During spring 2015 the department of Fire Safety Engineering and Systems Safety, Lund University, will organise a course in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for room fires. The course is given primarily as a distance learning course in combination with one introductory seminar January 22 to 23, one intermediate seminar March 26 to 27 and one concluding seminar end of May, early June (preliminary date May 28).  Participation for external students to at least one seminar is recommended, preferably the first seminar.

The use of CFD to simulate fires in enclosures has increased and gained importance in recent years. CFD for enclosure fires has a wide variety of application, including fire investigation and performance based design.

The course is designed to provide knowledge of how the spread of fire and combustion gases is simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), in fire safety design and fire investigations. It also provides an understanding of the limitations of the numerical and physical models used, and an awareness of the most common sources of error.

Target Group

Fire Protection Engineering students, MSc students in Risk Management, consultants, PhD students, researchers, employees of private companies and rescue services who want to learn how to use CFD models for fire simulations within fire performance based design.

Recommended pre-knowledge

Fire Protection Engineer or MSc in engineering within corresponding areas.

Course content

The course includes the following:

• Different numerical models for turbulence such as RANS (k-ε-model) and LES (large eddy model)
• Numerical solutions, stability and convergence
• Physical models for turbulence, heat transfer, combustion inclusive production of gaseous species and soot, flame spread will be discussed together with their limitations.
• Individual calculation assignments using FDS
• Group assignments for advanced calculation of temperature, flows, etc for fires in complex geometries
• Overview of common errors when using CFD models and performing CFD calculations

Course Layout

The course gives 9 ECTS credits. The course starts with a seminar in Lund on January 22^nd (from 10 am) and January 23^th (until 3 pm). After that the course is given as a distance course with the LUVIT tool. In March (March 26^th to 27^th) a second seminar will be organised. The examination date will be communicated at the start of the course. The course is concluded with a final seminar. The assessment is based on individual assignments, group assignments and the exam (which can be done at as a distance exam). The course is given in English.

Course material

The following course material is included: 

• Internet tool containing the CFD-model FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator, NIST) for PC and corresponding manuals. FDS is freely available from the Internet.
• Electronic course material on LUVIT.

Cost

The course is free for students at Lund University. For external students the cost is SEK 20 000:- excl. VAT.

Teachers

• Dr. Philip Rubini, Reader at University of Hull, UK
• Professor Patrick van Hees, Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University (Responsible for the course)
• Ass. Professor Bjarne Husted, Department of Fire Safety Engineering
• Fire Safety Engineer Jonathan Wahlqvist, PhD student at Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University

Registration

The number of participants is limited. Registration is done as follows:

Registration is done by email to: patrick.van_hees@brand.lth.se by using the registration form before January 15^th 2015. The registration form is available here.

You will get confirmation of your participation one week after the deadline of the registration period.

Welcome!

Patrick van Hees