A blocked-off-region strategy to compute fire-spread scenarios involving internal flammable targets

A finite-volume blocked-off-region procedure is developed to represent internal flammable targets in fire-spread scenarios. In this procedure, the computational domain includes both gas and solid regions. The standard numerical scheme is modified to render hydrodynamically inactive the solid regions and to match the interface conditions at the burning solid surface correctly. A two-grid refinement procedure is used to solve the conjugate heat and mass transfer problem accurately. The first large-scale scenario concerns the flame spread over a vertical panel exposed to a burner flame. Second, the procedure is used to simulate cone calorimeter tests of particle board. For the latter application, the predicted mass loss rates are in qualitative agreement with experimental data.