Simulation of a Water Mist Curtain used as a Radiation Shield

Description

Combined experimental and numerical studies have been conducted to evaluate the shielding capability of a high-pressure water mist curtain as a thermal radiation barrier, and to evaluate the capability of numerical models to generate accurate and comparable results. This study presents the computational simulation of a water mist curtain situated in a doorway using the Fire Dynamics
Simulator version 6.10.1. The Rosin-Rammler Log-Normal distribution was applied to model droplet sizes, and turbulent dispersion was enabled to enhance spray fidelity. The simulations also incorporated the influence of fluctuating outdoor wind conditions observed during the experiments. To establish the
required simulation runtime for achieving steady-state behaviour, the Generalised Least Squares Modified Dickey-Fuller t-test was employed. Results indicate a significant reduction in radiation levels upon activation of the water mist system after 60 seconds. Overall, the simulations qualitatively replicate the trends observed in the corresponding physical experiments. A stepwise reduction of the cell size from 100 mm to 25 mm resulted in improved quantitative agreement with the experimental data. A maximum cell size of 50 mm was required to achieve a visual resemblance to the photograph of the spray.

Period	30 Jun 2025
Event title	Interflam 2025: 16th International Conference and Exhibition on Fire Science and Engineering
Event type	Conference
Location	Egham, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International