SMARTFIRE FEATURES
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Key
Features of SMARTFIRE v4.3
Advantages
of SMARTFIRE v4.3
Features
in SMARTFIRE v4.3
Existing
Features from previous version of SMARTFIRE
KEY FEATURES OF THE SMARTFIRE
V4.3 ENVIRONMENT Back
The
following table lists some of the key features of the SMARTFIRE
v4.3 Environment.
SMARTFIRE TOOL
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FEATURE
DESCRIPTION
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SMARTFIRE Scenario Designer
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Allows CAD/Bitmap
import or 2D design of buildings
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Automatic Exodus
"zone" (hazard export link) and geometry
creation (NEW v4.2)
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Supports
composite objects
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Allows multiple
re-do and un-do
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Room and door
search algorithms |
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VR Walk through
mode with superimposed CAD floor plans
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SMARTFIRE Case Specification Environment
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Build/Configure
Scenario in 3D Environment
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Multiple fire
sources with possible secondary triggering of
fuel packets
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Optional FED
monitors with Monitor Cells (NEW v4.3)
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Grouping of
objects now supported (NEW v4.2)
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Delayed triggers
and time varying inlets |
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Define Obstacles,
Thin plates, Inlets, Outlets, Portals, Fans and
Free Surfaces, etc.
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Editor for hazard
volumes allows for re-zoning without re-running
CFD engine (NEW v4.2)
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Toxicity Species,
HCN and HCL (with absorption) models (NEW
v4.2)
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Sprinkler
modelling with Nozzle object
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Volume and face
porosities
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SMARTFIRE Interactive Meshing System
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Creates a mesh
and CFD Engine command script
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Extended region
handling
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Geometry specific
meshing with meshing rule fine-tuning |
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Iterative mesh
improvement (Refine)
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Option for manual
mesh editing
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Optimisation for
solids/un-used rooms removal at meshing stage (NEW
v4.2)
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SMARTFIRE CFD Engine
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Scenario
simulation tool runs in 32 or 64 bit Windows (NEW
v4.2)
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Algebraic
Multi-Grid solver for Serial CFD Engine (NEW
v4.3)
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Multi Particle
Size sub model for Smoke Transport (NEW
v4.3)
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Parallel option
using multiple PCs and/or multiple CPU cores
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3D (unstructured
mesh capable - with suitable meshing system)
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Transient or
steady-state
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Turbulent (K-ε
with buoyancy modifications)
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Optional high
resolution difference schemes |
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Radiosity, 6-flux
and multi-ray radiation models
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Gaseous
combustion, Toxicity, HCN, HCL and Sprinkler
models
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Interactive
Visuals, Data Plots and Monitor Graphs
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Visibility
through smoke distance visualisation |
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Interactive
control of solution process
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Export data
(including toxicity) to EXODUS evacuation
software
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SMARTFIRE Data Viewer
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Post-processing
visualisation and exploration of CFD data
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Point probe and
graphing through data with option to export
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Supports
semi-transparent geometry and visuals |
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Multiple cut
planes for vectors and contours (NEW
v4.2)
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Animation of time
series results or a series of camera viewpoints
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Surface
visualisation of temperature and burning
surfaces (NEW v4.2)
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Vector, Scalar
(cut plane, iso-surface), Streamline and Smoke
visualisations
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SMARTFIRE v4.3
ADVANTAGES Back
SMARTFIRE
v4.3 has been developed in C++ using modular
Object Oriented modular software design. SMARTFIRE
v4.3 offers the fire engineer the following advantages:
-
Available
for standard PC platforms (and workstation
clusters) using either 32- or 64- bit Microsoft
Windows [XP/XP Pro, Vista, 7, 8].
-
SMARTFIRE
discards the outdated concept of batch mode
processing, allowing users to access the fully
interactive CFD Engine, ensuring that the entire
modelling process is more efficient and the results
are more comprehensible.
- SMARTFIRE uses
tried and tested CFD technology, along-side advanced
and well validated research capabilities, to provide
accurate simulations in a wide variety of fire
scenarios.
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An integrated modular
simulation environment that provides the design
engineer with the tool set required to specify both
the Geometry and the Fire Scenario, to mesh the
Geometry, to perform the CFD simulations and then to
interrogate and visualise the Simulation results.
- Parallel version can also exploit multiple
workstations AND multi-core architectures, so
enhanced performance is possible even on a single
(multi-core) workstation.
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The Case Specification tool
uses terms that are familiar to the Fire Safety
industry and has a low learning overhead.
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The Interactive Meshing
system provides intuitive interactive visual meshing
backed by automatic knowledge based meshing.
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The fully featured CFD engine
can solve for steady-state/transient turbulent,
buoyant flows with forced or natural ventilation
including heat transfer with combustion, thermal
radiation (using multi-ray, six-flux, or radiosity
sub-models), toxicity and HCN (using an Local
Equivalence Ratio model), HCL (with optional wall
surface absorption) and/or Sprinklers on structured
or fully un-structured*
3D meshes.
