Fire and smoke
Fire simulation in OpenFOAM: buoyant flame, smoke spread and radiation
Model a fire and the smoke it drives through a space — spread, temperature, visibility, and how ventilation changes both.
What it is
A buoyant reacting flow with radiation, where the plume drives the ventilation rather than the other way round. Radiation moves a large share of the heat, so omitting it changes the answer rather than trimming it.
What the application sets up
- A fire source defined by heat release rate against time
- A combustion model and the fuel being burnt
- A radiation model, without which the heat balance is wrong
- Ventilation boundaries, including openings that both feed and vent the fire
- Temperature, visibility and species sampled at assessment heights
Typical uses
- Smoke spread and tenability in buildings
- Tunnel and car park ventilation under fire
- Compartment fire development
- Assessing whether a smoke control strategy works
Industries
Sectors where this analysis is routinely asked for.
- Fire safety engineering
- Building design
- Tunnels & infrastructure
- Insurance & risk
What comes out
- Smoke spread over time
- Temperature and visibility at head height
- Tenability windows
- Ventilation strategy comparison
OpenFOAM solvers
fireFoam
Selected and configured for you from the analysis type. You can still see every dictionary the application writes.
In every tier
This analysis type is in the free build. The free tier limits mesh size to 250,000 cells and solving to one core — not which physics you may use.
On accuracy, plainly.
Every analysis type is exercised end to end on every pass — its case is generated, meshed and run — which establishes that the setup is right, not that the answer matches your geometry. No CFD result is evidence until it is checked against something you trust: a measurement, a hand calculation, or a mesh-refinement study the application will run for you. Treat these results with the judgement you would apply to any CFD you set up yourself.