Extreme PIV Applications: Simultaneous and Instantaneous Velocity and Concentration Measurements on Model and Real Scale Car Park Fire Scenarios

This study is a presentation of an instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its applications on car park fire scenarios. In this actual chapter 1 general introduction is given to each chapter. Chapter 2 is dedicated to a detailed description of the instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its associated error assessment methodology. The name of the new technique is derived from the names of the acquired parameters (VELocity and COncentration) and shall be hereafter referred to as VELCO. After having validated and performed an error assessment of this technique, it is applied to an investigation of full-scale car park (30 m x 30 m x 2.6 m – Gent / WFRGENT) fire cases in chapter 3. The measurements were carried out with the financial support of IWT-SBO program. In the full-scale measurements only the velocity part is applied of VELCO, yet it can be considered as its application since the special data treating was developed and implemented in the Rabon (see: §2.1.2) program, which is the software of the new technique along with Tucsok (see: §2.1.1) and they will be both discussed in the related chapter. Here it is enough to mention that the concentration and velocity information can be obtained independently as well. During the full-scale measurements, beyond of VELCO the smoke back-layering distances (SBL) are also derived from the temperature values, which were measured by thermocouples under the ceiling in the midline of the car park. The critical velocity, which is an important measure of fire safety, can be obtained from the SBL results. In chapter 4, isothermal fire modeling is surveyed in order to present how full-scale fires are modeled in small-scale. In this part of the study the theory of fire related formulae and an isothermal model are described. Here it is important to stress the fact that the fire modeling is not directly related to the VELCO technique. However it connects the full-scale to the small-scale measurements, which the technique is applied on. Chapter 5 discusses small-scale measurements (1:25 – Rhode Saint Genese / VKI) on the car park introduced in chapter 3 and their validation. After the validation, more complex car parks scenarios are also investigated due to the easy to change layout in the small-scale model with respect to the full-scale car park. In this chapter the smoke back-layering distances are obtained by VELCO. Finally, in chapter 6 important conclusions are drawn with the objective of increasing fire safety.