Predictions of transport accident fires using coupled structural dynamics and computational fluid dynamics

A continuing concern involves transportation accident fires involving liquid fuel vehicles. These can be highly energetic, with the most significant sources of energy typically being the energy of motion (kinetic energy) and the chemical energy in the fuel (fire combustion energy). Recent work has focused on coupling a transient structural dynamics code to a fire computational fluid dynamics code to be able to predict the outcome of such an event. New methods have been developed to permit conservation of mass and momentum between the codes. Other coupling approaches have been developed and are described. This capability has been used to simulate three scenarios. Results from the various test cases suggest discretization accuracy for problems of this class. Validation efforts suggest the accuracy of the methodology, and provide confidence in the predictive capability. These cases also help provide guidance for future application of these methods.