Reconstruction of the Grenfell tower fire—Part 6—Numerical simulation of the Grenfell tower disaster: Contribution to the understanding of the tenability conditions inside the common areas of the tower

Eric Guillaume, Virginie Drean, Bertrand Girardin, Talal Fateh

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)
    59 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    The recent dramatic events at Grenfell Tower in London involving a combustible façade system have raised concerns regarding the fire risk that these systems pose. The spread of fire over the façade of the Tower was previously modelled numerically and the results of this modelling were validated by comparison with observations of the real fire. This model was used to determine the fire behaviour of the façade and the propagation of the façade fire into the apartments through windows. The modelling used an impact model according to ISO 13571 and included fire loads from the façade and, when relevant, from apartment contents. Tenability levels inside the apartments were quantified by an analysis of the toxic and thermal conditions due to the combustion of the façade materials and the apartment contents. In the present paper, the conditions inside the lobbies and stairs of the Tower are investigated, building on the previous analysis of the apartments. This allows an understanding of the evolution of toxic and thermal conditions whilst the fire spread, and their impact on egress during the fire event.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1061-1079
    Number of pages19
    JournalFire and Materials
    Volume46
    Issue number7
    Early online date11 Feb 2022
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 3 Oct 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work has been partially financed by Kingspan. The sponsor has not been involved in the results nor the conclusions of this paper. This reconstruction only uses inputs publicly available data from Grenfell Tower Inquiry or data published in the scientific literature.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022 Efectis France. Fire and Materials published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Keywords

    • Metals and Alloys
    • Polymers and Plastics
    • General Chemistry
    • Ceramics and Composites
    • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
    • toxicity
    • façade system
    • fire propagation
    • impact model
    • numerical simulation

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