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Provides a built-in data
"slice" visualisation capability that can also be
used both for post processing visualisation and for
continuous solution monitoring.
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Extensive data gathering
facilities using line plot graphs, graphs of
residuals and monitor values and image captures.
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Comprehensive save and
restart facilities allow speculative control and
stability research whilst the case database provides
data compression and neat file management.
* when used with suitable
third party tools for geometry specifcation and unstructured
meshing.
FEATURES
IN SMARTFIRE v4.3 and v4.2 Back
SMARTFIRE v4.3
has the following features:
-
An algebraic Multi-Grid
solver (for Pressure solving) has been added to the
serial version of the CFD Engine. This new class of
solver offers greater stability and performance when
running highly refined or challenging mesh cases,
e.g. tunnels. (NEW v4.3)
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New Smoke sub-model for Multi
Particle Size soot dispersion. This optional model
provides additional fidelity to the smoke model as
it allows gravitational settling of the largest soot
particles, leading to a more realistic dispersion of
the soot in large scale geometries. (NEW
v4.3)
- Monitor Points (Cells)
can now have optional Fractional Effective Dose (FED)
toxicity computations added so that location specific
toxicity (for a building occupant defined by key
parameters) is computed and exported at the end of
each time step. This gives a simple method for
analysing the hazard caused by the fire effluents
without having to run a post-processing tool. (NEW
v4.3)
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New support for 64 bit memory
addressing in the Case Specification Environment,
Serial- & Parallel- CFD Engines and the Data
Viewer. Formerly SMARTFIRE was
limited to using only up to 2 GB of available memory
on 32 bit Windows Platforms. Now with 64 bit
Windows, SMARTFIRE can run
significantly larger cell budgets - although the
Parallel version of the CFD Engine should be used to
make large cases run in a reasonable time.
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Scenario Designer tool
provides a semi-automated graphical environment for
the import of CAD (DXF or floor plan mono-bitmap)
drawings for the creation of SMARTFIRE
modelling scenarios from building floor plans. This
tool does not have to be used if there are no
building plans available although the intuitive
CAD-like interface can greatly enhance the speed of
development of scenario geometries for large scale
or complex buildings. The output from this tool will
be a 3D geometry model that can be loaded into the SMARTFIRE
Case Specification Environment. The tool understands
layers used in DXF design drawings and can "scan"
for rooms and doors within suitable floor plans.
There are intuitive mechanisms for selecting
portions of a complex building plan and selectively
incorporating rooms, doors, windows, fires and vents
into the scenario to be modelled.
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The parallel version of SMARTFIRE
(using MPI) uses networked PC workstations (and/or
multiple CPU cores) with domain decomposition to
speed up the solution process. The parallel CFD
engine runs with a slightly more limited Graphical
User Interface than the serial version.
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Interactive (run-time)
visualizer allows intermediate and final results
display during the CFD computations. This tool
allows a 2D visualisation plane to be viewed within
the context of the geometry and the whole domain can
be rotated, zoomed or shifted under mouse control.
Also supports visibility distance computation
through smoke filled environments.
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SMARTFIRE
“DataView” provides results post-processing with
geometry display and numerous visualisation options
including scalar iso-surfaces/cut-planes, velocity
vector displays, streamlines, smoke visualisation,
surface data and animated results for multiple time
step saves.
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A zone (hazard sub-region)
based data link allows SMARTFIRE to
export hazard simulation results to the EXODUS
evacuation-modelling tool. This fully supports
toxicity and HCl sub-models and has semi-automated
set-up of zones when using the SMARTFIRE
Scenario Designer. The Scenario Designer can also
create a compatible buildingEXODUS geometry
that has all the hazard sub-volumes pre-defined.
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Many of the objects available
in the Case Specification Environment have temporal
or solution controlled activation/de-activation.
This means that, for example, a thin plate object
(representing a closed door or window) can be
removed from (or added to) a simulation at a
particular time OR if a particular solution
condition is detected. This is a very powerful
feature that enables such research as secondary
ignition of fire sources, opening and closing of
vents, baffles, doors and windows, and the
activation or deactivation of fans or inlets.
TRIGGER CELL and TRIGGER VOLUME objects provide the
solution controlled activation/de-activation. The
object triggering can also be delayed.
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Monitor points have enhanced
handling so that multiple monitor points can be
defined (the last monitor point defined will - as
usual - be used for the CFD data monitoring point).
All of the monitor points can have selective data
output to a variable specific monitoring file. The
files will each have monitor-point columns of values
that are the variable values for the particular
monitor point at successive time steps. The files
will be continually appended with all the monitor
point data at the end of each time step.
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Gaseous combustion model
supports partial oxygen sensitivity. Formerly the
Gaseous combustion model did not use the oxygen
concentration to limit the rate of combustion. The
model is not yet capable of handling fire extinction
but this feature and other enhancements are
currently being researched.
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The multiple ray radiation
model has been optimised so that it performs faster
when there are only very minor changes in
temperature. The multi ray radiation model
(particularly when using many rays) is very
computationally expensive and this optimisation
makes the use of the model much more practical.
