This study is on the development of numerical algorithms and models for simulation of a structure response in a fire. The flow field from the fire plume is modeled using the 2D Navier-Stokes equations supplemented with a transport equation for thermal energy and solved using a vorticity-streamfunction approach. Coupling of the fluid to the FEM based structure model is based on the use of a level set method describing the structure geometry in the fluid domain. The level set function allows for computation of normal gradients at the fluid-solid interface to enforce local boundary conditions of heat and mass transfer at prescribed fluid-structure coupling time increments. Numerical simulations of a two-dimensional composite cantilever beam subject to convection heat loading from a fire plume are presented requiring coupling of both the thermal and mass transfer processes at the fluid-structure interface. Results are presented showing the thermal response of a composite beam to a fire plume and the sensitivity of the heating to fire location.

Volume Subject Area:
Heat Transfer
Topics:
Fire, Fluids, Simulation, Plumes (Fluid dynamics), Heat, Mass transfer, Algorithms, Boundary-value problems, Cantilever beams, Composite building materials, Composite materials, Computation, Computer simulation, Convection, Finite element methods, Finite element model, Flow (Dynamics), Geometry, Heating, Navier-Stokes equations, Structural response analysis, Thermal energy, Vorticity
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