The fire scenarios currently used for structural fire design are based on traditional methods that derive from the extrapolation of existing fire test data. The traditional “furnace” geometry test allows a good circulation of the fire gases and a relatively homogeneous temperature distribution throughout the enclosure. These conditions are different from what is observed in real-situation fires. As a result, the need for a field model for an enclosure fire has increased significantly, and appropriate deterministic models are necessary for fire safety engineering. The effects of different strategies involving the opening of doors and windows with changes in the enclosure’s geometry were observed to gain an insight into the impact of how ventilation and geometry influence changes during the development of a fire. This article presents and discusses the results of the field model compared with similar tests and experiments described in the technical and scientific literature. Generating data using a field model reduces experimental costs and facilitates sensitivity analyses of the parameters of problems.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis became a popular solution as the complexity grew in applying the laws of physics directly to real fire scenarios in order to make analytical predictions. This fact became especially prevalent for fluid dynamics and heat transfer engineering problems for enclosure fire. The fire field model consists of the CFD code and the fire model. The CFD code is the core and provides the fire model with transport mechanisms for energy, momentum, mass. The fire model is a detailed specification of the fire description. The use of the fire field model in the enclosure strengthened our understanding of the actual fire scene, allowing us to fully characterize the time-dependent changes. The paper delivers a comprehensive review of the history, development, current state of field models and future predictions in enclosure fire field modeling.