NIST Technical Note 1889v2

CFAST – Consolidated Model of Fire

Growth and Smoke Transport
(Version 7)
Volume 2: User’s Guide
Richard D. Peacock
Paul A. Reneke
Glenn P. Forney

This publication is available free of charge from:

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1889v2
 NIST Technical Note 1889v2

CFAST – Consolidated Model of Fire

Growth and Smoke Transport
(Version 7)
Volume 2: User’s Guide
Richard D. Peacock
Paul A. Reneke
Glenn P. Forney

This publication is available free of charge from:

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1889v2

April 2020
CFAST Version 7.5.0
GIT Revision: CFAST7.5.0-151-gf3e971e3

E N T OF C O M
TM M
AR

ER
D EP

CE
ICA
UN
IT

ER

D
E

ST AM
ATES OF

U.S. Department of Commerce

Wilbur L. Ross, Secretary

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Walter Copan, NIST Director and Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology
CFAST Developers

The Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) and Smokeview are the products
of a collaborative effort led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Its
developers and contributors are listed below.

Principal Developers of CFAST

Richard Peacock, NIST

Glenn Forney, NIST
Paul Reneke, NIST
Kevin McGrattan, NIST
Walter Jones

Principal Developer of Smokeview

Glenn Forney, NIST

Contributors

Kristopher Overholt, Continuum Analytics, Austin, Texas, USA

Jason Floyd, Jensen Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

iii
iv
About the Developers

Richard Peacock is a chemical engineering in the Fire Research Division of NIST. He received a
bachelor of science degree from the Clark School of Engineering of the University of Maryland
in 1973. He joined the NIST staff in 1974 (then the National Bureau of Standards) and has
worked on real-scale testing and the development and validation of fire models, most notably
CFAST.

Glenn Forney is a computer scientist in the Fire Research Division of NIST. He received a bach-
elor of science degree in mathematics from Salisbury State College and a master of science
and a doctorate in mathematics from Clemson University. He joined NIST in 1986 (then the
National Bureau of Standards) and has since worked on developing tools that provide a better
understanding of fire phenomena, most notably Smokeview, an advanced scientific software
tool for visualizing Fire Dynamics Simulation data.

Paul Reneke is a computer scientist in the Fire Research Division of NIST. He received a bachelor
of science degree in mathematical sciences from Clemson Univerity and a master of science
degree in applied mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University. He joined NIST in 1990.
He has worked on the development of user interfaces, graphics and improved numerics in fire
models, notably CFAST. His research interests include sensitivity analysis and validation of
fire models.

Kevin McGrattan is a mathematician in the Fire Research Division of NIST. He received a bach-
elor of science degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia Uni-
versity in 1987 and a doctorate at the Courant Institute of New York University in 1991. He
joined the NIST staff in 1992 and has since worked on the development and validation of fire
models, most notably the Fire Dynamics Simulator.

Walter Jones was a physicist at NIST (now retired). He received a bachelor of arts degree in
physics from Oberlin College and a doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland. He
was the original developer of the CFAST model. In addition to the development of fire models,
he has worked on smart fire alarms and smoke control for naval vessels.

v
vi
Disclaimer

The U. S. Department of Commerce makes no warranty, expressed or implied, to users of CFAST

and associated computer programs, and accepts no responsibility for its use. Users of CFAST
assume sole responsibility under Federal law for determining the appropriateness of its use in any
particular application; for any conclusions drawn from the results of its use; and for any actions
taken or not taken as a result of analyses performed using these tools. CFAST is intended for use
only by those competent in the field of fire safety and is intended only to supplement the informed
judgment of a qualified user. The software package is a computer model which may or may not
have predictive value when applied to a specific set of factual circumstances. Lack of accurate
predictions by the model could lead to erroneous conclusions with regard to fire safety. All results
should be evaluated by an informed user.

National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Note 1889v2

Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Tech. Note 1889v2, 97 pages (April 2020)
CODEN: NTNOEF

This publication is available free of charge from:

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1889v2

vii
viii
Intent and Use

The algorithms, procedures, and computer programs described in this report constitute a method-
ology for predicting some of the consequences resulting from a prescribed fire. They have been
compiled from the best knowledge and understanding currently available, but have important lim-
itations that must be understood and considered by the user. The program is intended for use by
persons competent in the field of fire safety and with some familiarity with personal computers. It
is intended as an aid in the fire safety decision-making process.

ix
x
Abstract

CFAST is a two-zone fire model capable of predicting the environment in a multi-compartment

structure subjected to a fire. It calculates the time-evolving distribution of smoke and gaseous
combustion products as well as the temperature throughout a building during a user-prescribed
fire. This report describes the use of the model, including installing and running the software, the
computer platforms upon which it is supported and examples to verify correct installation.

xi
xii
Acknowledgments

Continuing support for CFAST is via internal funding at NIST. In addition, support is provided by
other agencies of the U.S. Federal Government, most notably the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research and the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. NRC Office
of Nuclear Regulatory Research has funded key validation experiments, the preparation of the
CFAST manuals, and the continuing development of sub-models that are of importance in the area
of nuclear power plant safety. Special thanks to Mark Salley and David Stroup for their efforts and
support.
Support to refine the software development and quality assurance process for CFAST has been
provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The assistance of Subir Sen and Debra Spark-
man in understanding DOE software quality assurance programs and the application of the process
to CFAST is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to Allan Coutts, Washington Safety
Management Solutions for his insight into the application of fire models to nuclear safety applica-
tions and detailed review of the CFAST document updates for DOE.

xiii
xiv
Contents

CFAST Developers iii

About the Developers v

Disclaimer vii

Intent and Use ix

Abstract xi

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Getting Started 1
1.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Basic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 The View Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 The Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Simulation Environment 5
2.1 Version and Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Simulation Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Simulation Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 Thermal Properties 9
3.1 Adding Thermal Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 Adding Thermal Properties From Another File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 Compartments 11
4.1 Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3 Modeling a Compartment as a Tall Shaft or Long Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.4 Defining Variable Compartment Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.5 Modeling Compartment Leakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

xv
5 Vents 17
5.1 Natural Ventilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.1.1 Wall Vents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.1.2 Ceiling/Floor Vents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.2 Mechanical Ventilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.2.1 Connections to Compartments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.2.2 Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.2.3 Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

6 Fires 25
6.1 Adding Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.2 Time-Dependent Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.3 Special Topic: t-Squared Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

7 Measurement and Fire Protection Devices 31

7.1 Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.2 Sprinklers and Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

8 Surface Connections 35

9 Visualization 37
9.1 Adding Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
9.2 Visualization Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
9.3 Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

10 Output from CFAST 45

10.1 Compact Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
10.2 Detailed Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
10.2.1 Output for Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
10.2.2 Output for Main Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
10.2.3 Output for Wall Surfaces, Targets, and Detectors/Sprinklers . . . . . . . . 51
10.2.4 Output for Gas Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
10.2.5 Output for Vent Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
10.3 Spreadsheet Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
10.3.1 Primary Output Variables (project_compartments.csv) . . . . . . . . . . . 54
10.3.2 Target Temperature and Heat Flux (project_devices.csv) . . . . . . . . . . 56
10.3.3 Layer Masses (project_masses.csv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10.3.4 Vent Flow (project_vents.csv) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
10.3.5 Compartment Surface Temperature(project_walls.csv) . . . . . . . . . . . 58
10.4 Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

References 65

Appendices 66

A Scenario and Software Limits 67

xvi
B CFAST Text-based Input File 69
B.1 Naming the Input File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
B.2 Namelist Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
B.3 Input File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
B.4 Simulation Environment, Namelist Groups HEAD, TIME, INIT, and MISC . . . . 73
B.5 Thermal Properties, Namelist Group MATL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
B.6 Compartments, Namelist Group COMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
B.7 Vents, Namelist Group VENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
B.7.1 Wall Vents,TYPE=’WALL’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
B.7.2 Ceiling / Floor Vents,TYPE=’CEILING’ or TYPE=’FLOOR’ . . . . . . 78
B.7.3 Mechanical Vents,TYPE=’MECHANICAL’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
B.8 Fires, Namelist Groups FIRE, CHEM, and TABL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
B.9 Devices, Namelist Group DEVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
B.10 Compartment Connections, Namelist Group CONN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
B.11 Visualization, Namelist Groups ISOF, SLCF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
B.11.1 ISOF (Isosurface Parameters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
B.11.2 SLCF (Slice File Parameters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
B.12 DIAG (Diagnostic Parameters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
B.13 Custom Output and Post-run Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

C CFAST Spreadsheet Outputs 89

D Running CFAST from a Command Prompt 97

xvii
List of Figures

1.1 The Primary CFAST Input Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 The Standard CFAST Output Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.1 The CFAST Simulation Environment Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.1 The CFAST Thermal Properties Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2 Inserting Thermal Properties in CFAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.1 The CFAST Compartments Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.2 Compartment Orientation and Positioning in CFAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5.1 The CFAST Wall Vents Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5.2 The CFAST Ceiling/Floor Vents Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.3 The CFAST Mechanical Vents Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

6.1 The CFAST Fires Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

6.2 Inserting T-squared Fires in CFAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

7.1 The CFAST Targets Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7.2 The CFAST Detection/Suppression Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

8.1 The CFAST Surface Connections Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

9.1 The CFAST Visualizations Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

9.2 example Smokeview Visualization for a Three Compartment Test Case with Two
Fires (User_Guide_Example.in) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9.3 Smokeview Visualization of Gas Temperature with a Single Fire . . . . . . . . . . . 41
9.4 Smokeview Visualization of Gas Velocity with Two Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
9.5 Smokeview Visualization of Detector Activation in a Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

xviii
Chapter 1

Getting Started

The Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) is documented by four publica-
tions, this user’s guide, a technical reference guide [1] a verification and validation guide [2], and
a configuration management guide [3]. The technical reference guide describes the underlying
physical principles, provides a comparison with other models, and includes an evaluation of the
model following the guidelines of ASTM E1355 [4]. The model verification and validation guide
documents verification and validation efforts for the model. The configuration management guide
documents the processes used during the development and validation of the model. This user’s
guide describes how to use the model and the input editor CEdit.

1.1 Installation
The installation of CFAST is made up of thre programs. The main program, CFAST, is written in
Fortran and can be run as a stand alone command line application that reads input data from a text
file. It has been compiled and run on a number of different operating systems but the version in
the distribution was compiled to run under Windows. The input editor, CEdit, that is distributed
with CFAST is designed to run on a Windows platform. Also the version of the visualization
software, Smokeview, is compiled to run on Windows. All of the files associated with CFAST can
be obtained at: http://cfast.nist.gov
The CFAST distribution consists of a self-extracting set-up program for Windows-based per-
sonal computers. After downloading the set-up program, double-clicking on the file’s icon walks
you through a series of steps for installation of the program. The most important part of the instal-
lation is the creation of a folder (C:\Program Files\CFAST by default) in which the CFAST
executable files and supplemental data files are installed. Sample input files are found in the
Examples folder.
CFAST input files are best created and run using a Windows-based input editor called CEdit.
Sample input files are provided with the program for new users who are encouraged to first run
the sample calculations before attempting to create an input file. To run the model, browse to the
location of the CFAST sample input file (default location is in a folder called Examples in the
installation folder) copy the file named Users_Guide_Example.in to a location of your choice
and then double click on the copied file. This should open the file in the CFAST input editor,
CEdit, as shown in Fig. 1.1. The simple test case can be run from the program window by clicking

1
 Figure 1.1: The Primary CFAST Input Page.

on the “Run” button. The case should finish in a few seconds. To verify that the installation has
been done correctly, the output of the model should appear as shown in Fig. 1.2.

2
 Figure 1.2: The Standard CFAST Output Screen.

1.2 Basic Features

The input parameters are organized via tabs near the top of the CEdit window, as shown in Fig. 1.1.
The tabs are:
Simulation Environment includes simulation time, specification of model outputs, and ambient
conditions. Also included on the page is a constantly updated list of errors, warnings, and
messages about the input file specification or model simulation.
Thermal Properties defines the thermal conductivity, specific heat, density, thickness and emis-
sivity values for all materials and fuel sources used in a simulation.
Compartments defines the size, construction characteristics, and position of the compartments in
a simulation.
Wall Vents define doors and windows.
Ceiling/Floor Vents define holes in the ceiling/floor.
Mechanical Ventilation defines forced air ventilation.
Fires include user specification of the initial fire source and any additional burning objects in one
or more of the compartments of the simulation.
Targets provide the ability to calculate the temperature and net heat flux to objects placed and
oriented arbitrarily in the structure.

3
Detection / Suppression defines any heat or smoke alarms and sprinklers in the compartments of
the simulation.

Surface Connections allows for more detailed description of the connections between compart-
ments in the simulation to better simulate the transfer of heat from compartment to compart-
ment in the simulation.

Visualizations allows specification of one or more 2-D and 3-D visualizations to be added to
the simulation for viewing with Smokeview. Note that these can require significant additional
computational time than a basic CFAST simulation without visualizations.

1.3 The View Menu

The View menu allows you to view or print the input data file, output file (if the simulation has
been run and a text output file generated) and the log file of the simulation. If one of the items does
not exist on the user’s hard disk, the selection is grayed out.

Select Engineering Units allows you to select the units for input and output. By default, most
outputs are in S.I. units, with temperature in Celsius.

1.4 The Help Menu

The Help menu accesses this user’s guide, the CFAST web site, or an about dialog box that displays
the user license and version of the program.

4
Chapter 2

Simulation Environment

The Environment page defines the initial conditions and simulation time for the CFAST input file.

Figure 2.1: The CFAST Simulation Environment Tab.

5
2.1 Version and Title
Version The version of CFAST being used by the user. Version number can be found in the upper
left corner in the CEdit user interface as shown in Fig. 1.1.

Title The first thing to do when setting up an input file is to give the simulation a title. The title is
optional and may consist of letters, numbers, and/or symbols and may be up to 50 characters.
All output files will be tagged with this character string.

2.2 Simulation Times

Simulation Time (default units: s, default value, 900 s): The length of time over which the simu-
lation takes place. The maximum value for this input is 86400 s (1 day).

Text Output Interval (default units: s, default value, 60 s): The time interval between each print-
ing of the output data. If equal to zero, no output values will appear.

Spreadsheet Output Interval (default units: s, default value, 15 s): CFAST can output the results
of the simulation in a set of comma-delimited spreadsheet files. This parameter defines the time
interval between these outputs. A value greater than zero must be used if the spreadsheet files
are desired.

Smokeview Output Interval (default units: s, default value: 15 s): CFAST can output a subset
of the results in a format compatible with the visualization program Smokeview. This input
defines the time interval between outputs of the model results in a Smokeview-compatible
format. A value greater than zero must be used if the Smokeview output is desired.

Maximum Time Step (default units: s, default value: 2 s): CFAST will automatically adjust the
time interval for the solution of the differential equation set up or down so that the simulation
is as efficient as possible within the pre-defined error tolerances. This parameter places a
maximum value for the equation solver and can normally be left at the default value. In cases
(which are hopefully rare) where the model fails to converge on a solution, this value can be
reduced which often will allow the simulation to successfully complete.

2.3 Simulation Conditions

Ambient conditions define the environment at which the scenario begins. Initial pressures in a
structure are calculated simply as a lapse rate (related to the height above sea level) based on the
NOAA/NASA tables [5]. It is convenient to choose the base of a structure to be at zero height
and then reference the height of the structure with respect to that height. The temperature and
pressure must then be measured at that position. Another possible choice would be the pressure
and temperature at sea level, with the structure elevations then given with respect to mean sea level.
This is also acceptable, but somewhat more tedious in specifying the construction of a structure.
Either of these choices works though, so long as they are consistent. Usually, the station elevation
is set to zero and the pressure to ambient. The effect of changing these values is minor. Note

6
that the equations implemented in the model are not designed to handle negative elevations and
altitudes.

Temperature (default units: ◦ C, default value: 20 ◦ C): Initial ambient temperature inside the
structure at the station elevation.

Humidity (default units % RH, default value: 50 %): The initial relative humidity in the system,
only specified for the interior. This is converted to kilograms of water per cubic meter as an
initial condition for both the interior and exterior of the structure.

Temperature (default units: ◦ C, default value: 20 ◦ C): Initial ambient temperature outside the
structure at the station elevation.

