A criterion for the development of fires in multiroom structures

Modeling of multiroom structural fires is possible with a variety of available computer codes, thus permitting calculations of temperature and smoke level in different rooms as the fire progresses from one room to the next. The accuracy and applicability of the results is greatly enhanced though the comparison of the calculations with experimental data. A criterion is suggested and confirmed that permits fire spread from room to room on the basis of the initiation of the next room´s fire to be at the instant of flashover of the previous adjacent room (which is connected to the next room via an open doorway). An even simpler approach with single room calculations, each up to the onset of flashover, then the next room begins to fire up from cold, is also considered, and shown to provide very useful cost-effective results.