Development of a model for mitigating fire spread in multi-storey buildings
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2019-06
Authors
Oluseyi, P.O.
Akinbulire, T.O.
Atunbi, C.T.
Akinyemi, M.I.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Engineering University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri- Nigeria
Abstract
In the developing nations that are located in the tropical region; there
is a growing trend of fire incidence in buildings without adequate
development of fire prevention and/or reduction protocol. Thus, this
study addresses the growth and spread of fire in multi-storey buildings. The rooms are structured as cells in order to reduce the flame spread
from a single fuel item, by heat release, to other neighbouring items or
rooms (otherwise known as cells). The philosophy is to reduce the
advent of vertical and horizontal fire spread. Thus, the mathematical
model for the spread of fire in buildings over a solid fuel surface is
therefore developed using the adaptation, development and simulation
of cellular automata (CA) discrete model. The von Neumann
neighbourhood cell configuration is adopted. Hence, the surface of the
fuel is analysed using a regular square array (i.e. cells), while the flame
spread is depicted as a series of ignitions of surface elements. In which
case, ignition of an element is evaluated by a combination of critical
surface ignition temperature and cellular automata discrete techniques. The work displays the movement of fire, from its origin of ignition to
other fuel igniting elements around it. Consequently, this spread to
other parts of the building. However, the technique presented in this
work attempts to reduce the rate of growth of the fire spread using the
predictive fire growth probability approach. In other words, the
application of the cellular automata, using a multi-storey building, is
herein presented. The study has potential to advance knowledge of
technical approach to stop fire spread in multi-storey building. Thus it
improves fire risk management as well as reducing magnitude of fire
disaster and losses in the multi-storey buildings.
Description
Keywords
fire modelling; fire spread; fire growth; multi-storey buildings
Citation
Oluseyi, et al: Development of a model for mitigating fire spread in multi-storey buildings. AZOJETE, 15(2):190-206. ISSN 1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818, www.azojete.com.ng