Pressure (default units: Pa, default value: 101325 Pa): Initial values for ambient atmospheric
pressure inside and outside the structure at the station elevation. The default value is standard
atmospheric pressure at sea level.

2.4 Miscellaneous
Keywords associated to global parameters are organized in the miscellaneous namelist group.

Adiabatic Compartment Surfaces When this box is checked, all of the compartment surfaces are
assumed to be perfect insulators and the materials section of the compartments tab becomes
grayed out. This feature is useful when designing an experiment in which it is safe to assume
that there is no heat transfer to the walls of the compartments.

Lower Oxygen Limit (default units: %, default value: 15 %): In the CFAST model, a limit is
incorporated by limiting the burning rate as the oxygen level decreases until a “lower oxygen
limit” (LOL) is reached. The lower oxygen limit is incorporated through a smooth decrease in
the burning rate near the limit. Normally, this value would not be changed by the user.

7
8
Chapter 3

Thermal Properties

The thermophysical properites of materials used for compartment surfaces or targets are set in the
Thermal Properties tab.

Figure 3.1: The CFAST Thermal Properties Tab.

9
3.1 Adding Thermal Properties
CFAST and CEdit do not include predefined thermal properties for compartment materials. Thus,
the user needs to define materials for use within a specific simulation. These may be from other
simulations or input directly from reference sources or test results. Clicking the ‘Add’ button and
assigning values to the following list of properties will create a set of thermal properties associated
with a material used in a compartment or a target. The thermophysical properties are specified at
one condition of temperature, humidity, etc. Only a single layer per boundary is allowed (some
previous versions allowed up to three).

Material A descriptive name for the material.

ID A one-word (no more than 8 characters) unique identifier for the material. This identifier
should not contain any spaces and is used in other CFAST inputs to identify the particular
material referenced.

Conductivity (default units: kW/(m·◦ C) or kW/(m·K)): Thermal conductivity for the material.

Specific Heat (default units: kJ/(kg·◦ C) or kJ/(kg·K)): Specific heat for the material.

Density (default units: kg/m3 ): Density for the material.

Thickness (default units: m): Thickness of the material. Note that if two materials with identical
thermal properties but with different thicknesses are desired, two separate materials must be
defined.

Emissivity (default units: none, default value: 0.9): Emissivity of the material surface. This is the
fraction of radiation that is absorbed by the material.

3.2 Adding Thermal Properties From Another File

The ‘From File’ button allows you to insert thermal properties from existing CFAST input files to
the current simulation.

Figure 3.2: Inserting Thermal Properties in CFAST.

10
Chapter 4

Compartments

Figure 4.1: The CFAST Compartments Tab.

The Compartments page defines the size, position, materials of construction, and flow charac-
teristics for the compartments in the simulation. Initially, only the simulation environment page
and the ’Add’ button on the compartment geometry and thermal properties pages are enabled; all

11
other pages are not available to the user for detailed inputs until a compartment has been added to
the simulation.
In order to model a fire scenario, the size and position of each compartment relavent to the
scenario must be specified. For a compartment, the width, depth, compartment height and height
of the floor of the compartment provide this specification. The maximum number of compartments
for version 7 is 100. The usual assumption is that compartments are rectangular parallelepipeds.
However, the CFAST model can accommodate odd shapes as equivalent floor area parallelepipeds
or with a cross-sectional area that varies with height.

Compartment Size Compartment Position

Figure 4.2: Compartment Orientation and Positioning in CFAST.

In CEdit the default size of a room has width of 3.6 m, depth of 2.4 m, and height of 2.4 m.
There are defaults for absolute positioning (0,0,0). All surfaces, i.e., the ceiling, walls and floor,
are turned off by default. The fully mixed (single zone) and corridor models are turned off by
default.
Compartments in CFAST are most typically defined by a width, depth, and height. If desired,
compartments can be prescribed by the cross-sectional area of the compartment as a function of
height from floor to ceiling for other shapes. The absolute position of the compartment with respect
to a single structure reference point can be defined to ease visualization or to allow exact placement
of vents and surfaces relative to other compartments in a detailed calculation. This specification is
important for positioning the compartments for visualization in Smokeview.

ID: Compartments are identified by a unique alphanumeric name. This may be as simple as a
single character or number, or a description of the compartment.

4.1 Geometry
Width (default units m, default value 3.6 m) specifies the width of the compartment as measured
on the X axis from the origin (0,0,0) of the compartment.

Depth (default units m, default value 2.4 m) specifies the depth of the compartment as measured
on the Y axis from the origin (0,0,0) of the compartment.

12
Height (default units m, default value 2.4 m) specifies the height of the compartment as measured
on the Z axis from the origin (0,0,0) of the compartment.

Position X (default units m, default value 0.0 m) specifies the absolute x coordinate of the lower,
left, front corner of the room. All absolute positions for all compartments must be greater
than or equal to zero, i.e., negative numbers are not allowed for these inputs. Important in
positioning the compartments for visualization in Smokeview.

Position Y (default units m, default value 0.0 m) specifies the absolute y coordinate of the lower,
left, front corner of the room. All absolute positions for all compartments must be greater
than or equal to zero, i.e., negative numbers are not allowed for these inputs. Important in
positioning the compartments for visualiz ation in Smokeview.

Position Z (default units m, default value 0.0 m) specifies the height of the floor of each compart-
ment with respect to station elevation specified by the internal ambient conditions reference
height parameter. The reference point must be the same for all elevations in the input data. For
example, the two rooms in the sample to the right in Fig. 4.2 would be located at (0,0,0) and
(0,2,2.3). All absolute positions for all compartments must be greater than or equal to zero,
i.e., negative numbers are not allowed for these inputs.

4.2 Materials
To calculate heat loss through the ceiling, walls, and floor of a compartment, the properties of the
bounding surfaces must be known. This includes the thermophysical properties of the surfaces and
the arrangement of adjacent compartments if inter-compartment heat transfer is to be calculated.
The bounding surfaces are the ceilings, walls and floors that define a compartment. These are
referred to as thermophysical boundaries, since each participates in conduction and radiation as
well as defining the compartments, unless these phenomena are explicitly turned off.
The thermophysical properties of the materials to be used to define the surfaces are defined in
the Thermal Propertied tab described in section 3.1. The materials are then assigned to the ceiling,
wall, and floor surfaces by use of the material ID

Ceiling Material ID (default value: Off): material name from the thermal properties from the
Materials tab used for the ceiling surface of the compartment.

Wall Material ID (default value: Off): material name from the thermal properties from the Ma-
terials tab used for the wall surfaces of the compartment.

Floor Material ID (default value: Off): material name from the thermal properties from the Ma-
terials tab used for the floor surface of the compartment.

If the thermophysical properties of the enclosing surfaces are not included, CFAST will treat
them as adiabatic (no heat transfer).

13
 If a name is used which is not in the input file, the model should stop with an error message.

The back surfaces of compartments are assumed to be exposed to ambient conditions unless
specifically specified (see the section on Surface Connections to specify heat transfer connections
between compartments).

4.3 Modeling a Compartment as a Tall Shaft or Long Corridor

For tall compartments or those removed from the room of fire origin, the compartment may be
modeled as a single, well-mixed zone rather than the default two-zone assumption. A single zone
approximation is appropriate for smoke flow far from a fire source, where the two-zone layer
stratification is less pronounced than in compartments near the fire or in situations where the strat-
ification does not occur. Examples are elevators, shafts, complex stairwells, or compartments far
from the fire.
By specifying the compartment as a corridor, the ceiling jet temperature is calculated with a
different empirical correlation that results in a somewhat higher temperature near the ceiling. This
will impact, for example, detectors, sprinkler, and targets near the ceiling in corridors.

Normal (Two-zone model) Conditions in the compartment are calculated with the normal two-
zone approach. This is the default model used for a compartment.

Shaft (Single-zone model) Conditions in the compartment are calculated as a single well-mixed
zone.

Corridor (Revised ceiling jet) Conditions in the compartment are calculated with the normal
two-zone approach. Ceiling jet temperatures in the compartment are calculated with a revised
empirical correlation specific to corridors.

4.4 Defining Variable Compartment Area

The Compartment Geometry page includes two additional entries that may be used for defining
compartment properties for spaces which are not rectangular in area. Values for a chosen compart-
ment are entered in a spreadsheet.
Height Value(s) (default units: m): Height off the floor of the compartment.

Area Value(s) (default units m2 ): Cross-sectional area at the corresponding Height.

Once the total compartment volume is determined from the set of cross-sectional area and
height inputs, an effective width and depth are calculated (maintaining the original user input for
compartment height) so the compartment volume matches the actual total volume of the compart-
ment. The aspect ratio (width/depth) is maintained.
Cross-sectional area values should be input in order by ascending height. If the first height
value is not zero (i.e., at floor level), the cross-sectional area is assumed constant from the floor to

14
the height specified in the first cross-sectional area value. Similarly, if the last height value is not at
the ceiling height, the cross-sectional area is assumed constant from the height specified in the last
cross-sectional area value to the ceiling. Between any two adjacent cross-sectional area data values
in the input list, the area is assumed to be a pyramidal section (which by definition maintains the
same width to depth aspect ratio for the compartment from floor to ceiling).
CFAST uses the variable cross-sectional area inputs to determine the layer height. The equa-
tions solved by CFAST determine the volume of the upper layer. For a normal rectangular room,
this corresponds directly to a layer height. For a variable cross-sectional area compartment, a nu-
merical integration of the area inputs beginning at the ceiling is used to determine the height at
which the upper layer occupies the calculated volume of the upper layer.

4.5 Modeling Compartment Leakage

CFAST can automatically calculate leakage between one or more compartments and the outdoors.
Leakage is specified for each desired compartment as a leakage area per unit wall area and/or per
unit floor area.

Wall Leakage (default units: m2 /m2 ): Leakage area ratio input as the leakage are per unit wall
area.

Floor Leakage (default units: m2 /m2 ): Leakage area ratio input as the leakage are per unit floor
area.

For reference, the following table is taken from the Handbook of Smoke Control Engineering
[6].

15
Table 4.1: Sample Flow Area of Walls and Floors of Commercial Buildings from the Handbook of
Smoke Control Engineering [6], used with persmission

Leakage Area (m2 /m2 )

Construction Element Leakage Leakage Area per Unit Wall Area
Tight 5.0 × 10−5
Exterior building walls
Average 1.7 × 10−4
(includes construction cracks
and cracks around windows and doors) Loose 3.5 × 10−4
Very Loose 1.2 × 10−3
Stairwell walls Tight 1.4 × 10−5
(includes construction cracks but Average 1.1 × 10−4
not cracks around windows and doors)
Loose 3.5 × 10−4
Elevator shaft walls Tight 1.8 × 10−4
(includes construction cracks but Average 8.4 × 10−4
not cracks around doors)
Loose 1.8 × 10−3
Leakage Area (m2 /m2 )
Construction Element Leakage Leakage Area per Unit Floor Area
Floors Tight 6.6 × 10−6
(includes construction cracks and Average 5.2 × 10−5
gaps around penetrations)
Loose 1.7 × 10−4

16
Chapter 5

Vents

5.1 Natural Ventilation

Natural ventilation can occur when two compartments are connected via open doorways or win-
dows (Wall Vents); or when two compartments are connected via Floor/Ceiling Vents. If no vents
are specified between two compartments, they are assumed to be isolated from each other.

5.1.1 Wall Vents

Wall vents are doors or windows that connect compartments that physically overlap in elevation,
or that connect to the outside. Horizontal flow connections may also be used to account for leakage
between compartments or to the outdoors.

ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another vent in the same simulation).

First Compartment First of the two compartments connected by a door or window. All specifi-
cations of the vent are made relative to the floor of the first compartment.

Second Compartment Second of the two compartments connected by a door or window.

Sill (default units: m, default value: 0 m): Height of the bottom of the opening relative to the floor
of the first compartment.

Soffit (default units: m, default value: 0 m): Height of the top of the opening relative to the floor
of the first compartment.

Width (default units: m, default value: 0 m): The width of the opening.

Vent Offset (default units: m, default value: 0 m): For visualization only, the horizontal distance
between the near edge of the vent and the origin of the axis defined by the selected face (below)
in the first compartment.

Face The wall on which the vent is positioned. Choices are Front, Rear, Right, Left and are
relative to the X-Z plane (Front and Rear faces are parallel to the X-axis; left and right are
parallel to the Y-axis).

17
 Figure 5.1: The CFAST Wall Vents Tab.

Vents in CFAST can be opened or closed at user-specified times or by a user-specified target’s

surface temperature or incident heat flux. For time-based opening changes, the inputs are a series
of time points and associated opening fractions from 0 (fully closed) to 1 (fully open).

Time (default units: s, default values: 0 s): Time during the simulation at which to begin or end a
change in the open fraction.

Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent width to indicate the
vent is closed, partially-open, or fully-open as the associated time point.

For condition-based opening changes, the inputs specify an associated target, trigger value, and
vent opening fractions before and after the trigger value has been reached.

Open/Close Criterion The time of ignition can be controlled by a user-specified time, or by a

user-specified target’s surface temperature or incident heat flux.

Set Point The critical value at which the vent opening change will occur. If it is less than or equal
to zero, the default value of zero is taken.

18
Trigger Target User-specified target used to calculate surface temperature or incident heat flux to
trigger a vent opening change. Target placement is specified by the user as part of the associated
target definition.
Pre-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent
width to indicate the vent is partially open at the start of the simulation.
Post-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Opening fraction at the end of the sim-
ulation. The transition from the pre-activation fraction to the post-activation value is assumed
to occur over one second beginning when the specified set point value is reached.

CFAST assumes a linear transition between time points. If the initial time specified for a time-
changing opening fraction is non-zero, the vent is assumed to be open at the initial value of the
open fraction from the beginning of the simulation up to and including the time associated with
the initial value of the opening fraction. If the final value of the opening fraction is less than the
total simulation time, the vent is assumed to be open at the final value of the opening fraction from
and including the time associated with the final value of the opening fraction until the end of the
simulation.

5.1.2 Ceiling/Floor Vents

Examples of these openings are scuddles in a ship, or a hole in the roof of a residence. Connections
can exist between compartments or between a compartment and the outdoors. Combined buoyancy
and pressure-driven flow through a vertical flow vent is possible when the connected spaces ad-
jacent to the vent are filled with gases of different density in an unstable configuration, with the
density of the top space greater than that of the bottom space. With a moderate cross-vent pressure
difference, the instability leads to a bi-directional flow between the two spaces. For relatively large
cross-vent pressure difference the flow through the vent is unidirectional.

ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another vent in the same simulation).
Top Compartment Compartment where the vent is in the floor
Bottom Compartment The adjacent compartment where the vent is in the ceiling.
Cross-sectional Area (default units: m2 , default value: 0 m2 )
Shape The shape factor changes the calculation of the effective diameter of the vent and flow
coefficients for flow through the vent.
Vent Offset (default units: m, default value: 0 m): For visualization only, the horizontal distances
between the center of the vent and the origin of the X and Y axes in the upper compartment.
See figure 4.2 for axis position conventions in CFAST.

Vents in CFAST can be opened or closed at user-specified times or by a user-specified target’s

surface temperature or incident heat flux. For time-based opening changes, the inputs are a series
of time points and associated opening fractions from 0 (fully closed) to 1 (fully open).

19
 Figure 5.2: The CFAST Ceiling/Floor Vents Tab.

Time (default units: s, default value: 0 s): Time during the simulation at which to begin or end a
change in the open fraction.

Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent width to indicate the
vent is closed, partially-open, or fully-open as the associated time point.

For condition-based opening changes, the inputs specify an associated target, trigger value, and
vent opening fractions before and after the trigger value has been reached.

Open/Close Criterion The time of ignition can be controlled by a user-specified time, or by a

user-specified target’s surface temperature or incident heat flux.

Set Point The critical value at which the vent opening change will occur. If it is less than or equal
to zero, the default value of zero is taken.

Trigger Target User-specified target used to calculate surface temperature or incident heat flux to
trigger a vent opening change. Target placement is specified by the user as part of the associated
target definition.

20
Pre-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent
width to indicate the vent is partially open at the start of the simulation.

