Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this study is to expose existing mathematical models dealing with heat and gas exchange, and reduce them to a single transfer equation, for any substance, during fire incidents inmines and other locations, by taking account of heated gas thermal expansion.
Introduction: In order to perform an assessment of a fire hazard it is necessary to know the duration of a fire and period in which the fire will reach dangerous levels such as: concentration of toxic gases and saturation by smoke. A fire, manifested by an uncontrolled burning activity is a diffucult, unstable and ultimately not fully understood process, which occurs within a three dimensional expanse. This process is described,in the main, by mathematical equations dealing with behaviour principles involving conservation and conversion of energy, convection and diffused transfer of various gas components as well as smoke.
Methodology: In order to obtain anequation describing the transfer process for any substance, use is made of the central (finite) differences numerical method, for explicit and implicit conditions, using specific weighting appropriate to each.
Results: The study examined the flow of air at velocities below the speed of sound – at less than 10m/s. According to the Bernoulli equation pressure changes insignificantly in relation to atmospheric pressure at such speed. Therefore, an equation describing this condition can be satisfactorily interchanged with an equation for normal conditions. This made it possible to depict a system of equations, in a dimensionless form, to address the behaviour and transformation of energy as well as convective and diffused transfer of components for different gasses and smoke using one universal equation. A numeric approach was developed to address issues. The designed calctulation diagram, incorporating explicit and implicit conditions is realised with the use of a “Miedwiedzcia” template. Specific examples illustrate comparisons between proposed calculations and graph analysis of variations in time and range of heat, and gas release in a ventilated channel.
Conclusions: The article advocates a universal solution in a dimensionless form, which with the use of one equation describes a system of equations for conserving and transformation of energy, and transfer of different gas and smoke components by convective and diffused methods. The “Miedwiedzcia” template facilitates the capture of data dealing with the dynamics of heat and gas transfer processes in channels, corridors and mines.
Keywords: fires, heat and gas exchange, transfer equations, numerical procedure, analytical solutions, convergence, thermal expansion, combined approach
Type of article: original scientific article