A comparative numerical study of turbulence models for the simulation of fire incidents: Application in ventilated tunnel fires

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to compare the overall performance of two turbulence models used for the simulation of fire scenarios in ventilated tunnels. Two Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes turbulence models were used; the low-Re k–ω SST and the standard k–ε model with wall functions treatment. Comparison was conducted on two different fire scenarios. The varied parameters were the heat release rate and the ventilation rate. Results predicted by the two turbulence models were also compared to the results produced from the commercial package Ansys Fluent. Quite faster simulations were performed using the k–ε turbulence model with wall functions and our findings, as to the basic characteristics of smoke movement, were in good agreement with Ansys Fluent ones.

Keywords

• tunnel fire
• ventilation
• turbulence models comparison
• numerical study