Case study: Car fire simulation in the city of Milan

This simulation delves into the behaviour of smoke dispersion. 

A car was positioned in the block behind the Pirelli Tower in Milan (upper right corner), intentionally shielded from the East wind at 3 m/s, coming from the right side of the image.

As a first step, a steady state wind analysis was run – the colour map in Figure 1 shows the steady state velocity field at ground level.

Afterwards, the incidental transient simulation was triggered, introducing a time-dependent heat source term (depicted in  Figure 2) and the accompanying smoke generated by the fire. 

Figure 1: steady state velocity field at ground level

Figure 2: time-varying heat release

Figure 3 shows the video frame captured 5 minutes following the fire’s ignition.

Due to the car’s position, shielded from the wind, the heated smoke begins its ascent in an almost vertical manner. Upon reaching the height of the Pirelli Tower, the smoke is subsequently carried westward by the prevailing wind.

Figure 3: simulation 5 minutes after fire’s ignition