Publications

Being situated in a remote location contributes highrisk environmental work for an offshore community such as in the Oil and Gas Industry. Bulk storage of hydrocarbon accompanied by a congested situation of compartments can spell trouble in combating fire accidents offshore.Investigation of fire growth in compartment structures has been evaluated by employing a Computational Fluid Dynamics technique, based on the Finite Volume Method. Together with standard statistical modelling of turbulence and very fast chemical reaction of combustion, the actual phenomena can be approached numerically in a relatively cheap way, with reliable results. Validation has been done by doing comparison to one experiment executed by Shell Research at the Norwegian Fire Laboratory using large-scale compartment test rig.Fire behaviour in terms of temperature and heat flux distribution is evaluated along all the sides of the compartment for various openings. Fire is considered as a jet fire, implying fast chemical reaction of combustion. Turbulence modelling is incorporated as well, by evaluating various turbulence viscosities.The results show that generic model has been obtained, within some limitation, to describe fire growth in a compartment. From a structure point of view, it is evaluated as well as the fact that there will be some degradation of material exposed to elevated temperature.