Development of a Method for Representing Complex Geometries in a Fire Model.

The Consolidated Fire Growth and Smoke Transport CFAST model has frequently been used to simulate fires in structures. However, the basic design of the model, combined with historical restrictions on the type and amount of geometrical information which can be entered into the model, place limitations on the accuracy of the models predictions. These limitations become especially restrictive in the Naval environment due to the inherent complexity of shipboard architecture. This report documents the development of a alternative method for representing such complex geometries. Our approach, called the Structured Architecture for the Fire Environment SAFE uses object-oriented data structures to provide a hierarchical and extensible representation. A prototype data entry application has been written to demonstrate the capabilities of the method and, as a proof-of-concept, a portion of the test ship ex-USS SHADWELL has been described using both SAFE and the standard CFAST method.