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Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2023.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613780231323648 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Narayanan, Vigneshwaran |
| author2 | Walls, Richard Shaun |
| author_browse | Narayanan, Vigneshwaran Walls, Richard Shaun |
| author_facet | Walls, Richard Shaun Narayanan, Vigneshwaran |
| author_sort | Narayanan, Vigneshwaran |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2023. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/127067 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:41:35.119Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/127067 Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires Narayanan, Vigneshwaran Walls, Richard Shaun Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Civil Engineering. Reduced scale modelling, Informal settlements, fire dynamics, compartment fires, fire spread Squatter settlements -- South Africa Fires -- Safety measures -- South Africa Urbanisation -- South Africa Fire prevention -- South Africa Fire protection engineering Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2023. ENGLISH ABSTRACTS: Urban migration is on the rise in developing nations. A rapid population growth in cities leads to densely populated informal settlements due to lack of adequate land and resources. These settlements are often unrecognized and lack basic amenities such as health and sanitation. Fire incidents are common. Past incidents show that informal settlement dwelling (ISD) fires, if unattended, spread in a manner analogous to a wildfire and can affect thousands of people. In recent years, numerous full-scale fire experiments have been conducted on ISDs in the hope of understanding fire behaviour and developing interventions. Conducting full-scale multi-ISD fire experiments exhibited serious challenges for a variety of reasons. Hence, this dissertation focusses on developing reduced scale experiments (RSE) for ISD fires, with the aim to allow for the study of various parameters, layouts, and specifications through conducting larger numbers of experiments in the future. This will assist enhance understanding of micro (dwelling-scale) and macro (settlement-scale) fire spread, and contribute towards the development of fire safety interventions. The aim of the dissertation is achieved by identifying a suitable reduced scaled model that can capture the most important phenomena associated with full-scale ISD fires. Results from this study suggests that reduced-scale modelling with RSE models of 1/4 scale and 1/5 scale can be used to replicate an ISD fire with a reasonable level of certainty. Computational models that were developed are shown to capture RSE behaviour effectively. RSEs are then used to study fire spread between two, three, four, and six sets of RSDs. In total 19 RSEs were conducted to assess fire spread in the RSDs with the influence of varying influential parameters such as cladding material, wind speed and velocity, and dwelling spacing. A comparative analysis of full-scale experiments (FSEs) and RSEs has been summarized. Parameter such as wind, combustible cladding, and inter dwelling spacing had a significant impact on the fire spread in RSEs. However, fire spread rate was not sufficiently captured in RSEs. To address fire spread challenges identified in multiple RSDs the flame behaviour and impingement between RSDs was studied such that spread between dwellings could be more accurately defined or predicted. In total 15 RSEs were conducted with different openings to predict the flame height and length. It was seen that the theoretical corelations were better represented by ventilation scaled openings than the geometrically scaled openings. This dissertation summarises mathematical equations with correction factors of adjustments for carrying out scaling of ISD fires. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar. Doctoral 2023-03-01T06:25:39Z 2023-05-18T07:02:39Z 2023-03-01T06:25:39Z 2023-05-18T07:02:39Z 2023-03 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/127067 en_ZA en_ZA Stellenbosch University xiv, 152 pages : illustrations. application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Reduced scale modelling, Informal settlements, fire dynamics, compartment fires, fire spread Squatter settlements -- South Africa Fires -- Safety measures -- South Africa Urbanisation -- South Africa Fire prevention -- South Africa Fire protection engineering Narayanan, Vigneshwaran Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title | Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title_full | Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title_fullStr | Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title_short | Reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| title_sort | reduced scale modelling of informal settlement dwelling fires |
| topic | Reduced scale modelling, Informal settlements, fire dynamics, compartment fires, fire spread Squatter settlements -- South Africa Fires -- Safety measures -- South Africa Urbanisation -- South Africa Fire prevention -- South Africa Fire protection engineering |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/127067 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT narayananvigneshwaran reducedscalemodellingofinformalsettlementdwellingfires |