Sensitivity Analysis of a Fire Field Model in the Case of a Large-Scale Compartment Fire Scenario

The objective of this work is to show how a sensitivity study based on a fractional factorial design can be helpful to quantify the impact of parameter variations on model predictions. These parameters have been carefully chosen due to their high variability in fire modeling and the analysis is conducted by simulating a compartment fire with a CFD model. Through a rigorous approach, it is demonstrated that this fractional design composed of eight simulations gives the same information as a standard full design of 64 runs. Physically, it is found that some turbulence and combustion parameters are significant for most the responses.