The Effect of Room Openings on Fire Plume Entrainment

Abstract The mass rate of entrainment is examined for a fire plume in a room. Entrainment rates are inferred from measurements of air flow through a door or window and from room temperature data. The effect of the air flow is to tilt the flame plume, and to increase the entrainment rate over that of a vertical free standing plume. Dimensional analysis and theoretical results for a non-reacting wind blown plume model are used to correlate the flame angle and entrainment rate results.