Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

On the fluid mechanics of fires

Journal Article · · Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
OSTI ID:752061

Fluid mechanics research related to fire is reviewed with focus on canonical flows, multiphysics coupling aspects, experimental and numerical techniques. Fire is a low-speed, chemically-reacting, flow in which buoyancy plans an important role. Fire research has focused on two canonical flows, the reacting boundary-layer and the reacting free plume. There is rich, multi-lateral, bi-directional, coupling among fluid mechanics and scalar transport, combustion, and radiation. There is only a limited experimental fluid-mechanics database for fire due to measurement difficulties in the harsh environment, and the focus within the fire community on thermal/chemical consequences. Increasingly, computational fluid dynamics techniques are being used to provide engineering guidance on thermal/chemical consequences and to study fire phenomenology.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US); Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
752061
Report Number(s):
SAND2000-0512J
Journal Information:
Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Journal Name: Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Fluid dynamics of large area fires
Conference · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983 · HTD (Publ.) (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.); (United States) · OSTI ID:5276126

Control of the movement of a fluid plume by injection and production procedures
Conference · Mon Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1983 · OSTI ID:5790449

Summary of a graded approach to fire hazard analysis
Conference · Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · OSTI ID:10170459