Post-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Opening fraction at the end of the simu-
lation. The transition from the pre-activation fraction to the post-activation fraction is assumed
to occur over one second beginning when the specified set point value is reached.

CFAST assumes a linear transition between time points. If the initial time specified for a time-
changing opening fraction is non-zero, the vent is assumed to be open at the initial value of the
open fraction from the beginning of the simulation up to and including the time associated with
the initial value of the opening fraction. If the final value of the opening fraction is less than the
total simulation time, the vent is assumed to be open at the final value of the opening fraction from
and including the time associated with the final value of the opening fraction until the end of the
simulation.
CFAST allows only a single ceiling/floor connection between any pair of compartments in-
cluded in a simulation because the empirical correlation governing the flow was developed using
only a single opening between connected compartments.
Vertical connections can only be created between compartments that could be physically
stacked based on specified floor and ceiling elevations for the compartments. Some overlap be-
tween the absolute floor height of one compartment and the absolute ceiling height of another
compartment is allowed. However, whether the compartments are stacked or overlap somewhat,
the ceiling/floor absolute elevations must be within 0.01 m of each other. The check is not done
when the connection is to the outside.

5.2 Mechanical Ventilation

Fan-duct systems are commonly used in buildings for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, pres-
surization, and exhaust. Generally, systems that maintain comfortable conditions have either one
or two fans. Residences often have a system with a single fan. Further information about these
systems is presented in Klote and Milke [7] and the Handbook of Smoke Control Engineering [6].
CFAST models mechanical ventilation in terms of user-specified volume flows at various points
in the compartment. The model does not include duct work or fan curves, and thus mechanical
ventilation connections are simply described by the connections to the two compartments and a
fan whose throughput is a constant volumetric flow up to a user-specified pressure drop across the
fan, dropping to zero at high backwards pressure on the fan.

5.2.1 Connections to Compartments

ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another mechanical ventilation system
in the same simulation).

First Compartment The compartment from which the fan flow originates.

Second Compartment The compartment to which the fan flow terminates.

21
 Figure 5.3: The CFAST Mechanical Vents Tab.

Area (default units: m2 , default value: 0 m2 ): Cross-sectional area of the opening.

Center Height (default units: m, default value: 0 m): Height of the midpoint of the duct opening
above the floor.
Orientation (default vertical) A horizontal diffuser implies vertical flow through the ceiling or
floor of the compartment. A vertical diffuser implies horizontal flow through a wall of the
compartment.
Vent Offset (default units: m, Default value: 0 m): For visualization only, the horizontal distances
between the center of the vent and the origin of the X and Y axes in the first compartment. See
figure 4.2 for axis position conventions in CFAST.
Vents in CFAST can be opened or closed at user-specified times or by a user-specified target’s
surface temperature or incident heat flux. For time-based opening changes, the inputs are a series
of time points and associated opening fractions from 0 (fully closed) to 1 (fully open).
Time (default units: s, default values: 0 s): Time during the simulation at which to begin or end a
change in the open fraction.

22
Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent width to indicate the
vent is closed, partially-open, or fully-open as the associated time point.

CFAST assumes a linear transition between time points. If the initial time specified for a time-
changing opening fraction is non-zero, the vent is assumed to be open at the initial value of the
open fraction from the beginning of the simulation up to and including the time associated with
the initial value of the opening fraction. If the final value of the opening fraction is less than the
total simulation time, the vent is assumed to be open at the final value of the opening fraction from
and including the time associated with the final value of the opening fraction until the end of the
simulation.

For condition-based opening changes, the inputs specify an associated target, trigger value, and
vent opening fractions before and after the trigger value has been reached.

Open/Close Criterion The time of ignition can be controlled by a user-specified time, or by a

user-specified target’s surface temperature or incident heat flux.

Set Point The critical value at which the vent opening change will occur. If it is less than or equal
to zero, the default value of zero is taken.

Trigger Target User-specified target used to calculate surface temperature or incident heat flux
to trigger a vent opening change. Target is placement is specified by the user as part of the
associated target definition.

Pre-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Fraction between 0 and 1 of the vent
width to indicate the vent is partially open at the start of the simulation.

Post-Activation Fraction (default value: 1, fully open): Opening fraction at the end of the simu-
lation. The transition from the pre-activation fraction to the post-activation fraction is assumed
to occur over one second beginning when the specified set point value is reached.

5.2.2 Fans
CFAST does not include provisions for reverse flow through a fan, or a fan curve. Rather, you may
specify a pressure above which the flow linearly decreases to zero.

Flow Rate (default units: m3 /s, default value: 0 m3 /s): Constant flow rate of the fan.

Begin Drop Off Pressure (default units: Pa, default value: 200 Pa): Above this pressure, the flow
begins a drop-off to zero. A hyperbolic tangent function is used to ensure a smooth transition
from full flow at the “Begin Drop Off Pressure” to zero flow at the “Zero Flow Pressure”.

Zero Flow Pressure (default units: Pa, default value: 300 Pa): The pressure above which the flow
is zero.

23
5.2.3 Filtering
For mechanical vents, there are two species that can be filtered out of the gas flow: soot and the
user-defined trace species. Filters are applied only to fan openings. The fan must have been defined
before the filter can be applied. Initially filtering is off.

Filter Efficiency (default units: %, default value: 0%): Flow through mechanical vents may in-
clude filtering that removes a user-specified portion of soot and trace species mass from the
flow through the vent. By default, there is no filtering applied; that is, all of the soot and trace
species mass in the vent flow is passed through the vent. Within the user interface, this is spec-
ified as a filter efficiency of 0 %. If desired, you may specify the fraction of the soot and trace
species mass to be removed as a percentage.

Begin Filtering At Time (default units: s, default value: 0 s): Time during the simulation at
which the mechanical vent filtering begins.

If the simulation includes mechanical ventilation filtering, care should be taken in choosing
trace species production rates to insure the production rate is small compared to the total pyrolysis
rate since the filtering removes mass from the system. This will better allow appropriate conser-
vation of mass in the solution of the system of differential equation. For large production rates of
trace species, scaling factors can be used (e.g., divide by 1000) for the trace species production
rate to reduce the relative magnitude compared to the pyrolysis rate. For analysis, the resulting
trace species in compartments and filters can be converted back to original units multiplying by the
scaling factor used.

24
Chapter 6

Fires

A fire in CFAST is specified via a time-dependent heat release rate (HRR). The specified heat
of combustion is used to calculate the mass loss rate of fuel, from which the production rate of
combustion products can be calculated using specified product yields. The heat release and the
corresponding product generation rates go to zero when the lower oxygen limit is reached, and are
replaced by the appropriate production rate of unburned fuel gas which is transported from zone to
zone until there is sufficient oxygen and a high enough temperature to support combustion.
The model can simulate multiple fires in one or more compartments. These fires are treated as
totally separate entities, with no interaction of the plumes. These fires can be ignited at a prescribed
time, or when a corresponding target (see Chapter 7.1) reaches a specified temperature or heat flux.
The combustion model is defined by the following one-step reaction:

CnC HnH OnO NnN ClnCl + νO2 O2 →

νCO2 CO2 + νH2 O H2 O + νCO CO + νS Soot + νHCl HCl + νHCN HCN (6.1)

It is assumed that all the nitrogen and chlorine in the fuel are converted to HCN and HCl.

25
 Figure 6.1: The CFAST Fires Tab.

6.1 Adding Fires

Fires in CFAST are defined in two parts: a “Fire Definition” that specifies the fuel composition,
heat release rate, and species yields for the fire, and a “Fire Instance” that specifies the placement
of a defined fire within a compartment in the simulation. A single fire definition may be associated
with more than one fire instance in a simulation if desired.
For a new fire , click on the Add New button or Add t2 buttons within the fire definition block
of inputs. The latter is useful because it has predefined quadratic growth rate options that are
commonly used in fire analyses. See Section 6.3 for details. For each fire instance, specify the
following properties:

Fire ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another fire instance in the same
simulation).

Compartment Name of the compartment where the fire occurs.

Position X, Y (default units: m, default value: compartment center): Position of the center of the
base of the fire relative to the front left corner of the compartment.

26
Ignition Criterion The time of ignition can be controlled by a user-specified time, or by a user-
specified target’s surface temperature or incident heat flux.

Set Point The critical value at which ignition will occur. If it is less than or equal to zero, the
default value of zero is taken.

Ignition Target User-specified target used to calculate surface temperature or incident heat flux
to ignite fire. Target is typically placed at the base of the fire to be ignited.

Referenced Fire the name of the associated fire definition for this fire instance can be selected
from a list of fire definitions. A fire definition must exist before it can be selected.

Each instance of a fire can be unique fires with different chemical composition and time-
dependent fire properties. Alternatively, two or more fires can reference the same set of fire prop-
erties. The following parameters define the composition and burning properties of the fire.

Fire Properties ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another fire definition
in the same simulation). IDs for fire definitions can be the same as ones for fire instances.

C, H, O, N, Cl The number of each atom in the fuel molecule. Burning fuels in CFAST are as-
sumed to be hydrocarbon fuels that contain at least carbon and hydrogen and optionally oxy-
gen, nitrogen, and chlorine. All of the specified nitrogen and chlorine is assumed to completely
react to form HCN and HCl.

Heat of Combustion (default units: kJ/kg, default value: 50000 kJ/kg): The energy released per
unit mass of fuel consumed.

Radiative Fraction (default units: none, default value: 0.35): The fraction of the combustion
energy that is emitted in the form of thermal radiation. Values for various fuels are suggested
by Beyler [8].

6.2 Time-Dependent Properties

Following is a list of fire properties that can be specified as a function of time. The properties are
linearly interpolated between specified points. If the simulation time is longer than the total dura-
tion of the fire, the final values specified for the fire are continued until the end of the simulation.
Normal copy (Ctrl-C), cut (Ctrl-X), and paste (Ctrl-V) keyboard shortcuts work for data editing. In
addition, Alt-Insert will insert a complete row above the currently-selected row in the spreadsheet
and Alt-Delete will delete the current row in the spreadsheet.

Time (default units: s, default values: none): Time from ignition.

HRR (default units: kW, default values: none): Heat release rate of the fire.

Height (default units: m, default values: 0 m): Height of the base of the fire.

27
Area (default units: m2 , default values: calculated from heat release rate such that the fire Froude
number is unity1 ): Area of the base of the fire. The plume correlations used in CFAST generally
regard the base to be circular. Do not set this value to zero because it is used in the various
plume correlations.

CO Yield (default units: kg/kg, default value: 0 kg/kg): Mass of CO produced per unit mass of
fuel consumed.

Soot Yield (default units: kg/kg, default value: 0 kg/kg): Mass of soot produced per unit mass of
fuel consumed.

HCN Yield (default units: kg/kg, default value: 0 kg/kg): Mass of hydrogen cyanide produced
per unit mass of fuel consumed.

TS Yield (default units: kg/kg, default value: 0 kg/kg): Mass of user-defined trace species per
unit mass of fuel consumed. The trace species is transported along with the other products
of combustion, but is assumed not to take part in the combustion reaction and is assumed not
to be a significant source of overall mass for the system mass balance. This implies that the
production rate of trace species specified should be small.

6.3 Special Topic: t-Squared Fires

Use the ‘Add t2 ’ button to create a new fire with a heat release rate that grows as a function of the
time squared [9]:
 2
t
Q̇(t) = Q̇peak (6.2)
tpeak

Fire Growth Rate A set of specific t-squared fires labeled slow, medium, fast, or ultra-fast such
that the fire reaches 1054 kW (1000 BTU/s) in 600 s, 300 s, 150 s, and 75 s. A custom selection
allows you to define any growth or decay rate desired.

Time to Peak (default units: s, default value: 300 s): The time for the fire to reach the peak HRR.

Peak HRR (default units: kW, default value: 1054 kW): The peak heat release rate of the t-
squared fire.

Steady Burning Period (default units: s, default value: 300 s): Duration of time that the fire
continues burning at the rate specified by the peak HRR.

Decay Time (default units: s, default value, 300 s): Duration of time for the fire to decay back to
a zero value. Decay follows the inverse of the t-squared growth rate.

1 The Fire Froude Number, Q̇∗ , is defined as Q̇∗ = ρ c T Q̇√gDD2 . It is essentially the ratio of the fuel gas exit
∞ p ∞
velocity and the buoyancy-induced plume velocity. Jet fires are characterized by large Froude numbers. Typical
accidental fires have a Froude number near unity.

28
Figure 6.2: Inserting T-squared Fires in CFAST.

29
30
Chapter 7

Measurement and Fire Protection Devices

7.1 Targets
A target is any object in the simulation that can heat up via radiative and convective heat trans-
fer. The heat conduction into the target is performed via a one-dimensional calculation in either
cartesian or cylindrical coordinates.

ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another target in the same simulation).

Compartment The compartment in which the target is located.

Target Type Specify Plate, or Cylindrical. For plate targets, CFAST solves a partial differential
equation in cartesian coordinates, and for cylindrical targets, a partial differential equation in
cylindrical coordinates.

Width (X) (default units: m): Distance from the left wall of the target compartment.

Depth (Y) (default units: m): Distance from the front wall of the target compartment.

Height (Z) (default units: m): Height of the target above the floor.

Normal Vector (X,Y,Z) : specifies a vector of unit length perpendicular to the exposed surface of
the target. For example, the vector (-1,0,0) indicates that the target is facing the left wall. The
vector (0,0,1) is facing the ceiling.

Material What the target is made of. Any existing material in the list of thermal properties may
be used here. There can be only one material per target.

Internal Temperature (default units: none, default value: 0.5): For each target, CFAST calcu-
lates the internal temperature at a number of node points within the target. By default, the
reported internal temperature (in the printed and spreadsheet output) is the temperature at the
center of the target, e.g., equidistant from the front and back faces of the target. This input
allows the user to override this default position. The input represents the position as a fraction
of the thickness from the front surface to the back surface of the material.

31
 Figure 7.1: The CFAST Targets Tab.

If the target is only needed to report the local gas temperature, which may include the plume
or ceiling jet, then you may specify arbitrary properties and normal vector. The output spreadsheet
file includes the local gas temperature in addition to the target temperature.
The normal vectors in the x, y, and z directions from a target at [x, y, z] to a location [xL , yL , zL ]
are:
xL − x
xN = q (7.1)
(xL − x)2 + (yL − y)2 + (zL − z)2

yL − y
yN = q (7.2)
(xL − x)2 + (yL − y)2 + (zL − z)2

zL − z
zN = q (7.3)
(xL − x)2 + (yL − y)2 + (zL − z)2

32
7.2 Sprinklers and Detectors
Sprinklers and detectors are both considered detection devices by the CFAST model and are han-
dled using the same inputs. Detection is based upon heat transfer to the detector. Fire suppression
by a user-specified water spray begins once the associated detection device is activated.

Figure 7.2: The CFAST Detection/Suppression Tab.

ID The selected name must be unique (i.e., not the same as another sprinkler or detector in the
same simulation).

Type type of detector, select smoke detector, heat detector, or sprinkler.

Compartment the compartment in which the detector or sprinkler is located.

Activation Temperature (default units: ◦ C, default value: dependent on type): the temperature
at or above which the detector link activates.

Activation Obscuration (default units: %/m, default value: 23.93 %/m (8 %/ft)): the obscuration
at or above which the detector link activates.

33
Width (X) Position (default units: m, default value: none): position of the object as a distance
from the left wall of the compartment (X direction).

Depth (Y) Position (default units: m, default value: none): position of the detector or sprinkler as
a distance from the front wall of the compartment (Y direction).

Height (Z) Position (default units: m, default value: none): position of the object as a distance
from the floor of the compartment (Z direction).

RTI (default units: (m·s)1/2 , default value: none): the Response Time Index (RTI) for the sprinkler
or detection device.

Spray Density (default units: m/s, default value: none): the amount of water dispersed by a
sprinkler. The units for spray density are length/time, derived by dividing the volumetric flow
rate by the spray area. The suppression calculation is based upon an experimental correlation
by Evans [10].

