Advanced Fire Dynamics Simulator and Smokeview

This 2 ½ day seminar is a hands-on workshop intended to teach students advanced techniques in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) modeling and Smokeview visualization. The seminar is intended for current users of FDS, who are comfortable creating simple FDS input files from scratch without assistance. 

The seminar consists of many short modules covering specific topics. Each module includes a lecture section and a workshop section in which the student works example problems on their personal laptop computer. A list of the topics that will be covered in the class include:

• Stair stepping sloped and curved surfaces
• Extract and Supply
• Boundary conditions
• Tracking species through the domain
• Implementing pre and post flashover fires
• Flame spread
• Creating and removing obstructions
• Smoke detectors
• Grid transformations
• Advanced Smokeview techniques: custom iso-surfaces, texture mapping, render files, and cad view.
• Using spreadsheets to develop FDS input files

Because of the hands-on nature of this seminar, the students are required to bring a laptop computer capable of running FDS and Smokeview. Suggested minimum requirements are a 1.0 GHz Pentium processor and 512 MB of RAM. The computer will need to have FDS and Smokeview installed, click here to download software, as well as a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel or equivalent). The student's are required to have sufficient security privileges on their computer to install additional software during the class.

Successful completion of SFPE’s Introduction to FDS seminar or equivalent is a prerequisite for the Advanced seminar.  Each student should have an understanding of fire dynamics, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics theory to gather the greatest understanding possible from the course.  Each student should be able to develop FDS input files, develop design fire scenarios, and review FDS results using Smokeview without assistance.