FDS Validation

[Kevin McGrattan <kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov>]

All

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI) have co-sponsored a 7 volume
fire model Verification and Validation (V&V) study. Volume 1
is an overall description of the project and a summary of
the main findings. Volumes 2-6 are individual reports on the
models FDT (Fire Dynamics Tools, a series of spread sheet
calcs developed by Naeem Iqbal and Mark Salley of the NRC),
FIVE (a similar set of spread sheet calcs developed by Fred
Mowrer of the U of Maryland on behalf of EPRI), CFAST (the
NIST zone model by Walter Jones, Rick Peacock, Paul Reneke
and Glenn Forney), MAGIC (a French zone model developed by
Bernard Gautier for Electricite de France, the French power
utility), and FDS (the only CFD model in the study). Volume
7 is a discussion of the validation experiments, in
particular their uncertainty. This report was written by
Anthony Hamins of NIST. Experimental uncertainty plays a key
role in the validation work, as it provides a metric by
which to assess the accuracy of the individual models.

The reports have recently been released for a 2 month public
comment period. The individual volumes can be downloaded
from: 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/docs4comment.html

I urge everyone with an interest in fire model V&V to look
at these reports and make comments if you think it
appropriate. The FDS report's appendix will eventually be
spun off and maintained as a third reference document, along
with the Tech Ref Guide and the User's Guide. We will
maintain the input files, experimental datasets, and test
reports. We will provide them as sample input files, and
re-run them with each new major upgrade of FDS. As we
improve the physics of various sub-models, we will add to
the validation suite. Currently, the NRC/EPRI validation
suite generally addresses fires of specified size in
relatively simple, well-ventilated compartments. We will
want to move towards more challenging fire scenarios as we
make improvements.

Kevin

-- 
Kevin McGrattan
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8663
Gaithersburg MD 20899-8663

Telephone: (301) 975 2712
FAX:       (301) 975 4052