143 - Fire Fundamentals pt 7 - CFD simulations of fires

In today's fire fundamentals episode, I have chosen a difficult job: explaining how CFD modelling works without the ability to put a single equation out there! It's much tougher than I thought! I hope I've done a decent job, though.

I am trying to fill out this niche of talking about CFD at an approachable level. I've noticed there is a ton of 'introductory' level resources about modeling. Still, they usually very quickly go into mathematical formulations instead of explaining in plain language what is the purpose of specific models or modelling approaches.

In this episode, you will learn about:
- what is Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling;
- what is the role of conservation laws of mass, energy and momentum;
- what is turbulence, and why it impact our calculation so much;
- what are the common families of turbulence models (RANS and LES), and how do they differ from each other;
- what are sensitivity studies, and how does one choose an appropriate mesh for their problem?

If I had one book to recommend, it would be this book by Bart Merci and Tarek Beji.

If I had one paper to recommend, it would be this paper by Kevin McGrattan (open access).

Fire Science Show is produced in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you for your ongoing support, that allows me to create content like this!