Now I'm doing my research on the fire simulation in atrium. I need to simulate the fire happened in an atrium with complex geometry, I want to include the combustion, which could give the shape of fire plume, and the sprinkler water spray interaction. I have used the commerical software such as CFX and PHOENICS and SOFIE for such things. I also develop the software myself. but all are not so good. I want to try the FIDAP, but I don't know whether it is good enough for such situation. I heard from one guy that there are one software was developed especially for fire simulation. Could any experts tell me that which is the best software for such simulation, especially easy for generating grid system of complex atrium geometry.

Thanks in advance!

You could also ask vendors such as STAR-CD and Fluent for their direct comments. Most commercial CFD codes claim to be able to simulate fire. But the combination of fire and water spray interaction could be a new application.

The combination of fire and water sprays is not a new combination in CFD. Researchers in the SINTEF/NTNU environment in Norway have used their in-house code Kameleon FireEx for such simulations for years. I don't know anything about the public availability of the software, however. Try looking for more info on their web pages, starting, for instance, at:

http://www.efi.sintef.no/publ/aarsbe...k_Kameleon.htm

Regs. Lars Ola

Hi, I am working in the field of fire protection. Currently I am working with Fire Dynamics Simulator under development of BRFL @ NIST. Goto http://fire.nist.gov/fds/ , you will find it is the code just you want. Good luck! Tingguang

Thank tingguang very much for so useful information. It's quite good for simulating the fire in atrium and internation with sprinkler water spray. But it seem do not support the body fitted grid system, such as the atrium with irregular geometry.Am I right?

Yes. They used the Poisson solver, so only orthorgonal cordinates are used. It is very difficult to specify a circle or curve. Generally, we use several simple cubes to construct complex structure. And for the compartment fire, there is no great demand for geometrical considerations. They try to use simple submodels, so the result may not good, but it is a useful tool for engineering purpose. Currently, Kevin McGrattan is lecturing on this software in my class. If you have any questions, I can ask him for you. Tingguang