A Review of CFD-Based Analysis of Shipboard Battery Fires and Eco-Friendly Fuel Fire/Explosion Phenomena

Decarbonization in the maritime sector is increasing the use of lithium-ion batteries and eco-friendly fuels, including hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, aboard ships.These energy carriers pose fire and explosion hazards that differ from those of conventional fossil fuels, especially in confined shipboard spaces with uncertain ventilation.Battery-fire scenarios include onboard battery systems as well as electric vehicles transported on Ro-Ro ships, vehicle carriers, and ferries.Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is widely used to analyze these hazards, but its reliability depends strongly on modeling assumptions, input parameters, and the interpretation of simulation results.This paper reviews recent CFD-based studies on shipboard battery fires and fire/explosion phenomena involving eco-friendly fuels, with a focus on prediction reliability, computational cost, and interpretive limitations.A meta-analysis of 167 recent CFD studies is presented, and the modeling capabilities required for ship-safety applications are identified by fuel type.FDS and FireFOAM are then assessed against these requirements.The review shows that FDS is suitable for validated low-Mach-number fire and smoke simulations but not for compressible explosion phenomena, whereas FireFOAM and related OpenFOAM-based solvers can address this gap, although ship-scale validation remains less mature.The paper concludes that CFD should be used primarily for scenario comparison, sensitivity analysis, and trend identification rather than absolute prediction, and that no single solver can cover the full hazard spectrum of next-generation ships.