JID: JPECS
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 000 (2017) 1 2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Progress in Energy and Combustion Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pecs
Perspective
Fires and explosions
TagedPTrygve Skjolda,*, Claude Souprayenb, Sergey Dorofeevc
a
TagedP Gexcon, R&D Department, Fantoftvegen 38, 5072 Bergen, Norway
b
Fluidyn France, 7 boulevard de la Liberation, 93200 Saint-Denis, France
c
FM Global, 1151 Boston-Providence Turnpike, Norwood, MA 02062, USA
TagedPKeywords: Fires, Explosions, Safety, Loss prevention, Risk assessment, Scaling, Knowledge gaps
1. Introduction
TagedPAccidental fires and explosions cause severe losses in society.
Examples of such events range from domestic accidents, such as
dwelling fires, to devastating fires in densely populated areas and
high-rise buildings, such as the recent fire in the Grenfell Tower
(14 June 2017, about 80 fatalities), and large industrial disasters,
such as Flixborough (1 June 1974, 28 fatalities), Piper Alpha (6 July
1988, 167 fatalities), Buncefield (11 December 2005), Deepwater
Horizon (20 April 2010, 11 fatalities) and Fukushima Daiichi (11
March 2011). Many of the largest property losses in industries over
the last century, as well as numerous less devastating accidents
associated with the handling, processing and storage of flammable
material, in gaseous, liquid or solid form, involved fires and explo-
sions. The oil spill following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the
release of radioactive material in Fukushima demonstrate the devas-
tating effects such events can have on the environment. Common
denominators for accidental fire and explosion scenarios are com-
plex transient fluid flow phenomena, with chemical reactions, cover-
ing a wide range of spatial scales. Finally, fire scenarios may escalate
to explosion scenarios, and vice versa.
2. Risk assessment, consequence modelling and scaling
TagedPOrganizations that routinely assess the hazard posed by fires and
explosions, such as facility owners, operators, safety consultants
and insurance companies, are often involved in the development of
loss prevention and safety standards. A wide range of methods and
models have been developed for performing quantitative or qualita-
tive risk analysis as a part of risk management in these organiza-
tions. While the development of robust loss prevention solutions
and safety standards requires fundamental understanding of fire
and explosion phenomena, this understanding is also needed for the
development of simplified models applicable for risk assessments
that involve numerous accident scenarios. The types of models used
for developing loss-prevention solutions and assessing the conse-
quences of accidental fires and explosions range from analytical
expressions and empirical correlations, to phenomenological tools
of varying complexity, and finally to sophisticated numerical models
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: trygve@gexcon.com (T. Skjold).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pecs.2017.09.003
0360-1285/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: T. Skjold et al., Fires and explosions, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
pecs.2017.09.003
[m5G;October 20, 2017;8:28]
tTagedP hat solve conservation equations for mass, momentum, energy and
chemical species. It is essential for the quality of loss-prevention
standards, risk assessments, and hence for loss prevention, safety
and security, that engineers understand the underlying assumptions
and inherent limitations of the tools they use, as well as the level of
accuracy they can expect in the results.
TagedPAlthough the governing equations for turbulent fluid flow with
chemical reactions are well established, there are still many gaps in
the fundamental understanding of fire and explosion phenomena.
This understanding is being explored using analytical methods,
Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS), and high-fidelity Large Eddy
Simulation (LES) methods. LES models have gained increasing popu-
larity in recent years for developing loss prevention solutions and
modelling consequences of fires and explosions. However, within
the context of simulating accident scenarios for Quantitative D8X X D9X X
Risk
D10XAssessment X D1X X
(QRA), most commercially available Computational
D12XFluid X D13X X
Dynamics (CFD) tools still rely on the Reynolds-averaged
Navier Stokes (RANS) equations. The challenges for modelling con-
sequences of fires and explosions are related to the fact that gener-
ally there is limited time and resources available to produce relevant
simulations for regulatory or design purposes. Therefore, results
from fundamental research must D14X X be integrated in dedicated practical
numerical models with reasonable performance to account for the
complex coupling between turbulence, chemistry, radiative and con-
vective heat transfer, and multi-phase effects, such as thermal
decomposition and phase change (for liquids and solids). On the
other hand, the steady increase in the availability of computing
power, accompanied by modern parallel numerical solvers and
Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR), allows for faster calculations on
larger computational domains. However, there is still a need for fur-
ther speed-up, improved accuracy, and reduced sensitivity of the
results with respect to the spatial resolution used in the simulations.
To this end, fundamental and applied combustion research is a key
for a wide range of applications, from estimating accident initiation
probability (i.e. release, dispersion and ignition), to assessing the
consequences of fire and explosion events, and finally to the design
and optimization of risk-reducing measures.