Care should be taken when specifying detectors to activate based on smoke obscuration since
the only calculation included in CFAST is a simple two-zone calculation of soot concentration that
does not include the impact of an initial ceiling layer as is done for temperature-based calculations.
Often, the activation of smoke alarms is simulated with a temperature-based criterion (in CFAST
as a heat alarm), typically in the range of 5 ◦ C to 10 ◦ C above ambient. Davis and Notarianni
studied the activation of heat and smoke alarms in small and large compartments [11]. They
conclude that a temperature rise of approximately 5 ◦ C corresponded to activation of ionization
alarms for a range of fire sources and ceiling heights. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
includes a default value of 10 ◦ C with an RTI value of 5 (m·s)1/2 in NUREG-1805 [12].

Several cautions should be observed when using estimates of sprinkler suppression within the
model: 1) The first sprinkler activated controls the effect of the sprinkler on the heat release rate of
the fire. Subsequent sprinklers which may activate have no additional effect on the fire simulation.
2) The fire suppression algorithm assumes the effect of the sprinkler is solely to reduce the heat
release rate of the fire. Any effects of the sprinkler spray on gas temperatures or mixing within the
compartment are ignored. 3) The sprinkler always reduces the heat release rate of the fire. The
ability of a fire to overwhelm an under-designed sprinkler is not modeled. 4) Since the dynamics
of the sprinkler and direct effects of the spray on gas temperatures and velocities are not modeled,
calculated times of activation of secondary sprinklers and / or detectors after the first sprinkler is
activated should not be modeled since the impact of the first sprinkler on the activation of additional
sprinklers is not included in the CFAST model.

34
Chapter 8

Surface Connections

Figure 8.1: The CFAST Surface Connections Tab.

The Surface Connections page allows the user to define heat transfer between compartments in
a simulation. Energy can be transferred from compartment to compartment through solid bound-
aries (walls, ceilings and floors) by means of conduction. The heat transfer between connected

35
compartments is modeled by setting the boundary condition for the outside surface of a compart-
ment to the temperature of the outside surface of the connected compartment. As before, tempera-
tures are determined by the solver so that the heat flux striking the wall surface (both interior and
exterior) is consistent with the temperature gradient at that surface.

First Compartment First of the compartments whose walls are connected for horizontal heat
transfer.

Second Compartment Second of the compartments whose walls are connected for horizontal
heat transfer.

Fraction Specifies the fraction of the vertical surface areas of the compartments which are con-
nected. The fraction specifies the fraction of the vertical surface area of the first compartment
that connects the first and second compartment pair.

Top Compartment The top or first of the two compartments to be connected by a vertical heat
transfer connection. The connection is through the floor of this compartment.

Bottom Compartment The bottom or second of the two compartments to be connected by a

vertical heat transfer connection. The connection is through the ceiling of this compartment.

Consider two compartments that share a single wall. Both compartments are 1 m x 1 m x 1 m
in size. The resulting horizontal heat transfer connections would be 0.25 for both compartments
since they share 1 m2 of a total wall surface of 4 m2 . If the compartments are of different size,
then the fraction would be different for the two directions. For example, if compartment 1 is 1 m
x 1 m x 1 m and compartment 2 is 2 m x 2 m x 2 m, then the connection from 1>2 is 0.25 and the
connection from 2>1 is 0.125.
For horizontal heat transfer, you must include a connection for each compartment. For exam-
ple, for a connection between compartment 1 and compartment 2, you must include a connection
from 1 to 2 AND a connection from 2 to 1. For consistency, the fraction for each compartment
needs to specify equal areas in the two compartments. Fractions for connections should add to
unity. An error is generated if the fractions for a compartment add to greater than unity. If the
fractions for a compartment add to less than unity, the remaining surface area will be assigned to
be connected to the outdoors.

36
Chapter 9

Visualization

Calculated results from a CFAST simulation can be visualized using Smokeview [13]. This allows
the user to see the compartment geometry and connections or view the results of the simulation
visually. In addition to a simplified view of the layer temperatures and vent flows, more detailed
estimates of gas temperature, gas velocity, vent flow velocity, target temperature, and detector
status can be visualized.

37
 Figure 9.1: The CFAST Visualizations Tab.

9.1 Adding Visualizations

Visualization Type ( default value: 2-D): The type of visualization to be included. Choose from
2-D (a single plane slice of temperature at the position and axis specified), 3-D (a set of three
animated slices whose position can be moved along its respective axis, or Isosurface (a fixed
3-D surface where the gas temperature is equal to the value specified. See the Smokeview
documentation [13] for details on the use of Smokeview.

Compartment (default value: All): Visualizations can be placed in a single compartment or at

the same position and axis in all compartments.

Value (default units: m, default value: 0 m): Position along the specified axes where the slice is
placed measured from the compartment origin for the selected axis (0,0,0 is the bottom left
corner of the compartment. See page 12).

Axis (default value: X-axis (Width)): Axis perpendicular to the specified slice. The slice is place
perpendicular to the selected axis (the Y-Z plane for the X-Axis; the X-Z plane for the Y-Axis,
and the X-Y plane for the Z-Axis)

38
Temperature (default units ◦ C, default value: none): Specified gas temperature for the selected
isosurface.

Use the Add Defaults button to add a default set of visualizations for the current simulation.
A slice file entry is created at the center of each compartment in the x (width) and y (depth)
directions along with one near the ceiling in the z direction. A 3-D slice file entry is created for
each compartment as well.

9.2 Visualization Resolution

By default, slice files are generated with a grid of 50 data points in each direction for each compart-
ment specified. If desired, the grid spacing can be adjusted up or down individually by compart-
ment. Specifying a larger number of data points can dramatically slow program execution since
the gas temperature and velocity are evaluated at each grid location every time a Smokeview output
is specified. The default value should be appropriate for most simulations.

Width (X) Grid (default unites: n/a, default value: 50): slices included along the X axis for each
compartment are uniformly divided into the specified number of data points.

Width (Y) Grid (default unites: n/a, default value: 50): slices included along the Y axis for each
compartment are uniformly divided into the specified number of data points.

Width (Z) Grid (default unites: n/a, default value: 50): slices included along the Z axis for each
compartment are divided into the specified number of data points.

Sample visualizations are included below.

39
Figure 9.2: example Smokeview Visualization for a Three Compartment Test Case with Two Fires
(User_Guide_Example.in)

40
Figure 9.3: Smokeview Visualization of Gas Temperature with a Single Fire

41
Figure 9.4: Smokeview Visualization of Gas Velocity with Two Fires

42
Figure 9.5: Smokeview Visualization of Detector Activation in a Corridor

43
9.3 Output Options
By default, CFAST generates a set of output files that includes a formatted readable output and a
set of spreadsheet files. Options are available to modify the output files. The default output should
be appropriate for most simulations.

CFAST Validation Output If checked, this item directs the CFAST model to output abbreviated
headings for spreadsheet columns that are better for automated processing of the data.

Debug Output If checked, CFAST will create a detailed output spreadsheet that contains values
of all the solution variables at each successful solution time step. This file is typically only of
use to model developers diagnosing a problem with the model.

Show CFAST Window If checked, this item allows the user to see the windows command prompt
that is used to execute the CFAST model when the Model Simulation, CFAST menu item is
used. By default, this is not checked. Normally, this can be left unchecked. For troubleshoot-
ing, this can be selected to see additional details of the calculation as it progresses.

44
Chapter 10

Output from CFAST

The output of CFAST includes the temperatures of the upper and lower gas layers within each
compartment, the ceiling/wall/floor temperatures within each compartment, the visible smoke and
gas species concentrations within each layer, target temperatures and sprinkler activation time. The
amount of information can be very large, especially for complex geometries and long simulations.

10.1 Compact Output

The default output to the console is called the compact form, and shows the basic information
about a scenario, including layer temperatures and the size of fires. Default text output provides a
simple overview for the user to make sure the case runs as expected.

****************************
* Time = 3 6 0 0 . 0 seconds . *
****************************

Compartment Upper Lower Inter . Upper Upper Lower Pressure

Temp . Temp Height Vol Absor Absorb
(C) (C) (m) (m^3) (1/m) (1/m) ( Pa )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 48.52 20.89 1.542 36. ( 49%) 0 . 1 7 2 9 . 3 0 6 E−02 −0.570
Comp 2 138.4 36.39 1.586 35. ( 47%) 0 . 1 7 1 9 . 3 3 8 E−02 −1.86
Comp 3 103.7 27.50 1.000 50. ( 67%) 0 . 1 6 1 0.104 0.983

The first column contains the compartment ID. On each row with its compartment number from
left to right is the upper layer temperature, lower layer temperature, the height of the interface
between the two layers, the total pyrolysis rate, and finally the total fire size. The only value given
for the outside is the total heat release rate of fires venting to the outside.

10.2 Detailed Outputs

The following sections describe each of the outputs from the model. Each section refers to a
specific part of the print out and appears in the order the output appears. A description of each
option follows. When running CFAST from within CEdit an output file is automatically generated
based on the input file name. For example, running the example file Users_Guide_Example.in

45
generates an output file named Users_Guide_Example.out. All the detailed outputs described
in the following sections are included in the output file.

10.2.1 Output for Initialization

This prints the initial conditions to the output before the actual run starts. This merely mimics
the inputs specified by the user in the input data file The initial conditions break down into seven
sections. Each is described below with the section name. The following explanation uses the
output from the case Users_Guide_Example.in which is included in the distribution.

Overview

The overview gives a general description of the case. The output is fairly self explanatory. “Doors,
...” is the total number of horizontal natural flow vent connections or wall vents in all compart-
ments of the simulation. “Ceil. Vents, ...” gives the total number of vertical natural flow vent
connections or ceiling/floor vents in all compartments of the simulation. The last header on the
line “MV Connections” has the total number mechanical flow connections to all compartments in
the simulation. Times in these outputs are the times discused in section 2.2. All times are in s.
CFAST

Release Version : CFAST 7 . 3 . 1

Revision : CFAST7.3.1 −0 −g6b9b32bb
Revision Date : Mon Apr 8 1 2 : 3 8 : 2 0 2019 −0400
Compilation Date : Thu 0 4 / 1 8 / 2 0 1 9 1 2 : 0 5 PM

D a t a f i l e : C : \ Users \ rpeacoc \ firemodels \ cfast \ Utilities \ for_bundle \ Bin \ D a t a \ Users_Guide_Example . i n

Title : Users Guide Example Case

OVERVIEW

Compartments Doors , . . . Ceil . Vents , . . . MV Connects

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
3 3 1 2

Simulation Output Smokeview Spreadsheet

Time Interval Interval Interval
(s) (s) (s) (s)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
3600.00 60.00 60.00 60.00

Ambient Conditions

This section, like the overview section, needs little elaboration. It gives the starting atmospheric
conditions for the simulation both for outside and inside the structure. Temperatures are in ◦ C and
pressure in Pa.
AMBIENT CONDITIONS

Interior Interior Exterior Exterior

Temperature Pressure Temperature Pressure
(C) ( Pa ) (C) ( Pa )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
20. 101325. 20. 101325.

46
Compartments
The compartments section gives a summary of the geometry for the simulation. A simple table
summarizes the geometry with compartments running down the page in order specified. The var-
ious dimensions for each compartment are on the row with its compartment number and name.
Two columns need explanation. The second to last column “Ceiling Height” gives the height of
the ceiling relative to the base height which is 0. Similarly the “Floor Height” refers to the height
of the floor above the base height.
COMPARTMENTS

Compartment Name Width Depth Height Floor Ceiling Shaft Hall

Height Height
(m) (m) (m) (m) (m)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
1 Comp 1 5.00 5.00 3.00 0.00 3.00
2 Comp 2 5.00 5.00 3.00 0.00 3.00
3 Comp 3 5.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 6.00

All the information in this table comes from the compartments tab discused in section 4.1

Wall Vents
This is the first table in the vent connections section. Each row in the table characterizes one vent.
The first two columns contain the two compartments connected by the vent. The third column
gives the vent number. Column four is the width of the vent. The next two columns report the sill
and soffit height for the vent relative to the floor of the first compartment. The seventh and eighth
columns have a second listing of the sill and soffit height, this time relative to the base height.
VENT CONNECTIONS

Wall Vents ( Doors , Windows , ...)

From To Vent Width

Sill Soffit Open / C l o s e Trigger Initial Initial Final Final
Compartment Compartment Number Height Height Type Value T a r g e t Time Fraction Time Fraction
(m) (m) (m) (m) (C/W/m^2) (s) (s)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 Outside 1 1.00 0.00 2.00 Time 0.00 1.00 0.00 1.00
Comp 1 Comp 2 2 1.00 0.00 2.00 Time 0.00 1.00 0.00 1.00
Comp 3 Outside 3 1.00 1.00 2.00 Time 0.00 1.00 0.00 1.00

From compartment, to compartment, vent number, width, sill height, and soffit height all come
directly from the wall vent tab discussed in section 5.1.1. Vent opening and closing information
can be specified by time, by an associated time / fraction history or by an associated target to
trigger a change in the vent opening by temperature or heat flux are all set in the same tab.

Ceiling and Floor Vents

The first column is the upper compartment. The upper compartment is the compartment where the
vent opens into the floor. The second column is the lower compartment where the vent is in the
ceiling. Each vent connection between compartment pairs is also identified by a vent number index
beginning with 1. The fourth column describes the shape of the vent, which can be either round
or square. The fifth column gives the area of the vent. Vent opening and closing information can
be specified by time, by an associated time / fraction history or by an associated target to trigger a
change in the vent opening by temperature or heat flux.

47
C e i l i n g and F l o o r Vents

Top Bottom Vent ShapeOpen / C l o s e Trigger

Area Initial Initial Final Final
Compartment Compartment Number Type Value Target Time Fraction Time Fraction
(m^2) (C/W/m^2) (s) (s)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 3 Comp 2 1 Round 1 . 0 0 RAMP # 1

Top compartment, bottom compartment, shape, and area come from the Ceiling/Floor Vent tab
discuussed in section 5.1.2. Relative height is the height of the vent above the floor of the bottom
compartment and absolute height is the height of the vent above the base elevation. Vent opening
and closing information can be specified by time, by an associated time / fraction history or by an
associated target to trigger a change in the vent opening by temperature or heat flux are all set in
the same tab.

Mechanical Flow Connections

This section lists all connections to compartments and fans that connect between compartments.
The table lists, in order, the compartments connected by the fan, a numeric index assigned to the
fan beginning with 1. A fan actually draws air from the first or “from” compartment and pushes
it to the second or “to” compartment. The fourth column is the cross-sectional area of the duct
connection to the chosen compartment. Vent opening and closing information can be specified by
time, by an associated time / fraction history or by an associated target to trigger a change in the
vent opening by temperature or heat flux.
Mechanical Vents ( Fans )

From To Fan Area Flowrate Open / C l o s e

Trigger Initial Initial Final Final
Compartment Compartment Number Type
Value Target Time Fraction Time Fraction
(m^2) (m^3/s) (C/W/m^2) (s) (s)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Outside Comp 1 1 0.02 0.25 RAMP # 2
Comp 2 Outside 2 0.02 0.25 RAMP # 3

From compartment, to compartment, fan number, area, and flowrate are all set in the Mechanical
Ventilation tab discussed in sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2. Vent opening and closing information can be
specified by time, by an associated time / fraction history or by an associated target to trigger a
change in the vent opening by temperature or heat flux are all set in the same tab.

