Fire spread

The University of Utah has created an alliance with the DOE Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) to form the Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions (C-SAFE). It focuses specifically on providing state-of-the-art, science-based tools for the numerical simulation of accidental fires and explosions, especially within the context of handling and storage of highly flammable materials. The objective of C-SAFE is to provide a system comprising a problem-solving environment in which fundamental chemistry and engineering physics are fully coupled with non-linear solvers, optimization, computational steering, visualization and experimental data verification. The availability of simulations using this system will help to better evaluate the risks and safety issues associated with fires and explosions. Our team will integrate and deliver a system that will be validated and documented for practical application to accidents involving both hydrocarbon and energetic materials.

- 10 meter heptane pool fire
- computed on 960-1000 processors
- 36-48 hour run time

Multi-Pipe Volume Visualization
Three images rendered on separate pipes
composited into one image.

Real World Applications

• Oil and Gas Exploration
• Fire Spread
• Tumor Visualization
• Defibrillation

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Pool Fire Test Facility

Using fire spread simulation data generated by CSAFE, the real time ray tracer can visualize multiple time steps using volume rendering. The time dependent data is visualized using a flip book style animation to show the progression of the fire. This data shows the temperature from a 3003 data set.