Skip navigation

CFD fire simulation of the Swissair flight 111 in-flight fire – Part 1: Prediction of the pre-fire air flow within the cockpit and surrounding areas

CFD fire simulation of the Swissair flight 111 in-flight fire – Part 1: Prediction of the pre-fire air flow within the cockpit and surrounding areas

Galea, E. ORCID: 0000-0002-0001-6665 (2006) CFD fire simulation of the Swissair flight 111 in-flight fire – Part 1: Prediction of the pre-fire air flow within the cockpit and surrounding areas. The Aeronautical Journal, 110 (1103). ISSN 0001-9240

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The SMARTFIRE computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to predict the ‘possible’ behaviour of airflow as well as the spread of fire and smoke within a Swissair configured McDonnell Douglas MD-11 commercial transport aircraft. This work was undertaken by the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich as part of Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada, Fire & Explosion Group’s investigation into the in-flight fire occurrence onboard Swissair Flight 111 (SR111): TSB Report Number A98H0003. The main aims of the CFD analysis were to develop a better understanding of the possible effects, or lack thereof, of numerous variables relating to the in-flight fire. This assisted investigators in assessing possible fire dynamics for cause and origin determination. In Part 1, the numerical analyses to pre-fire airflow patterns within the cockpit and its vicinity are presented. The pre-fire simulations serve two ends. One is to provide insight into the flow patterns within the cockpit and its vicinity and further supportive numerical evidence for the airflow flight test observations. The other is to provide plausible initial flow conditions for fire simulations. In this paper, some flow patterns at a number of primary locations within the cockpit and its vicinity are highlighted and the predicted flow patterns are compared with the findings from the airflow flight tests. The predicted patterns are found to be in good qualitative agreement with the experimental test findings.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: fire safety, Swissair flight 111, simulations
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
Q Science > QA Mathematics
T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Pre-2014 Departments: School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis > Computational Mechanics & Reliability Group
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis > Computational Science & Engineering Group
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis > Fire Safety Engineering Group
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Department of Mathematical Sciences
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 14 Oct 2016 09:09
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/3610

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item