FIRETEC evaluation against the FireFlux experiment: preliminary results

Abstract

Local dynamic or thermodynamic variables that are the primary time and space dependent variables predicted by the FIRETEC physics-based model of fire behaviour, including gas velocity and gas temperature, have not been tested against experimental measurements to date. In the present study, we attempt to reproduce the FireFlux experiment with the FIRETEC model and we compare the predicted time evolution of wind velocity components and temperatures above the fire to data measured on a tower up to 43 meters above ground level. Given the complex and somewhat uncertain wind and ignition scenario that cannot be exactly reproduced by the model simulation, FIRETEC captured well the timing and magnitude of downdrafts, updrafts and temperature variations observed during the experiment when the fire plume crossed the measurement tower. The drawbacks of the experimental measurements and the influence of ambient wind fluctuations that cannot all be captured by the model do not allow conclusive comparisons regarding turbulent statistics and fluxes during the fire period.