FDS modelling of warehouse

This isn't a specific project. It is an example of a very common FDS project I get.

Warehouses nearly always need to be modelled using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) because of their size. Fire engineers big and small end up doing warehouse projects, and quite often don't have the required skills or time to preform CFD modelling themselves. In this example, the engineer sends copies of plans for the warehouse to be modelled. Sometimes, if it is an existing warehouse, a site visit may be organised. We work together to determine the important modelling aspects of the project in question. Materials, fire sources, locations and ventilation strategy - the worse case scenario.

Once we have agreed upon a satisfactory approach to the modelling, I proceed to construct the FDS model. I run preliminary simulations to check the overall integrity of the model. If no errors are found, the early simulations can even be a guide to the success or not of the initial Fire Engineering Design.

Feedback is given, at which point the model is refined and first real scenarios are run. It's about half the time the CFD results show that the concept design could be better. Having modelled a great deal of warehouses, I can usually help guide the changes required. On the whole, the changes are usually not that significant. Results are produced for the variety of scenarios required.

At this point, the fire engineer can be reassured that the design in principle works. Then the task of actually collating the results starts. This will depend a little on each project, but usually, I put the pictures into a word document with captions and titles as well as brief description of the scenarios modelled.

The requirements of each fire engineer are slightly different. Any other information that they would like included I present in a fashion that is (hopefully) easily pasted right into their documentation.

In a nutshell that is it. A very common project for me, and one I can help you with too.