TABLE OF CONTENTS In this chapter, as discussed in the introduction of Chapter 11, the spread of smoke in a building is simulated by transforming a deterministic model into a stochastic model through adding random terms to the model equations. The underlying deterministic model is presented in Ref. [35]. The stochastic model is more fully described in Ref. [46].
The building considered for the simulation is a 10-storey building with a stairwell, corridors and compartments. The simulation is limited to spread in the stairwell, corridors on the floors and between levels.
The National Fire Protection Association [2] defines smoke as consisting of the airborne solid and liquid particulate and gases evolved when a material undergoes pyrolysis or combustion, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the gases. The predominant hazards to humans exposed to products of combustion include heat, visual obscurity and narcosis. Narcosis results from the inhalation of asphyxiants and irritation of the upper respiratory tracts. Delays due to visual obscurity, panic and disorientation results in further inhalation of toxic gases.
Since the conditions vary along a large enclosure, it is reasonable to divide it into a number of finite volumes and apply an assumption of uniform condition to each individual volume. Each individual volume can then be treated as a node in a network. The connections between nodes may represent openings or imaginary boundaries. This network approach is capable of predicting the temporal and spatial variations of the quantities of...