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The automated meshing system
has been enhanced with more powerful quality
assessment and adjustment routines. The user can
choose to check the quality and the system will
selectively choose to add cells only where they are
actually needed (and be beneficial) rather than the
former approach of a brute force increase of the
directional cell budget to try and fix the
problematic cells/blocks.
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Multiple planar-visualisation
windows are supported by the SMARTFIRE
CFD Engine, including image saves.
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A number of optimisation
strategies have been incorporated within the SMARTFIRE
CFD Engine. (i) The data storage mechanisms have
been reworked to give more optimal performance due
to the faster cache arrangement of modern PC
workstations. (ii) The CFD Engine supports the
removal of certain classes of solid so that certain
solid cells are physically removed from the problem
and no processing is performed. This is particularly
useful for complex scenarios where there are void
spaces and blockages that do not participate in any
of the solution development. The removal is near
100% effective at saving the compute time for all of
the cells that are removed. (iii) Re-indexing of the
problem (Research Version Only) using cell
activation groups allows processing to be targeted
on the cells where the solution is changing the
most. This is an experimental technique that is
currently being researched and is most likely to be
of benefit to large-scale simulation scenarios where
parts of the domain experience little or no
significant flows or heating. It should be noted
that both solid removal and re-indexing have a side
effect of losing the regular nature of structured
cartesian meshes. The SMARTFIRE CFD
Engine can process the unstructured case BUT the
visualisation is affected since the data is no
longer structured. This means that the visualisation
of data cut planes will use the unstructured
triangulation routines rather than the regular
structured mesh visualisation routines.
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Data output formats support
various third part post processing packages. MayaVi
(freeware) supported for "snapshot" saves AND
incremental saves. TecPlot (commercial) supported
for "snapshot" saves. Ensight-6 and -Gold
(commercial) supported for "snapshot" saves.
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Porosity objects (for faces
and volumes) enable more realistic handling of
partial blockages. Some objects, such as
meshes/grills and/or objects with sub-structures
much smaller than the modelled mesh resolution,
might not be adequately modelled using existing thin
plate or obstacle objects. Porosity objects allow
partially blocked faces and volumes to be specified.
In some cases this can enhance the modelling
accuracy BUT users are warned that the porosity
objects do not have specific turbulence generation
handling since any particular porosity patch can
represent a multitude of very different geometries
(each of which will have a unique effect on the
turbulent behaviour).
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Minimum PC specification is a
P4 3.0GHz with 1024MB RAM and 1024x768 XGA.
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Recommended minimum PC
specification is an Intel Core i3 Dual 2.0 GHz (or
similar) with 4GB RAM and 1024x768 XGA.
EXISTING
FEATURES INHERITED FROM EARLIER VERSIONS OF SMARTFIRE
Back
SMARTFIRE v4.3
also maintains the following features inherited from
earlier versions of SMARTFIRE:
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Horizontal
vents are available via the user interface with
suitably sized extended regions that are
automatically created in the vertical direction.
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The
automated meshing tool was significantly improved
and generates improved quality meshes with smaller
mesh budgets than in earlier versions of SMARTFIRE.
The automatic meshing tool has object awareness for
improved meshing of complex geometries. This enables
the use of meshing rules that specify the minimum
number of cells that MUST be used within an object.
E.g. a vent must have at least 3 cells in both the
“height” and “width” directions in order to provide
for both inflow and outflow simultaneously.
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A manual
mesh specification tool was included that allows the
user to modify the mesh through the addition of
cells and the specification of cell distributions.
This tool allows experts to fine tune meshes
generated by the automated mesh generator.
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Gaseous
combustion models and associated control parameters
have been incorporated within SMARTFIRE
and can be fully activated via the user interface.
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A smoke
model was made available for use with the gaseous
combustion model and the standard heat release rate
model. In the standard heat release rate model the
smoke is specified as a mass release rate. When the
gaseous combustion model is used, smoke is
concentration is determined by assessing the mass of
smoke produced by burning 1 unit of fuel.
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Additional
‘objects’ have been specified in the object library
thus allowing the user to create simulation cases
with greater complexity.
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2D objects
such as Thin Plates and Inlets can be specified
anywhere in the flow domain (previously, 2D objects
were limited to the surfaces of the geometry
region).
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Smart data
entry menus and case specification checking now
provide easier and more reliable fire modelling.
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A
multi-ray radiation model has been included. This
model is analogous to the discrete transfer
radiation model but is fully compatible with
unstructured meshes. It has the benefit of using the
same computational mesh as the other models.
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The
ability to specify forced ventilation systems such
as fans.
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The planar
visualisation system in the CFD Engine has been
enhanced to allow multiple visualisation planes to
be viewed simultaneously.
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New
objects have been added to allow data plots to be
specified from the SMARTFIRE Case
Specification Environment.
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The
visualisation system has been enhanced to allow
captures to be performed when screen-savers are in
use, when other applications are hiding the visuals
or when the computer system is locked. Saves under
these conditions were formerly not possible.
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