Park Service Room Fire Test Simulations Using the Harvard Level 5.2 Computer Fire Model

Abstract

The Fire Center has conducted a series of full-scale tests of hotel-like rooms. The furnishings were a bed with headboard "made up" with bedding, and a wooden sidetable. The ignition source was a wastebasket. The furniture was burned in the new N. B. S. furniture calorimeter and in a 2.44 × 3.66× 2.44 high room. As an adjunct to analysis of the test results, a series of simulations of the fire tests were run using the Harvard Fire Simulation. This report describes the simulations and their results.
The principal finding of the simulations was that the room had little effect in augmenting the burning of this fuel package. The simulation result was partially due to the burn algorithm used and partially due to the relatively large fire area and short assumed flame radiation extinction length. This finding might not have been true had the individual objects been smaller in area or their flames less opaque. A different burn algorithm might also have produced different results.