Modelling of Fire in an Open Car Park

Steel car parks exhibit high vulnerability to fire, as a consequence of the degradation of the steel mechanical properties at high temperatures and of the combustible type and amount. Real fire accidents in open car parks demonstrated a much faster and extended fire spread than predictions, assuming that a fire spread rate of 12 min and consider at most 3-4 vehicles on fire at the same time.

Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) is applied in this current paper to study fire spread between cars. The outcomes of the investigations show that the fire spread is strongly influenced by the geometrical layout and that the distance between cars plays a determinant role on the fire spread rate and ignition of adjacent cars.

In particular it was found that the fire spread can be faster than 12 minutes in the case of the cars parked 40 and 60 cm from each other.