The Effect of the Fuel Location and Ventilation Factor on the Fire Dynamics of Informal Settlement Dwellings

Abstract

Three full-scale experimental compartment fires are compared to investigate the effect of the fuel location and the ventilation factor on under ventilated thermally thin bounded ISO-9705 compartments. Wood cribs were used as the fuel load and the crib placement was varied between two locations (back and middle) to study the effect of the fuel location. Furthermore, the ventilation conditions were changed from a door and window (i.e., ventilation factor of 2.58 m5/2) to only a door (i.e., ventilation factor of 2.26 m5/2) for the scenario where the cribs were placed at the back of the compartment. The novelty of this work lies in its examination of the time to flashover, gas layer temperature, heat release rate, and external radiative heat fluxes, specifically considering the impact of fuel location and ventilation factor. It was observed that placing the fuel package in the middle of the compartment led to a longer growth phase, hotter gas layer temperature, a higher Heat Release Rate (HRR) needed for flashover ($$\dot{q}_{fo}$$ q ˙ fo ), and higher external radiative heat fluxes through openings. It was also found that, decreasing the ventilation factor decreased the heat losses and therefore the $$\dot{q}_{fo}$$ q ˙ fo . Decreased ventilation also affected the height of the neutral plane, as one would expect, and the shape of the external plume, but did not have significant effect on the temperature within the compartment, the walls of the compartment, and the external radiative heat flux.