3. Challenges
TagedPThe primary challenge with respect to predicting the consequen-
ces of accidental fire and explosion scenarios, including the effect of
JID: JPECS
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2 T. Skjold et al. / Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 00 (2017) 1 2
TagedPmitigating measures, is arguably the scaling from controlled experi-
ments that can be simulated with reasonable accuracy by LES, and
sometimes even DNS, to realistic full-scale systems characterised by
complex initial and boundary conditions. Both numerical models
(LES/RANS) and physics-based correlations are under development
for addressing this challenge. Yet, there are important features in
the underlying physical phenomena in fires and explosions where
fundamental understanding is lacking. There are also areas where
well controlled experiments, that can be used for model validation,
are needed.
TagedPSpecific to fire scenarios, the areas where better understanding
and predictive practical models are required include:
agedPT Turbulent (momentum dominated and buoyant) gas phase com-
bustion models, including description of flame extinction and
re-ignition for premixed, non-premixed and partially premixed
flames.
TagedP Soot generation and radiation of large scale fires involving gas-
eous, liquid and solid fuels, including the effect of complex
geometries and boundary conditions, such as wind.
TagedP Heat transfer (convective and radiative) in solid and liquid fires,
such as wall fires, pool fires, etc.
TagedP Thermal decomposition (pyrolysis) of solids (e.g. cables, building
materials and combustible commodities in warehouses), and
related pyrolysis gas output.
TagedP Mitigation effect of sprinklers and water mist, including the
interaction of water sprays with fire plumes, radiation attenua-
tion and scattering, and the physics of fire suppression. Data and
modelling of sprinkler/nozzle droplet size, velocities and mass
flow rate distributions.
TagedP Reliable prediction of the effect of other mitigating measures,
such as firefighting foam.
TagedP Structural behaviour of construction materials under fire,
including fire spread over facade cladding and penetration of
fires through structural separations.
TagedPThe challenges specific to explosion scenarios include:
agedPT High-quality data from experiments or numerical models for
the laminar burning velocity and other fundamental combus-
tion properties (e.g. Markstein numbers), for a wide range of
gaseous fuels, over the entire flammable concentration range.
TagedP Reliable mixing rules for the laminar burning velocity and
other fundamental combustion properties for mixtures of
several gaseous fuels, including the effect of inert species.
TagedP Specification of fundamental parameters characterising the
reactivity of two-phase fuel-air mixtures (e.g. dust clouds,
liquid sprays, mists, and hybrid mixtures), such as laminar
burning velocity.
TagedP Fundamental understanding of the effect of flame instabilities,
spatial scales, pressure, temperature and turbulence parame-
ters on flame propagation, for all types of fuel-air mixtures.
TagedP Understanding of the effects of mixture composition gradients
on flame propagation for all types of fuel-Dair
15X X mixtures.

TagedP Reliable correlations for the turbulent burning velocity,
and more generally, reliable and scale/mesh independent
Please cite this article as: T. Skjold et al., Fires and explosions, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
pecs.2017.09.003
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cTagedP losures/models, for turbulent burning rates as functions of
fundamental combustion properties, for all types of fuel-air
mixtures.
TagedP Combustion models that are applicable for laminar to turbu-
lent transition and perform well up to the fully turbulent
regime and with spatially varying mixture stoichiometry.
TagedP Models for reliable prediction of Deflagration-to-Detonation-
Transition (DDT), especially in large-scale systems.
TagedP Reliable models for describing dust lifting from layers by flow
or shock waves in dust explosions.
TagedP Models for the mitigation/suppression effects of explosion
D16X X
protection D17X X
devices, such as explosion venting, explosion sup-
pression and explosion isolation systems.
TagedPImproved understanding of the mechanisms involved in tran-
sitions between fire and explosions scenarios are also of interest.
Furthermore, D18XUncertainty
X D19XQuantification
X (UQ) should be an
integral part of future models to give predictions of quantifiable
reliability. Such treatment should include model parameter
uncertainties and model-form uncertainty, i.e. errors due to trun-
cating physics.
4. Perspectives
TagedPFurther progress in the modelling of fire and explosion phe-
nomena that can support loss prevention and safety in industry
may be achieved through systematic collaboration between
experimental and modelling groups. By designing and conducting
controlled fire and explosion experiments, from laboratory scale
to large scale, and through the sharing and discussion of results,
it is possible to assess and improve the performance of models,
and at the same time gain improved understanding of physical
and chemical phenomena. Blind-prediction studies, where mod-
ellers submit their predictions before the actual experiments are
performed, are particularly valuable for assessing the predictive
capabilities of consequence models. Such activities facilitate
cooperation within the global research community, with moder-
ate requirements for funding. Improvements in data quality and
open access to data will certainly benefit the progress. Finally,
from a practical point of view, it is important for safety engi-
neers in industry that experienced researchers take the time to
collect information and publish review articles and books that
describe the current state-of-the-art within selected fields.
5. Conclusions
TagedPThe interaction between fundamental and applied combustion
research is the key to D20X X providing reliable engineering models for
assessing the consequences of accidental fire and explosion
scenarios.D21X X Such models have important applications in safetyD2X X and
loss prevention, including risk analysis and design of mitigation
measures. Despite significant progress, there are numerous areas of
combustion science where our understanding of the underlying
physical phenomena, as well as the quality and predictive capabili-
ties of models, should be significantly improved.