Jet Fan

2013

Jet Fan

Jet Fan
In this tutorial you will use HVAC to create a simple air flow moving smoke from one room to another.
This tutorial demonstrates how to:

Create HVAC systems.

Add slice places for velocity visualization.
View 3D results using Smokeview.

Before you begin, ensure that you are using SI units.

Create the Mesh

In this example we will use a 10 m x 10 m x 3 m mesh with 0.25 m cells.
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On the Model menu, click Edit Meshes....

Click New.
Accept the default name Mesh01. Click OK.
In the Min X box, type 0.0 and in the Max X box, type 10.0.
In the Min Y box, type 0.0 and in the Max Y box, type 10.0.
In the Min Z box, type 0.0 and in the Max Z box, type 3.0.
In the X Cells box, type 40.
In the Y Cells box, type 40.
In the Z Cells box, type 12.
Click OK to save changes and close the Edit Meshes dialog.

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Figure 1. Creating the mesh

Create the Wall

We will separate two rooms using a wall obstruction.
1. Select the 2D View.
2. Select the Wall (
) Tool.
3. Select the Tool Properties (
) icon. Set the Z Location to 0.0, the Thickness to 0.2, and the
Height to 3.0. Click OK.
4. With the wall tool draw the wall from left to right along the Y=5.0 line. Right click and select
Finish to exit the drawing tool.

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Figure 2. Drawing the wall

Create the Vents

In this example, vents and the predefined HVAC surface to define regions where air enters and exits the
HVAC duct. (Recall that, in FDS, a vent can be a 2D surface used to apply boundary conditions on a
rectangular patch.)
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On the Model menu, click New Vent....

In the Description box, type inflowVent01.
In the Surface list, select HVAC. This specifies that the vent can be referenced by an HVAC node.
Click on the Geometry tab. In the Lies in the Plane list, select Y and type 5.0.
In the Min X box, type 1.0 and in the Max X box, type 2.0.
In the Min Z box, type 2.0 and in the Max Z box, type 2.5.
Click OK to create the new vent. Click OK to accept the changes and close the dialog.

Add the output vent.

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On the Model menu, click New Vent....

In the Description box, type outflowVent01.
In the Surface list, select HVAC. This specifies that the vent can be referenced by an HVAC node.
Click on the Geometry tab. In the Lies in the Plane list, select Y and type 5.2.
In the Min X box, type 1.0 and in the Max X box, type 1.5.
In the Min Z box, type 2.0 and in the Max Z box, type 2.5.

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7. Click OK to create the new vent. Click OK to accept the changes and close the Vent Properties
dialog.

Figure 3. The Vent Properties dialog

Make a copy of the two vents.
1. In the navigation view, click to select inflowVent01. Press the CTRL key, and click to select
outflowVent01. Both vents should be selected. Right click on the selected vents. Click
Copy/Move.
2. Click Copy and type 1 in the Number of Copies box.
3. In the Offset box for X, type 7.0.
4. Click OK.
5. Change the new vent names to inflowVent02 and outflowVent02.

Figure 4. The Copy/Move dialog

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Create the HVAC Nodes

1. In the drawing tool toolbar (left of window), click the Draw an HVAC Node tool ( ). Click once
more on the tool. A green indicator on the tool should appear, meaning the tool will remain
active until the Escape key is pressed.
2. For each of the four vents, click to place a node at roughly the same position. If you need to
rotate your view, you may press Escape to exit the Draw an HVAC Node tool.
3. On the Model menu, click Edit HVAC.
4. Select Node. Click Rename and in the Name box, type inflow01. Click Vent Endpoint, and
select inflowVent01. Click Apply.
5. Select Node01. Click Rename and in the Name box, type inflow02. Click Vent Endpoint, and
select inflowVent02. Click Apply.
6. Slect Node02. Click Rename and in the Name box, type outflow01. Click Vent Endpoint, and
select outflowVent01. Click Apply.
7. Select Node03. Click Rename and in the Name box, type outflow02. Click Vent Endpoint,
and select outflowVent02.
8. In the Edit HVAC dialog, click OK to save changes and close the dialog.

Figure 5. Using the HVAC Node drawing tool

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Figure 6. The edit HVAC dialog

Create a Fan Component

1. On the Model menu, click Edit HVAC.
2. Click New.
3. In the Type list, select FAN. Click OK to create the fan and close the New HVAC Component
dialog.
4. Click Constant Flow, and type 3.0 into the Volume Flow Rate box.
5. Click OK to save changes and close the Edit HVAC dialog.