Ventilation Opening Time Specifications

Opening and closing of vents in CFAST can be specified by a series of times and opening fractions
for a specified vent. By default, all vents are open at the beginning of a simulation and remain open
throughout the simulation. On the tab for each type of ventilation a time / fraction history can be
associated with the vent. These time / fraction histories are called Vent Ramps and have their own
tables.
VENT RAMPS

Type From To Vent

Compartment Compartment Number
(s) (s) (s)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
V Comp 3 Comp 2 1 Time 0 100 500
Fraction 0.00 0.50 1.00
M Comp 1 1 Time 0 100 500
Fraction 0.00 0.50 1.00
M Comp 2 Outside 2 Time 0 100 500
Fraction 0.00 0.50 1.00

48
Thermal Properties
The thermal properties section is broken into two parts. The first part is a table that lists the material
for each surface of each compartment. The compartments appear as rows down the page in order of
specification. From left to right next to the compartment name comes the material for the ceiling,
wall and floor. The second table lists the properties of each material used in the simulation. For
each listing of a material, the name is followed by the conductivity, specific heat, density, thickness
and emissivity. In addition to materials for compartment surfaces, any thermal properties specified
for targets are also listed (this may include thermal properties for gaseous materials specified as
fire sources in a simulation.)
THERMAL PROPERTIES

Compartment Ceiling Wall Floor

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 CONCRETE CONCRETE CONCRETE
Comp 2 CONCRETE CONCRETE CONCRETE
Comp 3 CONCRETE CONCRETE CONCRETE

Name Conductivity Specific Heat Density Thickness Emissivity

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
CONCRETE 1.75 1 . 0 0 0 E+03 2 . 2 0 0 E+03 0.150 0.940
DEFAULT 0.120 900. 800. 1 . 2 0 0 E−02 0.900

Material choices of the ceiling, walls, and floors is discussed in section 4.2. Setting thermal-
physical properties is done in the Thermal Properites tad discussed in section 3.1. Units for thermal
properties are standard S.I. units. For thermal conductivity, kW/(m·K); for specific heat, kJ/(kg·K);
for density, kg/m3 ; for thickness, m; emissivity is dimensionless.

Fires
The fire section lists all the information about all fires that might exist. All the information for each
fire is listed separately. Each fire listing has the same form. First is the name of the fire followed
by a list of general information. Listed left to right is the compartment the fire is in, the type of
fire, the initial x (width), y (depth), z (height) position of the fire, the relative humidity, the lower
oxygen limit, and finally the radiative fraction for the fire.
A table of time history curves for the fire follows. The table contains all the time history
curves for the fire. Each row on the table is a specific time given in the left most column. The
rest of the columns give the values at that particular time. The column headers indicate each input
quantity and correspond to specific keywords in the fire definition. The headings are defined as
follows: ‘Mdot’ is pyrolysis rate; ‘Hcomb’ is the heat of combustion; ‘Qdot’ is the heat release
rate; ‘Zoffset’ is height of the fire above the base z-position; ‘Soot’ is the fraction of the fuel mass
converted to soot during combustion; ‘CO’ is the fraction of the fuel mass converted to carbon
monoxide during combustion; ‘HCN’ is the fraction of the fuel mass converted to hydrogen cyanide
during combustion; ‘HCl’ is the fraction of the fuel mass converted to hydrogen chloride during
combustion; and ‘TS’ is the fraction of fuel mass converted to trace species during combustion.
FIRES

Name : Cushion Referenced as object # 1 Normal fire

Compartment Fire Type Time t o Flaming Position (x , y , z)

Relative Lower O2 Radiative
Humidity Limit Fraction
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 Constrained 0.0 2.50 2.50 0.00 50.0 10.00 0.33

49
Chemical formula of the fuel
Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen Chlorine
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
9.000 6.000 2.000 2.000 0.000

Time Mdot Hcomb Qdot Zoffset Soot CO HCN HCl TS

(s) ( kg / s ) ( J / kg ) (W) (m) ( kg / kg ) ( kg / kg ) ( kg / kg ) ( kg / kg ) ( kg / kg )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
0. 0.0 5 . 0 0 E+07 0.0 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
60. 2 . 0 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 1 . 0 0 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
120. 3 . 0 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 1 . 5 0 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
180. 4 . 0 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 2 . 0 0 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
240. 3 . 0 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 1 . 5 0 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
300. 2 . 5 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 1 . 2 5 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
360. 2 . 0 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 1 . 0 0 E+05 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
420. 1 . 8 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 9 . 0 0 E+04 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
480. 1 . 6 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 8 . 0 0 E+04 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
540. 1 . 5 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 7 . 5 0 E+04 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0
1800. 1 . 5 0 E−03 5 . 0 0 E+07 7 . 5 0 E+04 0.0 0.23 8 . 4 6 E−02 0 . 3 1 0.0 0.0

All of the inputs for all fires come from the fire specifications set in the Fires tab discussed in
section 6.1. Units for most values are included in the output. Fire position is in m, relative humidity
is in %, lower oxygen limit is in volume %, and pyrolysis temperature is in K.

Targets

The entry for targets shows the orientation of additional targets specified in the data file. Targets
explicitly specified in the data file are listed first in the order they are included in the data file. The
compartment number, position of the target within the compartment, direction of the front face of
the target object expressed as a normal unit vector to the surface, and object material.
TARGETS

Target Compartment Position (x , y , z) Direction ( x , y , z ) Material

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
1 Targ 1 Comp 1 2.20 1.88 2.34 0.00 0.00 1.00 CONCRETE

All of the inputs for targets come from the Targets tab discussed in chapter 7. Direction is
specified as a unit vector as described in the section on target input. Units for position and direction
are all in m.

Detectors and Sprinklers

The entry for each detector or sprinkler shows the compartment and position of the device and its
activation characteristics. For smoke detectors, activation is based on the smoke obscuration at the
position of the detector; for heat detectors and sprinkler, the temperature of the detector.
DETECTORS / ALARMS / SPRINKLERS
T a r g e t Compartment Type P o s i t i o n ( x , y , z ) Activation Flaming Smoldering
Obscuration Obscuration Obscuration Temperature RTI Spray Density
(m) (m) (m) (%/m ) (%/m ) (%/m ) (C) ( m s ) ^ 1 / 2 ( mm / s )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
1 Comp 1 SPRINK 3 . 0 0 3 . 0 0 2 . 9 7 73.89 100.00 7 . 0 0 E−02
2 Comp 1 SMOKE 2 . 0 0 2 . 0 0 2 . 9 7 23.93
3 Comp 1 HEAT 2.00 2.00 2.97 30.00 5.00

All of the inputs for detectors and sprinklers come from the Detector / Surpression tab discussed
in section 7.2. Units for position are all in m.

50
10.2.2 Output for Main Variables
The normal print out is the first information printed at each time interval. This information includes
the layer temperatures, interface height, volume of the upper layer, layer absorption coefficients,
and compartment pressure (relative to ambient).
Time = 3 6 0 0 . 0 seconds .

Compartment Upper Lower Inter . Upper Upper Lower Pressure

Temp . Temp Height Vol Absor Absorb
(C) (C) (m) (m^3) ( m^ −1) ( m^ −1) ( Pa )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 78.70 23.01 1.404 40. ( 53%) 0 . 2 3 5 0.100 −0.430
Comp 2 176.5 44.97 1.495 38. ( 50%) 0 . 2 4 0 9 . 1 5 3 E−02 −1.49
Comp 3 104.3 27.58 1.248 44. ( 58%) 0 . 2 4 1 9 . 5 5 6 E−02 −0.336

The second table of the normal print out has information about the fires. In essence it is two tables
joined. The first part lists information by fire. It lists fires in the order they are specified in the input
file down the page. The fires are listed in the second column followed by the plume flow rate, the
pyrolysis rate, the fire size, and flame height. The next three columns are then skipped. The next
column with information is the amount of heat given off by each fire convectively, followed by the
amount of heat given off radiantly. The last two columns give the total mass pyrolyzed and the
amount of trace species produced. The second part starts after all the fires have been individually
listed. It gives the totals for all fires in each compartment. The first column has the compartment
name. The compartments are listed down the page in order specified. The third to fifth columns are
the same as the first part except the values are totals for the compartment and not just for one fire.
The sixth column has the total heat release rate that occurs in the upper layer. The next column
has the same total in the lower layer. The eighth column has the total size of vent fires in the
compartment.
FIRES

Compartment Fire Ign Plume Pyrol Fire Flame Fire i n Fire i n Vent Convec . Radiat . Pyrolysate Trace
Flow Rate Size Height Upper Lower Fire
( kg / s ) ( kg / s ) (W) (m) (W) (W) (W) (W) (W) kg ) ( kg )
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Cushion Y 1 . 8 0 2 E−04 1 . 5 0 3 E−07 7 . 5 1 0.00 5.04 2.48 1.06 0.00
Wood_Wall Y 1.57 2 . 4 8 6 E−02 4 . 5 0 0 E+05 0 . 3 8 2 3 . 0 1 5 E+05 1 . 4 8 5 E+05 4 4 . 8 0.00

Comp 1 1 . 8 0 2 E−04 1 . 5 0 3 E−07 7 . 5 1 0.00 7.51 0.00

Comp 2 1.57 2 . 4 8 6 E−02 4 . 5 0 0 E+05 0.00 4 . 5 0 0 E+05 0 . 0 0

Flame height is calculated from the work of Heskestad [14]. The average flame height is defined
as the distance from the fuel source to the top of the visible flame where the intermittency is 0.5.
A flame intermittency of 0.5 means that the visible flame is above the mean 50 % of the time and
below the mean 50 % of the time.

10.2.3 Output for Wall Surfaces, Targets, and Detectors/Sprinklers

The printed output provides two tables displaying information about wall surface or target temper-
atures and fluxes, and heat detectors or sprinklers. The left most column specifies the compartment
name; followed by four columns providing the temperatures of the bounding surfaces of the com-
partment in contact with the ceiling, upper wall surface (in contact with the upper layer gases),
lower wall surface (in contact with the lower layer gases), and floor, in that order. Next comes
information about targets in the compartment, with each target listed on a separate line. Informa-
tion in the columns includes the surface temperature of the target, net heat flux to the target, and

51
the percentage of that net flux that is due to radiation from the fire, radiation from compartment
surfaces, radiation from the gas layers, and convection from the gas surrounding the target. CFAST
includes one target in the center of the floor for all compartments. Information on additional targets
specified by the user in the input data file are also included, in the order specified in the input file.
For smoke detectors, heat detectors, and sprinklers, the temperature of the device, its current
state (activated or not), and the nearby gas temperature and velocity are included.
SURFACES AND TARGETS

Compartment C e i l i n g Up wall Low wall F l o o r T a r g e t Gas Surface Interior Incident Net Gas Heat
Temp . Temp . Temp . Temp . Temp . Temp . Temp . Flux Flux FED FED
(C) (C) (C) (C) (C) (C) (C) (W/m^2) (W/m^2)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 25.7 24.5 21.4 22.0
Targ 1 4 8 . 5 24.5 22.2 451. 190. 94.9 0.134
Comp 2 129. 51.8 76.4 46.9
Comp 3 33.8 33.7 22.7 23.1

DETECTORS / ALARMS / SPRINKLERS

Sensor Smoke

Number Compartment Type Temp ( C ) Temp ( C ) Vel ( m / s ) Obs ( 1 / m ) Activated

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
1 Comp 1 SPRINK 4 . 7 0 6 E+01 4 . 8 5 2 E+01 1 . 1 9 4 E−01 YES
2 Comp 1 SMOKE 4 . 8 5 2 E+01 1 . 1 9 4 E−01 7 . 8 7 5 E−01 YES
3 Comp 1 HEAT 4 . 8 5 0 E+01 4 . 8 5 2 E+01 YES

In all cases, the flux to/from a target is net radiation or net convection. That is, it is the incoming
minus the outgoing. So while a target or object is heating, the flux will be positive, and once it starts
to cool, the flux will be negative. Values for radiation from fires (fire rad.), radiation from surfaces
(surface rad.), radiation from the gas layers (gas rad.), and convection from surfaces (convect) are
expressed as the net flux to target (flux to target). Positive values indicate heat gains by the target
and negative values indicate heat losses.

10.2.4 Output for Gas Species

The output has two tables displaying information about the amounts of species in each layer. The
species information follows the normal print out. The first table gives species volume % for the
upper layers of all the compartments and the second reports the same for the lower layers of all
the compartments. Again the compartments are listed down the page and the information across
the page. The species are each given in one of several different terms. Below each header are
the units for the given value. Most of the headers are simply the chemical formula for the species
being tracked (Elemental nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide,
hydrochloric acid, and water). However, several are not obvious. “TUHC” is the total unburned
hydrocarbons or the pyrolyzed fuel that hasn’t burned yet. “OD” is the optical density, which is a
measure of the amount of smoke. “OD S” and “OD F” and the optical density resulting from only
smoldering and flaming smoke production, respectively. “TS” is trace species.
UPPER LAYER SPECIES

Compartment N2 O2 CO2 CO HCN HCL TUHC H2O OD OD_F OD_S TS

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (1/m) (1/m) ( 1 / m ) kg
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Comp 1 7 7 . 3 1 9 . 1 1 . 2 9 8 . 0 7 7 E−03 2 . 0 2 5 E−04 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 2 . 2 7 0 . 7 8 8 0 . 7 8 8 0 . 0 0 0.00
Comp 2 7 7 . 0 1 8 . 6 1 . 7 1 1 . 0 6 1 E−02 2 . 0 0 8 E−05 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 2 . 6 3 0 . 8 0 8 0 . 8 0 8 0 . 0 0 0.00
Comp 3 7 7 . 0 1 8 . 7 1 . 6 4 1 . 0 1 8 E−02 2 . 1 9 0 E−05 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 2 . 5 7 0 . 8 4 7 0 . 8 4 7 0 . 0 0 0.00

The report by species are % by volume. Optical depth per meter is a measure of the visibility

52
in the smoke. Trace species (TS) is the total mass of the trace species that is present in the layer in
kilograms. It is an absolute measure and not percent or density.

10.2.5 Output for Vent Flows

Information about vent flow is obtained in this section. It includes information detailing mass flow
through horizontal, vertical, and mechanical vents. There are two forms for the vent flow. The first
is flow through the vents as kg/s. The second gives the total mass which has flowed through the
vent(s) and the relative mass of trace species divided by the total mass of trace species produced
up to the current time.
The section for vent flow is titled “FLOW THROUGH VENTS (kg/s).” Because flow is always
given in positive values, each vent is listed twice, once for flow going from compartment A to
compartment B (labelled as “Flow relative to ‘from”’) and a second time for flow from B to A
(labelled as “Flow relative to ‘To”’. As the example below shows, the first column specifies the
vent, including the type of vent (an “H” in this column stands for horizontal flow, such as through
a doorway or window; a “V” here would mean vertical flow, such as through an opening in the
ceiling, and an “M” stands for a mechanical ventilation connection) and the compartment from
which the flow comes. The second column lists the name of the compartment. Up to six additional
columns detail the flow at this vent. Flow into and out of the compartment through the vent in the
upper and lower layers are included.
A second table shows total (mass) flow through vents. At present this is confined to mechanical
ventilation (It applies only to vents which can be filtered, in this case mechanical ventilation). The
last column is obtained by summing the outflow/inflow for each vent and then dividing that sum
by the total trace species produced by all fires. For details on this value, see the section on output
listing for fires.
FLOW THROUGH VENTS ( kg / s )

Flow relative t o ' From ' Flow Relative t o ' To '

Upper Layer Lower Layer Upper Layer Lower Layer
Vent From / Bottom To / Top Inflow Outflow Inflow Outflow Inflow Outflow Inflow Outflow
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
H 1 Comp 1 Outside 0 . 5 2 7 9 E−03 0 . 1 4 8 0 E+01 0 . 1 4 8 0 E+01
H 2 Comp 1 Comp 2 0 . 1 0 9 3 E+00 0 . 1 0 5 1 E+00 0 . 1 5 0 8 E+01 0 . 3 1 9 6 E−03 0 . 1 0 9 3 E+00 0 . 1 6 1 3 E+01
H 3 Comp 3 Outside 0 . 1 5 1 6 E+01 0 . 3 1 2 0 E−03 0 . 1 5 1 7 E+01
V 1 Comp 2 Comp 3 0 . 1 4 6 1 E+01 0 . 5 2 4 1 E−01 0 . 1 5 1 4 E+01
M 1 Outside Comp 1 0 . 2 3 9 1 E−01 0 . 2 3 9 1 E−01
M 2 Comp 2 Outside 0 . 1 7 0 3 E−01 0 . 1 7 0 3 E−01

TOTAL MASS FLOW THROUGH MECHANICAL VENTS ( kg )

To Through Upper Layer Lower Layer Trace Species

Compartment Vent Inflow Outflow Inflow Outflow Vented Filtered
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Outside Comp 1 0 . 8 1 9 0 E+02
Comp 2 Outside 0 . 6 6 6 7 E+02 0 . 2 2 2 3 E−01

10.3 Spreadsheet Output

CFAST generates a number of output files in a plain text spreadsheet format. These files capture
a snap shot of the modeling data at an instant of time. This instance is on the Simulation tab
discussed in section 2.2. However, there are events which can occur in between these reporting
periods. Examples are the ignition of objects and the activation of detectors or sprinklers. These

53
are not reported in these output files.
Several spreadsheet files are generated with each CFAST simulation:

1. project_compartments.csv contains layer temperature and height, species concentrations, and

fire-related outputs.

