NY-08-023 -- Assessment of Fire Heat Release Rate for Train Fires

This paper provides a discussion on current methodologies used to predict train fire heat release rates by discussing how the various fundamental combustion thermophysical properties vary as a function of temperature and equivalence ratio. This paper illustrates that the thermophysical properties vary but are being assumed constant, and it identifies that there is a need to reconsider how to properly use these properties and to develop an extensive database of fundamental properties in order to improve the quality of the answers. In addition, this paper points out that combustion must be taken into account when determining the fire heat release rate and that there is no universal answer, so each case needs to be evaluated on its own merits. Knowing answers on a per-unit-area basis is not enough to scale off to a full three-dimensional domain.

Units: SI