Add a Duct
To make the system easier to see, we can hide unnecessary parts of the model.
1. In the Navigation view, right-click the wall obstruction.
2. Click Hide Object(s). This will allow you to see all four nodes at once, without removing the wall
from the model.
Use PyroSims drawing tools to add the duct.
1. In the drawing tools toolbar (left of window), click Draw an HVAC Duct tool ( ).
2. First click on the node inflow01. Then click on outflow01. This will add the duct connecting
both nodes.
3. Repeat to connect inflow02 and outflow02 by another duct.

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Figure 7. Using the duct drawing tool

Attach airflow to duct objects using the fan.
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In the Model menu, click Edit HVAC.

Select Duct. In the Flow Model tab, select Fan for the Flow Device.
Click Apply to save changes.
Select Duct01. In the Flow Model tab, select Fan for the Flow Device.
Click OK to save changes and close.

Add Fire to the Model

Create a surface to represent the flame.
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On the Model menu, click Edit Surfaces.

Click New. In the name box, type burner. For Surface Type, select Burner.
Click OK to close the New Surface dialog.
Type in 250.0 for the Heat Release Rate Per Area.
Click OK to save changes and close the Edit Surfaces dialog.

Use a vent to assign the surface a location in the model.

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On the Model menu, click New Vent.

In the Description box, type fire.
In the Surface list, select burner.
Click the Geometry tab. In the Plane list, select Z and give the value as 0.0.
In the Min X box, type 4.75. In the Max X box, type 5.25.

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6. In the Min Y box, type 1.0. In the Max Y box, type 1.5.
7. Return to the General tab. Devices are used to link a response (i.e. turning a flame on or off) to
an event in the model (i.e. a temperature measurement reaching a set value). In this model, we
will extinguish the flame after 250 seconds.
8. Click the Activation button. In the list, select New to create a new device. For the Name type
Extinguish Flame. Click OK.
9. For the Input Type select Time. For the Action to Perform, select Remove/Deactivate. In the
text window, click on TBEGIN to change the time. In the pop-up box, type 250.0 s and press
ENTER on your keyboard. The control logic will now be displayed. Click OK to create the control.
10. Click OK to close the Vent Properties dialog.

Add an Open Boundary

We will add an open boundary on the model outside the door. PyroSim provides a shortcut that can
create open vents on mesh boundaries.
1. In the navigation view, right-click on the Mesh01 and click Open Mesh Boundaries. This will add
a group named Vents for MESH that includes vents on each grid boundary.
2. Holding the CNTRL key, click on all Grid Boundary Vents except the Mesh Vent: Mesh01
[YMAX].
3. Right-click and delete the selected vents.
4. Right-click on the Model and select Show All Objects.

Create Slice Records for 3D Results Plotting

Slice planes can be used to display 2D contours in the Smokeview display of the results. In this analysis,
we will save velocity data for future plotting. To define the slice plane:
1. On the Output menu, click Slices....
2. For XYZ Plane, select Z. Set the Plane Value as 2.25. The Gas Phase Quantity is Velocity.
For Use Vector?, specify YES.
3. Click OK to close the Animated Planar Slices dialog.

Specify Simulation Properties:

To define the end time:
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On the FDS menu, click Simulation Parameters....

In the Simulation Title box, type Room fire.
In the End Time box, type 400 s.
Click OK.

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Figure 8. The completed model

Save the Model

1. On the File menu, click Save.
2. Choose a location to save the model. Because FDS simulations generate many files and a large
amount of data, it is a good idea to use a new folder for each simulation. For this example, we
will create a jetfan folder and name the file jetfan.psm.
3. Click OK to save the model.

Run the Simulation

1. On the FDS menu, click Run FDS....
2. The FDS Simulation dialog will appear and display the progress of the simulation. The simulation
is specified to take 400 seconds, and should take approximately 3 hours to run depending on
computing hardware.
3. When the simulation is complete, Smokeview will start and display a 3D still image of the model.

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Figure 9. The simulation dialog during the analysis

Figure 10. The initial Smokeview display

View Smoke in 3D
1. In the Smokeview window, right-click to activate the menu.
2. In the menu, click Load/Unload > 3D Smoke > soot MASS FRACTION (RLE). This will start an
animation of the smoke in this model.

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3. To view a specific time in the animation, click the timeline bar in the bottom of the Smokeview
window. To return to animation mode, press t.
4. To reset Smokeview, right-click to activate the menu, then click Load/Unload > Unload All.

Figure 11. 3D smoke in the model

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References

References
FDS-SMV Official Website. Fire Dynamics Simulator and Smokeview. Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA :
National Institute of Standards and Technology.
McGrattan, Kevin, et al. 2013. Fire Dynamics Simulator Users Guide. Gaithersburg, Maryland,
USA : s.n., November 2013. NIST Special Publication 1019.
. 2007. Verification and Validation of Selected Fire Models for Nuclear Power Plant Applications. s.l.,
Washington DC, USA : U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Regulatory Research, May 2007.
NUREG-1824, EPRI 1011999.

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