2. project_devices.csv contains outputs for targets and detectors (detailed target info with -V
option)

3. project_masses.csv contains mass of species in compartment layers and total trace species
masses (detailed unburned fuel info with -V flag)

4. project_vents.csv contains vent flows (additional flow details with -V option)

5. project_walls.csv contains compartment surface temperatures

10.3.1 Primary Output Variables (project_compartments.csv)

There are three sets of information in this file. The first includes compartment information such as
layer temperature. This is output by compartment and there are entries for each compartment plus
a column that indicates the current simulation time:

Time (s)

Upper Layer Temperature (◦ C)

Lower Layer Temperature (◦ C)

Layer Height (m)

Upper Layer Volume (m3 ): total volume of the upper layer. This is just the floor area times the
difference between the ceiling height and the layer height.

Pressure (Pa): pressure at compartment floor relative to the outside at the absolute height of the
floor.

N2 Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): nitrogen concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in the
current compartment

O2 Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): oxygen concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in the cur-
rent compartment

CO2 Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): carbon dioxide concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in
the current compartment

CO Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): carbon monoxide concentration in the upper (or lower) layer
in the current compartment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

HCN Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): HCN concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in the cur-
rent compartment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

54
HCL Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): HCl concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in the current
compartment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

H2O Upper/Lower Layer (mol %): water vapor concentration in the upper (or lower) layer in
the current compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (m−1 ): optical density in the upper (or lower) layer in the
current compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (m−1 ): optical density from flaming-generated smoke in
the upper (or lower) layer in the current compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (m−1 ): optical density from smoldering-generated smoke
in the upper (or lower) layer in the current compartment

Trace Species Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total mass of trace species in the upper (or lower) layer
in the current compartment

HRR Door Jet Fires (W): total heat release rate of all door jet fires adding heat to this compart-
ment.

The second set of information is for fires. This information is displayed for each fire:

Ignition : indicates whether the fire has ignited. entry is zero if the fire has not yet ignited and
one if it has ignited.

Plume Entrainment Rate (kg/s): current mass entrained from the lower layer into the plume for
this fire.

Pyrolysis Rate (kg/s): current rate of mass loss for this fire.

HRR Expected (W): current heat release rate input for this fire. This is the HRR input by the user
before it is adjusted for available oxygen or sprinkler activation.

HRR Actual (W): current total heat release rate for this fire. This is just the sum of the heat
release rate for the lower layer and upper layer for this fire. It may be lower than the user input
if the fire is constrained by available oxygen or if a sprinkler has activated in the compartment.

HRR Convective actual (W): current rate of heat release by convection for this fire. The remain-
der is released by radiation to the surroundings.

HRR Lower Actual (W): current heat release rate for burning in the lower layer for this fire.

HRR Upper Actual (W): current heat release rate for burning in the upper layer for this fire.

Flame Height (m): current calculated flame height for this fire.

Total Pyrolysate Released (kg): total mass released by the fire up to the current time.

Total Trace Species Released (kg): total mass of trace species released by the fire up to the cur-
rent time.

55
 The last set of information is for door jet fires. This information is displayed for each compart-
ment and for the outside:

HRR Door Jet Fires (W): current total heat release rate for door jet fires in this compartment.

10.3.2 Target Temperature and Heat Flux (project_devices.csv)

This file provides information on target temperatures and flux, and reports on the current state of
detectors and sprinklers (as a sub-set of detectors). The output is in two sections, one for target
temperature and heat flux, and one for detector/sprinkler temperature and activation. The first set
of columns pertain to the targets. The second set of columns pertain to the user-defined targets
included in the simulation.

Target Surrounding Gas Temperature (◦ C): gas temperature nearby the current target

Target Surface Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the surface of the current target

Target Internal Temperature (◦ C): interior temperature of the current target

Target Incident Flux (kW/m2): total heat flux striking the front surface of the current target

Target Net Flux (kW/m2): total net heat flux to the front surface of the current target

Target Gas FED : fractional effective dose due to toxic gases at the current target location

Target Gas FED Increment : incremental fractional effective dose due to toxic gases at the cur-
rent target location

Target Heat FED : fractional effective dose due to convective heat at the current target location

Target Heat FED Increment : incremental fractional effective dose due to convective heat at the
current target location

Target Obscuration (m−1 ): optical density at the current target location

Target Convective Flux (kW/m2 ): convective heat flux to the front surface of the current target
(validation output only)

Target Radiative Flux (kW/m2 ): total net radiative heat flux to the front surface of the current
target (validation output only)

Target Fire Radiative Flux (kW/m2 ): radiative heat flux from fires to the front surface of the
current target (validation output only)

Target Surface Radiative Flux (kW/m2 ): radiative heat flux from compartment surfaces to the
front surface of the current target (validation output only)

Target Gas Radiative Flux (kW/m2 ): radiative heat flux from the upper and lower gas layers to
the front surface of the current target (validation output only)

56
Target Radiative Loss Flux (kW/m2 ): radiative heat flux from the current target to surroundings
at the calculated temperature of the target (validation output only)

Target Total Gauge Flux (kW/m2): total net heat flux to the front surface of the current target
assuming the target radiative losses are at ambient temperature (validation output only)

Target Radiative Gauge Flux (kW/m2 ): total net radiative heat flux to the front surface of the
current target assuming the target radiative losses are at ambient temperature (validation output
only)

Target Radiative Loss Gauge Flux (kW/m2 ): radiative heat flux from the current target to sur-
roundings assuming the target radiative losses are at ambient temperature (validation output
only)

The second set of columns pertain to the detector/sprinkler output.

Sensor Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the current detector / sprinkler

Sensor Activation (none): indicator of activation of the current detector / sprinkler; takes a value
of zero if the sensor has not activated and one if it has

Sensor Surrounding Gas Temperature (◦ C): gas temperature nearby the current detector / sprin-
kler. This is the ceiling jet temperature at the device location if the device is in the ceiling jet
or the appropriate gas layer temperature if the device is lower in the compartment

Sensor Surrounding Gas Velocity (m/s): gas velocity nearby the current detector / sprinkler.
This is the velocity of the ceiling jet at the device location if the device is in the ceiling jet
or a default value of 0.1 m/s if the device is lower in the compartment

Sensor Obscuration (m−1 ): optical density at the current sensor location

10.3.3 Layer Masses (project_masses.csv

Time (s)

N2 Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total nitrogen mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the current
compartment

O2 Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total oxygen mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the current com-
partment

CO2 Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total carbon dioxide mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the
current compartment

CO Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total carbon monoxide mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the
current compartment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

HCN Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total HCN mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the current
compartment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

57
HCL Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total HCl mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the current com-
partment (multiply by 10 000 to convert to ppm)

H2O Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total water vapor mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the current
compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total soot mass in the upper (or lower) layer in the
current compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total soot mass from flaming-generated smoke in the
upper (or lower) layer in the current compartment

Optical Density Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total soot mass from smoldering-generated smoke in
the upper (or lower) layer in the current compartment

Trace Species Upper/Lower Layer (kg): total mass of trace species in the upper (or lower) layer
in the current compartment

10.3.4 Vent Flow (project_vents.csv)

The entries in this file pertain to the flow vents such as windows/doors, ceiling/floor vents, me-
chanical vents, and compartment leakage.
Time (s)

Net Inflow (kg/s): net mass flow into the current compartment through the current horizontal flow
(door/windows) vent connected to the current compartment.

Opening Fraction : fraction the vent is open. Zero indicated a fully-closed vent; one indicates a
fully-opened vent.

Trace Species Flow kg: total mass of trace species through this vent up to the current time (me-
chanical vents only).

Trace Species Flow kg: total mass of trace species removed by a specified filter in this vent up to
the current time (for mechanical vents only).

Net Inflow (kg/s): net mass flow into the current compartment via wall and floor leakage (for each
compartment that includes leakage).

10.3.5 Compartment Surface Temperature(project_walls.csv)

This file provides information on compartment surface temperatures
Time (s)

Ceiling Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the ceiling surface in the current compartment

Upper Wall Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the wall surface adjacent to the upper layer in the
current compartment

58
Lower Wall Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the wall surface adjacent to the lower layer in the
current compartment

Floor Temperature (◦ C): temperature of the floor surface in the current compartment

59
10.4 Error Messages
In some (hopefully rare) cases, a simulation will fail to complete. In those cases, an error message
provides guidance to the user on possible reasons for the failure. The message will contain an
error number which provides a reference to additional information from the table below. Most
often, these errors result from improper information in the input data files. During initialization of
the program for a simulation, CFAST may stop with an error message if the simulation cannot be
initialized due to a missing or incorrect file specification. The error codes are as follows:

100 program called with no arguments (no input file)

101 internal error in fire input; code for a free burning fire should not be reachable

102 project file does not exist

103 total file name length including path is more than 256 characters

104 one of the output files is not accessible (for example, if a CFAST case with this name is
already running)

105 error writing to an output file (openoutputfiles)

106 a system fault has occurred. Applies to all open/close pairs once the model is running

107 incompatible options

108 not currently used

109 cannot find/open a file

110 error in handling the status input/output

Error codes from 1 to 99 are from the routine which parses the input and will be reported in the
.log file. The first set indicates a command with the wrong number of arguments. These errors
indicate an error in a particular input command as follows:

1 TIMES command

2 TAMB command

3 EAMB command

4 LIMO2 command

5 THERMAL or FIRE commands

7 MAINF command

8 COMPA command

10 HVENT command

60
11 EVENT command

12 MVENT command

23 VVENT command

24 WIND command

25 INTER command

26 MVOPN command

28 MVDCT command

29 MVFAN command

32 OBJECT command

34 CJET and DETEC command

35 STPMAX command

37 VHEAT command

39 ONEZ command

41 TARGE command

46 HALL command

47 ROOMA command

51 ROOMH command

55 DTCHE command

56 SETP command

58 HHEAT command

65 HEATF command

The second set of errors related to parsing the input indicate specific errors with a command as
follows:

9, compa Compartment out of range

26, inter Not a defined compartment

27, mvopn Specified node number too large for this system

30, mvfan Fan curve has incorrect specification

61
31, mvfan Exceeded allowed number of fans

33, object Object must be assigned to an existing compartment

35, detect Invalid DETECTOR specification

36, detect A referenced compartment is not yet defined

38, vheat VHEAT has specified a non-existent compartment

42, target Too many targets are being defined

43, target The compartment specified by TARGET does not exist

44, target Invalid TARGET solution method specified

45, target Invalid equation type specified in TARGET

49, rooma Compartment specified by ROOMA does not exist

52, roomh Compartment specified by ROOMH is not defined

53, roomh ROOMH error on data line

54, roomh Data on the ROOMA (or H) line must be positive

57, setp Trying to reset the SETP parameters

61, hheat HHEAT specification error in compartment pairs

62, hheat Error in fraction for HHEAT

63, object Fire type out of range

64, object The fire must be assigned to an existing compartment

66, heatf The heat source must be assigned to an existing compartment

67, mvent Compartment has not been defined

68, mvent Exceed one of the array bounds, ierror=68 (external), 69 (internal) and 70 (fan)

71, event Undefined vent type

72, inter Specification for interface height is outside of allowable range

73, inter Compartments must be defined in pairs

74, setp The requested âĂIJSETPâĂİ command does not exists

75, setp Incorrect file reference

76, setp Cannot read the parameter file

62
77, setp Unsupported parameter

Errors 400 and above are failures while the model is running. 610 through 685 are failures in the
numerical routines; these are rarely seen, but typically result from an internal error in the model.

63
64
References

[1] R.D. Peacock, K.B. McGrattan, G.P. Forney, and P.A. Reneke. CFAST – Consolidated Fire
And Smoke Transport (Version 7) Volume 1: Technical Reference Guide. Technical Note
1889v1, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, November
2015. 1

[2] R. D. Peacock and P. A. Reneke. CFAST – Consolidated Fire And Smoke Transport (Version
7) Volume 3: Software Development and Model Evaluation Guide. Technical Note 1889v3,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, November 2015. 1

[3] R.D. Peacock. CFAST – Consolidated Fire And Smoke Transport (Version 7) Volume 4:
Configuration Management Guide. Technical Note 1889v4, National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, November 2015. 1

[4] American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. ASTM E
1355-04, Standard Guide for Evaluating the Predictive Capabilities of Deterministic Fire
Models, 2004. 1

[5] U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1976. 6

[6] J. H. Klote, J. A. Milke, P. G. Turnball, A. Kashef, and M. J. Ferreira. Handbook of Smoke

Control Engineering. ASHRAE, Atlanta, GA, 2012. 15, 16, 21

[7] J. H. Klote and J. A. Milke. Principles of Smoke Management. American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc, Atlanta, GA, 2002. 21

[8] C.L. Beyler. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, chapter Fire Hazard Calcu-
lations for Large Open Hydrocarbon Fires. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy,
Massachusetts, 4th edition, 2008. 27

[9] R.L.P. Custer, B.J. Meacham, and R.P. Schifiliti. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engi-
neering, chapter Design of Detection Systems. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy,
Massachusetts, fourth edition, 2008. 28

[10] D. D. Evans. Sprinkler Fire Suppression for HAZARD. NISTIR 5254, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, 1993. 34

[11] W. D. Davis and K. A. Notarianni. NASA Fire Detector Study. NISTIR 5798, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, November 1996. 34

65
[12] N. Iqbal and M.H. Salley. Fire Dynamics Tools (FDTs), Quantitative Fire Hazard Analysis
Methods for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fire Protection Inspection Program.
NUREG 1805, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Re-
search, Rockville, MD, 2004. 34

[13] G. P. Forney. Smokeview (Version 6) - A Tool for Visualizing Fire Dynamics Simulation
Data, Volume I: User’s Guide. Special Publication 1017-1, National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, June 2012. 37, 38

[14] G. Heskestad. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, chapter Fire Plumes, Flame
Height, and Air Entrainment. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Massachusetts,
fourth edition, 2008. 51

[15] P. J. DiNenno, D. Drysdale, C. L. Beyler, and W. D. Walton, editors. SFPE Handbook of

Fire Protection Engineering. National Fire Protection Association and The Society of Fire
Protection Engineers, Quincy, MA, 3rd edition, 2003. 72

66
Appendix A

Scenario and Software Limits

CFAST is intended for use with a wide variety of fire scenarios. A number of limits to the inputs
in the software implementation of the model are noted below.

Maximum simulation time in seconds 86400

Maximum number of compartments 100
Maximum number of horizontal flow (door/window) vent connections that can be in- 2500
cluded in a single test case
Maximum number of vertical flow (ceiling/floor) vent connections which can be included 2500
in a single test case
Maximum total number of connections between compartments and mechanical ventila- 2500
tion systems which can be included in a single test case
Maximum number of fans that can be included in a single test cases 1250
Maximum number of fires which can be included in a single test case 2500
Maximum number of data points for a single fire definition 199
Maximum number of data points in a variable cross-sectional area definition for a single 199
compartment
Maximum number of material thermal property definitions which can be included in a 2500
single thermal database file
Maximum number of targets which can be included in a single test case. In addition, the 2500
CFAST model includes a target on the floor of each compartment in the simulation and
one for each object fire in simulation.
Maximum number of detectors/sprinklers which can be included in a single test case. 2500

67
68
Appendix B

CFAST Text-based Input File

The operation of CFAST is based on a single ASCII1 text file containing parameters organized into
namelist2 groups. The input file provides CFAST with all of the necessary information to describe
the scenario. The graphical user interface, CEdit, writes this file. This appendix details all the
parameters, which are organized into groups that roughly coincide with the tabs in the graphical
user interface.

B.1 Naming the Input File

The input file is saved with a name such as job_name.in, where job_name is any character
string that helps to identify the simulation. All of the output files associated with the calculation
will then have this common prefix name.
There should be no blank spaces in the job name. Instead use the underscore character to
represent a space.
Be aware that CFAST will simply over-write the output files of a given case if its assigned name
is the same. This is convenient when developing an input file because you save on disk space. Just
be careful not to overwrite a calculation that you want to keep.

