Temperature variation inside a corridor-like enclosure under limited ventilation

This paper investigates the temperature variation inside a corridor-like enclosure (for example, high-speed train compartment) with persistent flame ejection through an opening (for example, window). The fire heat release rate and opening sizes are varied with 28 different experimental conditions. An exponential function is built and found to be able to describe the longitudinal temperature distribution, in which the decay rate has a power function with the window aspect ratio. The maximum temperature shows a considerable difference for various heat release rates (HRR), due to the mass flow rate of the fuel supply through the opening is comparable to or greater than the air mass inflow rate. A general model characterizing the longitudinal temperature distribution of various opening sizes and HRR is proposed with heat release to heat loss ratio inside the compartment, HRR and window aspect ratio, which shows a good agreement with the experimental results. This study provides important and new contributions over previous knowledge and has potential practical applications concerning the corridor-like enclosure fire safety and occupant evacuation.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the temperature variation inside a corridor-like enclosure with persistent flame ejection through an opening. The study varies the fire heat release rate and opening sizes under different experimental conditions. An exponential function is built to describe the longitudinal temperature distribution, and the decay rate is found to have a power function relationship with the window aspect ratio. The study proposes a general model for the temperature distribution considering different opening sizes and heat release rates, which is in good agreement with experimental results.