMARTFIRE computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to predict the ‘possible’ behaviour of airflow as well as the spread of fire and smoke within a Swissair configured McDonnell Douglas MD-11 commercial transport aircraft. This work was undertaken by the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich as part of Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada, Fire & Explosion Group’s investigation into the in-flight fire occurrence onboard Swissair Flight 111 (SR111): TSB Report Number A98H0003. The main aims of the CFD analysis were to develop a better understanding of the possible effects, or lack thereof, of numerous variables relating to the in-flight fire. This assisted investigators in assessing possible fire dynamics for cause and origin determination. In Part 1, the numerical analyses to pre-fire airflow patterns within the cockpit and its vicinity are presented. The pre-fire simulations serve two ends. One is to provide insight into the flow patterns within the cockpit and its vicinity and further supportive numerical evidence for the airflow flight test observations. The other is to provide plausible initial flow conditions for fire simulations. In this paper, some flow patterns at a number of primary locations within the cockpit and its vicinity are highlighted and the predicted flow patterns are compared with the findings from the airflow flight tests. The predicted patterns are found to be in good qualitative agreement with the experimental test findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 110 , Issue 1103 , January 2006 , pp. 41 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2006 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada, In-flight fire leading to collision with water – Swissair Transport Limited McDonnell Douglas MD-11 HB-IWF Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia 5 nm SW 2 September 1998, Report Number A98H0003, 2003.Google Scholar
2. Galea, E.R., On the field modelling approach to the simulation of enclosure fires, J Fire Protection Engineering, 1989, 1, (1), pp 11–22.Google Scholar
3. Combustion Fundamentals of Fire, Cox, G. (ED), Academic Press, 1995.Google Scholar
4. Yan, Z. and Holmstedt, G., Investigation of the dance hall fire in Gothenburg, October 1998 – a comparison between human observation and CFD simulation, Fire Safety Science – Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium, 2001, pp 951–963.Google Scholar
5. Woodburn, P.J. and Britter, R.E., CFD simulations of a tunnel fire – Part I, Fire safety J, 26, pp 35–62, 1996.Google Scholar
6. Simcox, S., Wilkes, N.S and Jones, I.P., Computer simulation of the flows of hot gases from the fire at King’s Cross Underground Station, Fire Safety J, 1992, 18, pp 49–73.Google Scholar
7. Ingason, H., Wickstrom, U. and Van Hees, P., The Gothenburg discotheque fire investigation, Fire Safety Science – Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium, 2001, pp 965–976.Google Scholar
8. Pantakar, S.V., Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Intertext Books, 1980, McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
9. Ewer, J., Jia, F., Grandison, A., Galea, E.R. and Patel, M.K., Smartfire V3.0 User Guide and Technical Manual, Fire Safety Engineering Group, 2002, University of Greenwich, UK, 2002.Google Scholar
10. Taylor, S., Petridis, M., Knight, B., Ewer, J., Galea, E.R. and Patel, M. K., SMARTFIRE: An integrated computational fluid dynamics code and expert system for fire field modelling, Fire Safety Science – Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium, 1997, pp 1285–1296.Google Scholar
11. Ewer, J., Galea, E.R., Patel, M.K., Taylor, S., Knight, B. and Petridis, M., SMARTFIRE: An intelligent CFD based fire model, Fire protection Engineering, 10, (1), pp 13–27, 1999.Google Scholar
12. Taylor, S., Galea, E., Patel, M.K., Petridis, M., Knight, B. and Ewer, J., SMARTFIRE: An intelligent fire field model, proceedings interflam 96, Cambridge, 1996, UK, pp 671–680.Google Scholar
13. Wang, Z., Jia, F., Galea, E.R., Patel, M.K. and Ewer, J., Simulating one of the CIB W14 round robin test cases using the SMARTFIRE fire field models, Fire Safety J, 2001, 36, pp 661–677.Google Scholar
14. Kumar, S., Gupta, A.K. and Cox, G., Effects of thermal radiation on the fluid dynamics of compartment fires, Fire Safety Science – Proc of the Third Intl Symp, 1991, pp 345–354.Google Scholar
15. Raithby, G.D. and Chui, E.H., A finite volume method for predicting a radiant heat transfer in enclosures with participating media, J Heat Transfer, May 1990, 112, pp 415–423.Google Scholar
16. Magnussen, B.F. and Hjertager, B.H., On mathematical modelling of turbulent combustion with special emphasis on soot formation and combustion, 16th Symp (Int) on Combustion, the Combustion Institute, 1977, pp 719–729.Google Scholar
17. Grandison, A.J., Galea, E.R. and Patel, M.K., Development of standards for fire field models. Report on Phase 1 Simulations, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Fire Research Division, Fire Research Division, Research Report 2/2003, 2003.Google Scholar
18. Grandison, A.J., Galea, E.R. and Patel, M.K., Development of standards for fire field models. Report on SMARTFIRE Phase 2 Simulations, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Fire Research Division, Fire Research Division, Research Report 1/2003, 2003.Google Scholar
19. Quintiere, J.G., The effects of angular orientation on flame spread over thin materials, DOT/FAA/AR-99/86, US Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, 1999.Google Scholar
20. Mayavi visualizer: http://mayavi.sourceforge.net/ Google Scholar
21. Femsys: http://www.femsys.co.uk/ Google Scholar
22. Rhino: http://www.rhino3d.com/ Google Scholar