B.2 Namelist Formatting

Parameters are specified within the input file by using namelist formatted records. Each namelist
record begins with the ampersand character, &, followed immediately by the name of the namelist
group, then a comma-delimited list of the input parameters, and finally a forward slash, /. For
example, the line

&TIME SIMULATION = 3600., PRINT = 50., SMOKEVIEW = 50., SPREADSHEET = 50. /

sets various values of parameters contained in the TIME namelist group. The meanings of these
various parameters is explained in this guide. The namelist records can span multiple lines in the
1 ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange. There are 256 characters that make up the

standard ASCII text.

2 A namelist is a Fortran input record.

69
input file, but just be sure to end the record with a slash or else the data will not be understood. Do
not add anything to a namelist line other than the parameters and values appropriate for that group.
Otherwise, CFAST will stop immediately upon execution.
Parameters within a namelist record can be separated by either commas, spaces, or line breaks.
It is recommended that you use commas or line breaks, and never use tab stops because they are
not explicitly defined in the namelist data structure. CFAST and CEdit expect the first character
of the file to be an ampersand, &, and by convention the first namelist is the HEAD namelist but
any namelist can be the first. Comments and notes can be written into the file between namelists
so long as nothing comes before the ampersand except a space and nothing comes between the
ampersand and the slash except appropriate parameters corresponding to that particular namelist
group. However, it is important to note that any comments in an input file that is opened by CEdit
and saved will be lost.
The parameters in the input file can be integers, reals, character strings, or logical parameters. A
logical parameter is either .TRUE. or .FALSE. – the periods are a Fortran convention. Character
strings that are listed in this User’s Guide must be copied exactly as written – the code is case
sensitive and underscores do matter. The maximum length of most character input parameters is
60.
Most of the input parameters are simply real or integer scalars, like PRINT = 50., but some-
times the inputs can be arrays.
Note that character strings can be enclosed either by single or double quotation marks, however
CEdit only recognizes the single quotation mark. Be careful not to create the input file by pasting
text from something other than a simple text editor, in which case the punctuation marks may not
transfer properly into the text file. Some text file encodings may not work on all systems. If file
reading errors occur and no typographical errors can be found in the input file, try saving the input
file using a different encoding. For example, the text file editor Notepad works fine on a Windows
PC, but a file edited in Notepad may not work on Linux or Mac OS X because of the difference in
line endings between Windows and Unix/Linux operating systems. The editor Wordpad typically
works better, but try a simple case first.

B.3 Input File Structure

In general, the namelist records can be entered in any order in the input file, but it is a good idea
to organize them in some systematic way. Typically, general information is listed near the top
of the input file, and detailed information, like obstructions, devices, and so on, are listed below.
CFAST scans the entire input file each time it processes a particular namelist group. With some
text editors, it has been noticed that the last line of the file is often not read by CFAST because of
the presence of an “end of file” character. To ensure that CFAST reads the entire input file, add

&TAIL /

as the last line at the end of the input file. This completes the file from &HEAD to &TAIL. CFAST
does not even look for this last line. It just forces the “end of file” character past relevant input.
The general structure of an input file is shown below, with many lines of the original input file3
3 The actual input file, Users_Guide_Example.in, is part of the CFAST software distribution

70
removed for clarity.
&HEAD VERSION = 7 3 0 0 , TITLE = ' U s e r s Guide Example Case ' /
! ! Scenario Configuration
&TIME SIMULATION = 3600 PRINT = 50 SMOKEVIEW = 50 SPREADSHEET = 50 /
&INIT PRESSURE = 101325 RELATIVE_HUMIDITY = 50 INTERIOR_TEMPERATURE = 20 EXTERIOR_TEMPERATURE = 20 /
&MISC LOWER_OXYGEN_LIMIT = 0 . 1 /
! ! Material Properties
&MATL ID = 'CONCRETE ' MATERIAL = ' C o n c r e t e , Normal Weight ( 6 i n ) ' ,
CONDUCTIVITY = 1 . 7 5 DENSITY = 2200 SPECIFIC_HEAT = 1 , THICKNESS = 0 . 1 5 EMISSIVITY = 0 . 9 4 /
! ! Comparments
&COMP ID = ' Comp 1 '
DEPTH = 5 HEIGHT = 3 WIDTH = 5 CEILING_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE ' WALL_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE ' FLOOR_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE '
ORIGIN = 0 , 0 , 0 GRID = 5 0 , 5 0 , 50 /
! ! Devices
&DEVC ID = ' H e a t D e t e c t o r _ 3 ' COMP_ID = ' Comp 1 ' LOCATION = 2 , 2 , 2 . 9 7 TYPE = 'HEAT_DETECTOR ' SETPOINT = 3 0 , RTI = 5 /
! ! Wall V e n t s
&VENT TYPE = 'WALL ' ID = ' W a l l V e n t _ 1 ' COMP_IDS = ' Comp 1 ' ' OUTSIDE ' TOP = 2 , BOTTOM = 0 , WIDTH = 1
FACE = 'FRONT ' OFFSET = 2 /
! ! Fires
&FIRE ID = ' Wood_Wall ' COMP_ID = ' Comp 2 ' , FIRE_ID = ' Wood_Wall_Fire ' LOCATION = 2 . 5 , 5 /
&CHEM ID = ' Wood_Wall_Fire ' CARBON = 6 CHLORINE = 0 HYDROGEN = 10 NITROGEN = 0 OXYGEN = 5 HEAT_OF_COMBUSTION = 18100
RADIATIVE_FRACTION = 0 . 3 3 /
&TABL ID = ' Wood_Wall_Fire ' LABELS = ' TIME ' , 'HRR ' , ' HEIGHT ' , 'AREA ' , ' CO_YIELD ' , ' SOOT_YIELD ' , ' HCN_YIELD ' , ' HCL_YIELD ' ,
' TRACE_YIELD ' /
&TABL ID = ' Wood_Wall_Fire ' , DATA = 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 . 0 5 , 0 . 0 0 6 1 7 1 6 8 2 , 0 . 0 1 5 , 0 , 0 , 0 /
&TABL ID = ' Wood_Wall_Fire ' , DATA = 8 0 0 0 , 1 0 0 0 , 3 , 9 , 0 . 0 0 6 1 7 1 6 8 2 , 0 . 0 1 5 , 0 , 0 , 0 /
! ! Surface Connections
&CONN TYPE = 'FLOOR ' COMP_ID = ' Comp 3 ' COMP_IDS = ' Comp 2 ' /
! ! Visualizations
&SLCF DOMAIN = ' 2−D ' POSITION = 2 . 5 , PLANE = 'X ' /
&TAIL /

It is recommended that when looking at a new scenario, first select a pre-written input file that
resembles the case, make the necessary changes, then run the case to determine if the geometry is
set up correctly. It is best to start off with a relatively simple file that captures the main features of
the problem without getting tied down with too much detail that might mask a fundamental flaw
in the calculation. As you learn how to write input files, you will continually run and re-run your
case as you add in complexity.
Table B.1 provides a quick reference to all the namelist parameters and where you can find the
reference to where it is introduced in the document and the table containing all of the keywords for
each group.
Examples of each of the inputs are included in the sections that follow. All examples are taken
from the sample input file Users_Guide_Example.in included with the CFAST distribution.
Following are some general rules about the CFAST input file:

• The HEAD input identifies the version of CFAST for which the input file was created and is
typically the first line in the input file. Use &TAIL as the last line at the end of the input file.
This completes the file from &HEAD to &TAIL. CFAST does not even look for this last line. It
just forces the âĂIJend of fileâĂİ character past relevant input.

• Many of the listed keywords are mutually exclusive. Repeated entry of some keywords can
cause the program to either fail or run in an unpredictable manner.

• Use of some keywords triggers the code to operate in a certain mode/condition. For example,
specifying ADIABATIC to be .TRUE. triggers the code to treat all compartment surfaces to be
perfectly insulated.

• Multiple inputs are required whenever the keyword is in plural form — keywords ending with
an s. For example, the keyword parameter, TEMPERATURES, within the namelist group, INIT,
requires two temperature values (in this case, one for exterior ambient temperature and one for

71
 Table B.1: CFAST Input File Keywords

Group Name Namelist Group Description Reference Section Parameter Table

COMP Compartments 4.1 B.7
CHEM Fire Chemistry 6.1 B.12
CONN Surface Connections 8 B.15
DEVC Devices 7 B.14
DIAG Diagnostics B.18
FIRE Fires Placement 6.2 B.11
HEAD Input File Header 2.1 B.2
INIT Initial Conditions 2.3 B.4
ISOF Isosurface File Outputs 9.1 B.16
MATL Material Properties 3.1 B.6
MISC Miscellaneous 2.4 B.5
SLCF Slice File Outputs 9.1 B.17
TAIL End of Input File Indicator
TABL Table of Time-Based Inputs B.8 B.13
TIME Simulation Time 2.2 B.3
VENT Vents 5.1.1 B.8

interior ambient temperature). In the case of missing inputs, an error message will be generated
to assist users in troubleshooting any errors.

• Default values to inputs are assigned to some of the keywords to facilitate the set up of an
input file. For instance, Table B.5 shows that the LOWER_OXYGEN_LIMIT has a default value
of 0.15. This value is taken from the SFPE handbook [15] and implies that the burning rate
will be reduced when the oxygen level is below 15 %. Users should review the applicability of
any default values for their simulation.

72
B.4 Simulation Environment, Namelist Groups HEAD, TIME,
INIT, and MISC

Table B.2: For more information see Section 2.1.

HEAD (Header Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
VERSION Integer Section 2.1
TITLE Character Section 2.1

Table B.3: For more information see Section 2.2.

TIME (Time Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
PRINT Integer Section 2.2 s 60
SIMULATION Integer Section 2.2 s 3600
SMOKEVIEW Integer Section 2.2 s 15
SPREADSHEET Integer Section 2.2 s 15

Table B.4: For more information see Section 2.3.

INIT (Initial Conditions)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
PRESSURE Real Section 2.3 Pa 101325
RELATIVE_HUMIDITY Real Section 2.3 % 50
INTERIOR_TEMPERATURE Real Section 2.3 ◦C 20
EXTERIOR_TEMPERATURE Real Section 2.3 ◦C 20

Table B.5: For more information see Section 2.4.

MISC (Miscellaneous Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
ADIABATIC Logical Section 2.4 .FALSE.
LOWER_OXYGEN_LIMIT Real Section 2.4 0.15
MAX_TIME_STEP Real Section 2.4 s 1
OVERWRITE Logical Section 2.4 .TRUE.
SPECIFIC_EXTINCTION Real Doublet Section 2.4 8700,4400

Examples:

&HEAD VERSION = 7300, TITLE = 'Users Guide Example Case' /

73
&TIME SIMULATION = 3600., PRINT = 50., SMOKEVIEW = 50., SPREADSHEET = 50. /
&INIT INTERIOR_TEMPERATURE = 20., EXTERIOR_TEMPERATURE = 20. /
&MISC LOWER_OXYGEN_LIMIT = 0.10 /

74
B.5 Thermal Properties, Namelist Group MATL

Table B.6: For more information see Section 3.1.

MATL (Material Properties)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
CONDUCTIVITY*a Real Section 3.1 kW/(m·K)
DENSITY* Real Section 3.1 kg/m3
EMISSIVITY Real Section 3.1 0.9
ID* Character Section 3.1
MATERIAL* Character Section 3.1
SPECIFIC_HEAT* Real Section 3.1 kJ/(kg·K)
THICKNESS* Real Section 3.1 m
a * indicates a required input for each MATL input included in the input file.

Example:

&MATL ID = 'CONCRETE', CONDUCTIVITY = 1.75, SPECIFIC_HEAT = 1.,

DENSITY = 2200., EMISSIVITY = 0.94, THICKNESS = 0.15 /

75
B.6 Compartments, Namelist Group COMP

Table B.7: For more information see Section 4.1.

COMP (Compartment Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
CEILING_MATL_ID Character Section 4.2
CROSS_SECT_AREAS a Real Array Section 4.4
CROSS_SECT_HEIGHTS Real Array Section 4.4
DEPTH*b Real Section 4.1 m
FLOOR_MATL_ID Character Section 4.2
GRID Integer Triplet Section 9.2 50,50,50
HALL Logical Section 4.3 .FALSE.
HEIGHT* Real Section 4.1 m
ID* Character Section 4.1
LEAK_AREA Real Doublet Section 4.1 m2 /m2
ORIGIN Real Triplet Section 4.1 m 0,0,0
SHAFT Logical Section 4.3 .FALSE.
TYPE Character Section 4.1
WALL_MATL_ID Character Section 4.2
WIDTH* Real Section 4.1 m
a For compartments where the cross-sectional area varies with height, the inputs, CROSS_SECT_AREAS and
CROSS_SECT_HEIGHTS can be used.
b * indicates a required input for each COMP input included in the input file. At least one COMP input must be
included in an input file.

Example:

&COMP ID = 'Comp 1', WIDTH = 5., DEPTH = 5., HEIGHT = 3.,

ORIGIN = 0., 0., 0., CEILING_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE',
WALL_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE', FLOOR_MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE',
GRID = 50, 50, 50 /

76
B.7 Vents, Namelist Group VENT
B.7.1 Wall Vents,TYPE=’WALL’

Table B.8: For more information see Section 5.1.1.

VENT, TYPE=’WALL’ (Wall Vent Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
BOTTOMa * Real Section 5.1.1 m
COMP_IDS* Character Doublet Section 5.1.1
CRITERIONb Selection List Section 5.1.1
DEVC_ID Character Section 5.1.1
Fc Real Array Section 5.1.1
FACEd Selection List Section 5.1.1
ID* Character Section 5.1.1
OFFSET Real Section 5.1.1 m 0
PRE_FRACTIONe Real Section 5.1.1 m 1
POST_FRACTION Real Section 5.1.1 m 1
SETPOINT Real Section 5.1.1 s | ◦ C | kW/m2
T Real Array Section 5.1.1
TYPEf * Selection List Section B.7
TOP* Real Section 5.1.1 m
WIDTH* Real Section 5.1.1 m
a * indicates a required input for each wall VENT input included in the input file.
b Input for CRITERION must be FLUX, TEMPERATURE, or TIME. An associated SETPOINT is required.
For FLUX or TEMPERATURE, an associated ignition target must be specified by DEVC_ID.
c Specifies the fraction of vent width for wall vents as a function of time and is only applicable when CRITERION

is set to TIME. Must also include T.

d Input for FACE must be RIGHT, FRONT, LEFT, or REAR. Both FACE and OFFSET positioning refer to the

first compartment specified (COMP_IDS(1)).

e PRE_FRACTION and POST_FRACTION specify the vent fraction before and after the SETPOINT is

reached when CRITERION is either TEMPERATURE or FLUX. They cannot be used with F and T.
f Input for TYPE must be WALL to specify a wall vent.

Wall vents (TYPE=’WALL’) are defined by BOTTOM, TOP, and WIDTH. Location of the vent for
visualization is defined by FACE, and OFFSET.

Example:

&VENT TYPE = 'WALL', ID = 'HVENT 1', COMP_IDS = 'Comp 1', 'OUTSIDE',

WIDTH = 1., TOP = 2., BOTTOM = 0.,
OFFSET = 2., FACE = 'FRONT' /

77
B.7.2 Ceiling / Floor Vents,TYPE=’CEILING’ or TYPE=’FLOOR’

Table B.9: For more information see Section 5.1.1.

