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The Malveira fire test: Full-scale demonstration of fire modes in open-plan compartments

Hidalgo, JP; Goode, T; Gupta, V; Cowlard, A; Abecassis-Empis, C; Maclean, J; Bartlett, AI; ... Torero, JL; + view all (2019) The Malveira fire test: Full-scale demonstration of fire modes in open-plan compartments. Fire Safety Journal , 108 , Article 102827. 10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.102827. Green open access

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Abstract

This paper characterises the fire dynamics in the Large-Scale Demonstrator Malveira Fire Test, a full-scale fire experiment carried out in an industrial building in Portugal. The Malveira Fire Test is the second stage in the series of full-scale experimental programmes developed for the Real Fires for the Safe Design of Tall Buildings project at the University of Edinburgh. This experiment focuses on the fire dynamics in large open floor plan compartments. Results from this test provide relevant data for defining design fire input methodologies applied to compartments typically found in tall buildings. The test showed three distinct fire behaviour modes characterised by the ratio between the velocities of the fire front (Vs) and the burnout front (VBO); a travelling fire mode with Vs/VBO ≈ 1 a growing fire mode with Vs/VBO > 1 and a fully-developed fire mode with Vs/VBO → ∞. The three modes are correlated to the incident heat flux onto the fuel surface arising from the resulting compartment energy distribution. The energy distribution depends on the compartment characteristics, the fuel distribution and the resultingfluid mechanics. A de-scription of the instrumentation and analysis of results are presented to support a theoretical justification for thetransitions betweenfire modes.

Type: Article
Title: The Malveira fire test: Full-scale demonstration of fire modes in open-plan compartments
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.102827
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.102827
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Enclosure fire dynamics, Large-scale experiments, Compartment fire framework, Tall buildings
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Civil, Environ and Geomatic Eng
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10078631
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