Evaluation of the ability of fire dynamic simulator to simulate positive pressure ventilation in the laboratory and practical scenarios

Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV) is a tactic that is used on fire grounds worldwide everyday, both to improve tenability after the extinguishment of a fire and/or to improve firefighting conditions during fire attack. PPV has proven that it can be a useful tool on the fire ground, but if used improperly it can also kill or injure fire fighters and civilians. Data from three full-scale experiments are compared with simulations completed with the computational fluid dynamic model Fire dynamics simulator (FDS). The full-scale experiments characterize a PPV fan in an open atmosphere, in a simple room geometry and in a room fire. All experiments qualify and quantify the comparison of the experimental results with the FDS results. A concluding scenario is modeled utilizing the calibration of the full-scale experiments to examine the effects of PPV on a fire in a two-story, colonial style house.