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M-based simulation of fire and smoke spread in timber buildings
Richard Acquah 1, Eva Prelovšek Niemelä 2, Jakub Sandak 2
1. University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Information Technologies, Glagoljaška 8, 6000 Koper,
Slovenia
2. InnoRenew CoE, Livade 6, 6310 Izola, Slovenia
Wood can perform exceptionally towards fire resistance when used properly in building design even
though wood itself is combustible. Because of the combustibility of wood, there are still uncertainties
and misconceptions associated with its use as a construction material. One of the ways to clear
uncertainties and increase stakeholders’ confidence in the use of timber and wood-based composite
building elements in construction is through experimental research. Advanced computer technology has
made available several computational techniques in the field of building design. Two of these techniques
which are gaining popularity are Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD). Though these techniques have proofed to be efficient, fast and have long term cost efficiency, its
integration needs further exploration.
The purpose of this study is to simulate the spread of fire/smoke based on information stored in a BIM
model. The underlying goal is to validate the information stored in a BIM model and demonstrate how
this information can be used in building physics simulations.
This study has a three-step approach. The first step was to extract a section of an already developed
BIM model of the Innorenew CoE building complex in Izola, Slovenia. The next step was to export the
extracted model and its thermal properties to a CFD software for the simulation. Pyrosim, a Graphic User
Interface for Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) and Smokeview is used. The third step was to perform the
simulation and analyze the results.
The limitation was the inability of Pyrosim to read the thermal properties from the BIM model. This
limitation was overcome by developing a Dynamo script that extracts the thermal properties from the
BIM model and exports it into Pyrosim. For better integration, further work is needed to enable Pyrosim
to read the thermal properties from Revit. Also, a plugin can be developed for Revit to streamline the
integration workflow of Revit-FDS/Smokeview and Pyrosim.
Keywords: wood, fire and smoke simulation, Building Information Modelling, computational fluid
dynamics, Pyrosim, Revit
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the European Commission for funding the InnoRenew project (grant agreement
#739574) under the H2020 Widespread-2-Teaming program and the Republic of Slovenia.
References
Sun, Q. and Turkan, Y., 2020. A BIM-based simulation framework for fire safety management and investigation of the
critical factors affecting human evacuation performance. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 44, p.101093.
HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION WITH RENEWABLE MATERIALS
51
Richard Acquah 1, Eva Prelovšek Niemelä 2, Jakub Sandak 2
1. University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Information Technologies, Glagoljaška 8, 6000 Koper,
Slovenia
2. InnoRenew CoE, Livade 6, 6310 Izola, Slovenia
Wood can perform exceptionally towards fire resistance when used properly in building design even
though wood itself is combustible. Because of the combustibility of wood, there are still uncertainties
and misconceptions associated with its use as a construction material. One of the ways to clear
uncertainties and increase stakeholders’ confidence in the use of timber and wood-based composite
building elements in construction is through experimental research. Advanced computer technology has
made available several computational techniques in the field of building design. Two of these techniques
which are gaining popularity are Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD). Though these techniques have proofed to be efficient, fast and have long term cost efficiency, its
integration needs further exploration.
The purpose of this study is to simulate the spread of fire/smoke based on information stored in a BIM
model. The underlying goal is to validate the information stored in a BIM model and demonstrate how
this information can be used in building physics simulations.
This study has a three-step approach. The first step was to extract a section of an already developed
BIM model of the Innorenew CoE building complex in Izola, Slovenia. The next step was to export the
extracted model and its thermal properties to a CFD software for the simulation. Pyrosim, a Graphic User
Interface for Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) and Smokeview is used. The third step was to perform the
simulation and analyze the results.
The limitation was the inability of Pyrosim to read the thermal properties from the BIM model. This
limitation was overcome by developing a Dynamo script that extracts the thermal properties from the
BIM model and exports it into Pyrosim. For better integration, further work is needed to enable Pyrosim
to read the thermal properties from Revit. Also, a plugin can be developed for Revit to streamline the
integration workflow of Revit-FDS/Smokeview and Pyrosim.
Keywords: wood, fire and smoke simulation, Building Information Modelling, computational fluid
dynamics, Pyrosim, Revit
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the European Commission for funding the InnoRenew project (grant agreement
#739574) under the H2020 Widespread-2-Teaming program and the Republic of Slovenia.
References
Sun, Q. and Turkan, Y., 2020. A BIM-based simulation framework for fire safety management and investigation of the
critical factors affecting human evacuation performance. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 44, p.101093.
HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION WITH RENEWABLE MATERIALS
51
