THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Hsin Hsiu Ho

,

San Ping Ho

,

Chin Feng Chen

,

Hui Pei Chang

,

Bin Xie

,

Chi Honn Cheng

,

Wan Ki Chow

NUMERICAL STUDIES ON AN ACCIDENTAL FLASHFIRE AT A WATER FUN PARK BY FLACS SOFTWARE

ABSTRACT
A severe accidental fire with ‘explosion’ resulting from spraying colored corn flour powder occurred at a water fun park in Taiwan. The possible fire scenarios were studied in this paper using flame acceleration simulator (FLACS). Environmental conditions including wind action and solid boundary conditions were deduced based on government fire investigation and video records, and were used as the input parameters in simulation. Simulation results indicate that upon ignition of the sprayed powder, the maximum overpressure in the open space was only 0.03 bar gauge, with a dust flash fire generated without having an explosion. These environmental conditions or parameters and the simulation results together would give a fire scene that agrees with the accident observed, indicating that appropriate environmental parameters had been identified. Therefore, CFD simulation with carefully selected parameters can be used to reproduce explosion scenarios and to identify key factors in supporting accident investigations.
KEYWORDS
Accident investigation, CFD model, Corn flour dust, environmental conditions, Explosion
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2020-07-18
PAPER REVISED: 2021-09-13
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2021-09-20
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2021-11-06
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI200718304H
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2022, VOLUME 26, ISSUE Issue 2, PAGES [1721 - 1732]
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Numerical studies on an accidental flashfire at a water fun park by FLACS software

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