Tomohiro Naruse

A Compartment Burning Rate Model for Various Scales

A model is presented that explains the mass loss rate in a compartment as a function of scale. The effect of ventilation is included in the model by the inclusion of the ambient oxygen concentration in the lower layer that results due to vent mixing. The model is executed in BRI2002, a zone model, capable of computing species and thermal conditions in the upper and lower compartment gas layers. Computations show good agreement with two different scale-down compartment fires for liquid fuel. The results can accurately distinguish scale effect from these experiments and allow us to focus on fundamentals of fire phenomena.

Verification Methodology of Vertical Fire Spread to the Upstairs Room via Openings and Facade Wall

The authors conducted an ISO 13785-2 modified large-scale facade fire tests in Tokyo University of Science and tentatively proposed the draft for the calculation method for vertical upstairs fire spreading based on those fire test results, prior to this study. And in this research, several modifications were carefully added to past calculation methods, especially regarding the calculation of temperature in the fireroom, detailed method of unifying multiple openings on the same floor for calculation, and the criteria for the occurrence of upstairs fire spreading. Detailed calculation methods are proposed for two different situations depending on the existence of an eave above the opening at the fireroom, respectively. Also, two different criteria for verification of vertical upstairs fire spreading were proposed, one of which is based on the maximum heat flux to the upstairs room (Method 1), while the other is based on the integrated value of heat flux over time of fire duration (Method 2). Using this newly modified calculation method, the effectiveness of 90 cm spandrel and 50 cm eave is demonstrated, respectively, in terms of practically preventing the occurrence of vertical upstairs fire spreading. Improved verification calculation methods (both Methods 1 and 2) are applied to four exiting office buildings in Japan and seven rooms of fire origin considered. Verification methods using calculation proposed in this study are proved to be able to practically evaluate the occurrence of vertical upstairs fire spreading, especially regarding noncombustible facades with openings in there.

Experimental Study of Time to Onset of Flashover in Classroom Size Compartment

A 3-year experimental research project, involving full-scale fire tests, was undertaken to investigate whether quasi-fire-resistive wooden building with supplemental fire safety measures, if necessary, could reach the equivalent level of the fire-resistive building, especially for safe egress of occupants. Flashover is one of the most important phenomena, relating to safe egress of the occupants. In this paper, the results of five types of fire tests are reported to investigate the effects of wood interior finish and loaded combustibles within the compartment with a floor area of 63 m2 and 150 m2, on the time to onset of flashover.