Real-time 3D simulation for indoor fire safety engineering

Abstract

With the introduction of the new Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act, which came into effect in 2003, the need for assessing a building's reaction to internal fire outbreaks now not only takes on a moral obligation, but also a legal one. This dissertation document describes a software package developed by the present author, the aim of which is to help an individual observe how a fire would evolve indoors. This ultimately models how interconnected rooms and their contents would behave under such hazardous conditions, and how changes to structure or layout can minimize property damage or even casualties. Although the package is simple and may not be appropriate for commercial or scientific use, it serves as an ideal platform or prototype upon which a future system may be constructed. With its incredibly comfortable interface, drag-and-drop 3D objects, and 5-button mouse support, the system is the ideal tool for rapid fire safety analysis. Using an efficient building editor, the user constructs an indoor scene complete with common structural items such as doors, windows, tables, and stairs. Once the environment has been defined, the user can pinpoint the starting location of the fire, and its evolution is observed in real-time as it spreads throughout the room. Objects combust in a chain reaction, smoke and toxic fumes disperse, and typical phenomena such as flashover are observed. Using the full potential of interactive graphics and modem acceleration hardware, the user navigates in 360° fashion, observing and selecting objects to retrieve information about them. As the simulation progresses, fire consumes more of the room's contents and the user can view valuable statistics for each object or enclosure. The entire project complies with the well-renowned British Standards Institute codes on fire safety engineering (PD7974:2003), which are not only recent (2003) but also very comprehensive. Intended for Architects and Structural Engineers and for use on the Microsoft Windows XP platform, the software employs the .NET architecture and managed DirectX 9 to maximize usability, robustness, rapid productivity, customizability, maintainability, extensibility, and all with the lowest of learning curves.