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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Enclosure environment characterization testing for the base line validation of computer fire simulation codes

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6370614

This report describes a series of fire tests conducted under the direction of Sandia National Laboratories for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The primary purpose of these tests was to provide data against which to validate computer fire environment simulation models to be used in the analysis of nuclear power plant enclosure fire situations. Examples of the data gathered during three of the tests are presented, though the primary objective of this report is to provide a timely description of the test effort itself. These tests were conducted in an enclosure measuring 60x40x20 feet constructed at the Factory Mutual Research Corporation fires test facility in Rhode Island. All of the tests utilized forced ventilation conditions. The ventilation system was designed to simulate typical nuclear power plant installation practices and ventilation rates. A total of 22 tests using simple gas burner, heptane pool, methanol pool, and PMMA solid fires was conducted. Four of these tests were conducted with a full-scale control room mockup in place. Parameters varied during testing were fire intensity, enclosure ventilation rate, and fire location. Data gathered include air temperatures, air velocities, radiative and convective heat flux levels, optical smoke densities, inner and outer enclosure surface temperatures, enclosure surface heat flux levels, and gas concentrations within the enclosure in the exhaust stream.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (USA). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
6370614
Report Number(s):
NUREG/CR-4681; SAND-86-1296; ON: TI87010663
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English