VENT, TYPE=’CEILING’ or TYPE=’FLOOR’ (Ceiling/Floor Vent Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
AREAa * Real Section 5.1.2 m2
COMP_IDS* Character Doublet Section 5.1.1
CRITERIONb Selection List Section 5.1.1
DEVC_ID Character Section 5.1.1
Fc Real Array Section 5.1.1
ID* Character Section 5.1.1
OFFSETS Real Doublet Section 5.1.1 m 0,0
PRE_FRACTIONd Real Section 5.1.1 m 1
POST_FRACTION Real Section 5.1.1 m 1
SHAPE*e Selection List Section 5.1.2
T Real Array Section 5.1.1
TYPEf * Selection List Section B.7
a * indicates a required input for each ceiling/floor VENT input included in the input file.
b Input for CRITERION must be FLUX, TEMPERATURE, or TIME. An associated SETPOINT is required.
For FLUX or TEMPERATURE, an associated ignition target must be specified by DEVC_ID.
c Specifies the fraction of vent width for wall vents as a function of time and is only applicable when CRITERION

is set to TIME. Must also include T.

d PRE_FRACTION and POST_FRACTION specify the vent fraction before and after the SETPOINT is

reached when CRITERION is either TEMPERATURE or FLUX. They cannot be used with F and T.
e Input for SHAPE must be ROUND or SQUARE.
f Input for TYPE must be CEILING or FLOOR for ceiling and floor vents. These may be used interchangeably.

The order of COMP_IDS specifies the location of the vent with COMP_IDS(1) specifying the top compartment
and COMP_IDS(2) specifying the bottom compartment.

Ceiling and floor vents (TYPE=’CEILING’ or TYPE=’FLOOR’) are defined by AREA and
SHAPE. Location of the vent for visualization is defined by OFFSETS as the distance from the
compartment origin in the X (width) and Y (depth) direction. It is visualized on the floor of
COMP_IDS(1).

Example:

&VENT TYPE = 'CEILING', ID = 'VVENT 1', COMP_IDS = 'Comp 3', 'Comp 2',
AREA = 1., SHAPE = 'ROUND', CRITERION= 'TIME',
T = 0., 100., 500.,
F = 0., 0.5, 1. /

78
B.7.3 Mechanical Vents,TYPE=’MECHANICAL’

Table B.10: For more information see Section 5.1.1.

VENT, TYPE=’MECHANICAL’ (Mechanical Vent Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
AREASa * Real Doublet Section 5.2.1 m2
COMP_IDS* Character Doublet Section 5.1.1
CRITERIONb Selection List Section 5.1.1
CUTOFFS Real Doublet Section 5.2.2 Pa 200.,300.
DEVC_ID Character Section 5.1.1
Fc Real Array Section 5.1.1
FILTER_TIME Real Section 5.1.1 s 0
FILTER_EFFICIENCY Real Section 5.1.1 % removed 0.0
FLOW* Real Section 5.2.2 m3 /s
HEIGHTS* Real Doublet Section 5.2.1 m
ID* Character Section 5.1.1
OFFSETS Real Doublet Section 5.1.1 m 0.,0.
ORIENTATIONSd Selection List Doublet Section 5.1.1 VERTICAL,VERTICAL

PRE_FRACTIONe Real Section 5.1.1 m 1

POST_FRACTION Real Section 5.1.1 m 1
SETPOINT Real Section 5.1.1 s | ◦ C | kW/m2
T Real Array Section 5.1.1
TYPEf * Selection List Section B.7
a * indicates a required input for each mechanical VENT input included in the input file.
b Input for CRITERION must be FLUX, TEMPERATURE, or TIME. An associated SETPOINT is required.
For FLUX or TEMPERATURE, an associated ignition target must be specified by DEVC_ID.
c Specifies the fraction of vent width for wall vents as a function of time and is only applicable when CRITERION

is set to TIME. Must also include T.

d Input for ORIENTATION must be HORIZONTAL or VERTICAL
e PRE_FRACTION and POST_FRACTION specify the vent fraction before and after the SETPOINT is

reached when CRITERION is either TEMPERATURE or FLUX. They cannot be used with F and T.
f Input for TYPE must be MECHANICAL for mechanical vents.

Mechanical vents TYPE=’MECHANICAL’ are defined by AREAS, CUTOFFS, FLOW, and

HEIGHTS. Location of the vent for visualization is defined by ORIENTATION and OFFSETS
as the distance from the compartment origin in the X (width) and Y (depth) direction and by
HEIGHTS(1) in the z direction.

Example:

&VENT TYPE = 'MECHANICAL', ID = 'MVENT_1',

COMP_IDS = 'OUTSIDE', 'Comp 1', AREAS = 0.25, 0.25,
HEIGHTS = 2.75, 2.75, FLOW = 0.02,

79
CUTOFFS = 200., 300., ORIENTATION='VERTICAL', OFFSETS = 0., 4. /

80
B.8 Fires, Namelist Groups FIRE, CHEM, and TABL

Table B.11: For more information see Section 6.1.

FIRE (Individual Instance of a Fire Object)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
COMP_IDa * Character Section 6.1
DEVC_ID Character Section 6.1
FIRE_ID* Character Section 6.1
ID* Character Section 6.1
IGNITION_CRITERIONb Selection List Section 6.1 TIME
LOCATION* Real Pair Section 6.1 m
SETPOINT Real Section 6.1 s | ◦ C | kW/m2 0s
a * indicates a required input for each FIRE input included in the input file.
b for IGNITION_CRITERION inputs must beTIME,TEMPERTURE, or FLUX

Table B.12: For more information see Section 6.1.

CHEM (Fire Chemistry Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
CARBON Real Section 6.1 1
CHLORINE Real Section 6.1 0
FLAMING_TRANSITION_TIME Real Section 6.1 0
HEAT_OF_COMBUSTION Real Section 6.1 kJ/kg 50000
HYDROGEN Real Section 6.1 4
IDa * Character Section 6.1
NITROGEN Real Section 6.1 0
OXYGEN Real Section 6.1 0
RADIATIVE_FRACTION Real Section 6.1 0.35
a * indicates a required input for each CHEM input included in the input file.

Table B.13: For more information see Section 6.1.

TABL (Time-Based Fire Chemistry Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
LABELS Character Array Section 6.1
IDa * Character Section 6.1
DATA Real Array Section 6.1
a * indicates a required input for each TABL input included in the input file.

81
Example:

&FIRE ID = 'Wood_Wall'
COMP_ID = 'Comp 2', FIRE_ID = 'Wood_Wall_Fire'
LOCATION = 2.5, 5 /
&CHEM ID = 'Wood_Wall_Fire'
CARBON = 6, CHLORINE = 0, HYDROGEN = 10, NITROGEN = 0, OXYGEN = 5
HEAT_OF_COMBUSTION = 18100, RADIATIVE_FRACTION = 0.33 /
&TABL ID = 'Wood_Wall_Fire', LABELS = 'TIME', 'HRR', 'HEIGHT', 'AREA',
'CO_YIELD', 'SOOT_YIELD' /
&TABL ID = 'Wood_Wall_Fire', DATA = 0, 0, 0, 0.05,
0.00617, 0.015 /
&TABL ID = 'Wood_Wall_Fire', DATA = 8000, 1000, 3, 9,
0.00617, 0.015 /

82
B.9 Devices, Namelist Group DEVC

Table B.14: For more information see Section 7.

DEVC (Device Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
ADIABATIC_TARGETa Logical Section 7 .FALSE.
CONVECTION_COEFFICENTS Real Doublet Section 7 kW/(m2 ·K) 0, 0
COMP_ID*b Character Section 7
ID* Character Section 7
DEPTH_UNITS Character Section 7 none or m FRACTION
TEMPERATURE_DEPTH Real Section 7 0.5
LOCATION* Real Triplet Section 7 m
MATL_ID Character Section 7
NORMAL Real Triplet Section 7 0,0,1
√
RTI Real Section 7.2 m·s 130
SETPOINT Real Section 7 ◦ C or %/m see footnotec
SETPOINTS Real Doublet Section 7 %/m see footnoted
SPRAY_DENSITY Real Section 7.2 m/s
TYPE* Selection List Section 7
a If included, inputs for CONVECTION_COEFFICENTS are required.
b * indicates a required input for each DEVC input included in the input file. Additional inputs may be required
depending on the type of device.
c For smoke detectors, the input is obscuration with a default value of 23.93 %/m (8 %/ft); for heat detectors,

temperature with a default value of 57 ◦ C (135 ◦ F); and for sprinklers, temperature with a default value of 74 ◦ C (165
◦ F).
d For smoke detectors, the input is obscuration with a default value of 23.93 %/m (8 %/ft) for both smoldering and

flaming smoke.

PLATE and CYLINDER targets are defined by COMP_ID, TYPE, ID, LOCATION,
TEMPERATURE_DEPTH, DEPTH_UNITSand NORMAL.

A sprinkler is defined by COMP_ID, TYPE, ID, LOCATION, RTI, SETPOINT, and

SPRAY_DENSITY.

A smoke detector is defined by COMP_ID, TYPE, ID, LOCATION, and SETPOINT or

SETPOINTS. The latter tracks smoulder smoke and flaming smoke separately.

A heat detector is defined by COMP_ID, TYPE, ID, LOCATION, RTI, and SETPOINT.

Examples:

&DEVC ID = 'Targ 1', COMP_ID = 'Comp 1', TYPE = 'PLATE',

83
 LOCATION = 2.2, 1.88, 2.34., NORMAL = 0., 0., 1.,
MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE', TEMPERATURE_DEPTH = 0.1, DEPTH_UNITS = 'M' /

&DEVC ID = 'Sprinkler 1', COMP_ID = 'Comp 1',

TYPE = 'SPRINKLER',
LOCATION = 3., 3., 2.97,
SETPOINT = 73.8889, RTI = 100., SPRAY_DENSITY = 7.E-5 /

&DEVC ID = 'Adiabatic Targ', COMP_ID = 'Comp 1', TYPE = 'PLATE',

LOCATION = 2.2, 1.88, 2.34., NORMAL = 0., 0., 1.,
MATL_ID = 'CONCRETE',
ADIABATIC_TARGET = 'TRUE', CONVECTION_COEFFICIENTS = 3.E-3, 5.E-3 /

84
B.10 Compartment Connections, Namelist Group CONN

Table B.15: For more information see Section 8.

CONN (Connection Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
COMP_ID*a Character Section 8
COMP_IDS* Character Array Section 8
F Real Array Section 8
TYPE* b Selection List Section 8
a * indicates a required input for each CONN input included in the input file.
b Input for TYPE must be CEILING, FLOOR, or WALL

Example:

&CONN TYPE = 'FLOOR', COMP_ID = 'Comp 3', COMP_IDS = 'Comp 2' /

85
B.11 Visualization, Namelist Groups ISOF, SLCF
B.11.1 ISOF (Isosurface Parameters)

Table B.16: For more information see Section 9.1.

ISOF (Isosurface Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
COMP_ID*a Character Section 9.1
VALUE* Real Section 9.1 ◦C

a * indicates a required input for each ISOF input included in the input file.

Example:

&ISOF COMP_ID = 'COMP_1', VALUE = 100. /

B.11.2 SLCF (Slice File Parameters)

Table B.17: For more information see Section 9.1.

SLCF (Slice File Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
COMP_IDa * Character Section 9.1
DOMAIN*b Selection List Section 9.1
PLANE Selection List Section 9.1
POSITION Real Section 9.1
a * indicates a required input for each SLCF input included in the input file. All inputs are required for a 2-D
domain slice file.
b DOMAIN must be 2-D or 3-D. If 2-D, PLANE specifies the orientation of the slice in the X, Y, or Z direction

and POSITION specifies the offset from the origin of the specified plane.

Example:

&SLCF DOMAIN = '2-D', PLANE = 'X', POSITION = 2.5 /

86
B.12 DIAG (Diagnostic Parameters)
These inputs are for internal diagnostic purposes used to test and verify specific model functions.
They are included in this appendix for completeness but are never used in typical CFAST scenarios.

Table B.18

DIAG (Diagnostic Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
ADIABATIC_TARGET_VERIFICATIONa b Selection List OFF
CEILING_JET_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
CONDUCTION_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
CONVECTION_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
DASSL_DEBUG_PRINTa Selection List OFF
DEBUG_PRINTa Selection List OFF
DOOR_JET_FIRE_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
ENTRAINMENT_SUB_MODEL a Selection List ON
Fc Real Array ◦C

FIRE_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON

GAS_TEMPERATUREd Real ◦C

GAS_ABSORPTION_SUB_MODELe Selection List CALCULATED

HORIZONTAL_FLOW_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
KEYBOARD_INPUTa Selection List ON
LAYER_MIXING_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
MECHANICAL_FLOW_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
OXYGEN_TRACKINGa Selection List OFF
PARTIAL_PRESSURE_COd Real Pa
PARTIAL_PRESSURE_H2Od Real Pa
RADIATIVE_INCIDIENT_FLUX Real kW/m2 0
RADIATION_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
RADSOLVERf Selection List DEFAULT
RESIDUAL_DEBUG_PRINTa Selection List OFF
STEADY_STATE_INTIAL_CONDITIONSa Selection List OFF
Tc Real Array s
VERTICAL_FLOW_SUB_MODELa Selection List ON
a If included, must be either ON or OFF
b If ON, RADIATIVE_INCIDIENT_FLUX is required.
c If included, both F and T are required.
d If included, GAS_TEMPERATURE, PARTIAL_PRESSURE_H2O, and PARTIAL_PRESSURE_CO are

all required.
e GAS_ABSORPTION, if included, must be either CALCULATED or CONSTANT
f RADSOLVER, if included, must be either DEFAULT or RADNET.

87
B.13 Custom Output and Post-run Calculations
CFAST has the ability to calculate user-specified summary statistics at the end of a model run.
These are intended for large sets of similar runs where the user wants to perform comparative anal-
yses on the results of hundreds or thousands of calculations. Although not supported for detailed
input in CEdit, they can be added to a file and preserved when read and write in CEdit.

Table B.19

DUMP (Output and Post-Run Calculation Parameters)

Parameter Type Reference Units Default Value
ID Character
FILE_TYPE a Selection List
TYPE b Selection List
CRITERIA Real
FIRST_DEVICE Character
FIRST_MEASUREMENT Character
SECOND_DEVICE Character
SECOND_MEASUREMENT Character
a FILE_TYPE must be one of the CFAST spreadsheet outputs:
NORMAL, FLOW, MASS, SPECIES, or WALL.
b TYPE must be TRIGGER_GREATER, TRIGGER_LESSER, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, INTEGRATE, or
CHECK_TOTAL_HRR

Example:

&DUMP ID = 'Total Time Completed'

FILE_TYPE = 'DEVICES' TYPE = 'MAXIMUM'
FIRST_DEVICE = 'Time' FIRST_MEASUREMENT = 'Simulation Time' /
&DUMP ID = 'Fire Room Ion Detector'
FILE_TYPE = 'DEVICES' TYPE = 'TRIGGER_GREATER' CRITERIA = 1
FIRST_DEVICE = 'Time' FIRST_MEASUREMENT = 'Simulation Time'
SECOND_DEVICE = 'Ionization Detector Room 1' SECOND_MEASUREMENT =
'Sensor Activation' /

88
Appendix C

CFAST Spreadsheet Outputs

At the user’s option, CFAST outputs simulation results to one or more comma-delimited spread-
sheets for further analysis by the user. The following table details all the possible outputs cate-
gorized by the physical object that is being represented in the model (here termed measurement
‘devices’) and one or more measurements associated with that device.

89
 Table C.1

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Device Measurement Notes Default Spreadsheet
Compartments Upper Layer Temperature Device is identified by user- _compartments.csv
specified compartment ID
Lower Layer Temperature
Layer Height
Upper Layer Volume
Lower Layer Volume
Pressure
Ceiling Temperature
Upper Wall Temperature
Lower Wall Temperature

90
Floor Temperature
CO2 Upper Layer
CO2 Lower Layer
CO Upper Layer
CO Lower Layer
HCN Upper Layer
HCN Lower Layer
HCL Upper Layer
HCL Lower Layer
Unburned Fuel Upper Layer
Unburned Fuel Lower Layer
H2O Upper Layer
H2O Lower Layer
Optical Density Upper Layer
Optical Density Lower Layer
OD from Flaming Upper Layer
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

OD from Flaming Lower Layer
OD from Smoldering Upper Layer
OD from Smoldering Lower Layer
CO2 Upper Layer Mass
CO2 Lower Layer Mass
CO Upper Layer Mass
CO Lower Layer Mass
HCN Upper Layer Mass
HCN Lower Layer Mass
HCL Upper Layer Mass
HCL Lower Layer Mass
Unburned Fuel Upper Layer Mass
Unburned Fuel Lower Layer Mass

91
H2O Upper Layer Mass
H2O Lower Layer Mass
Soot Upper Layer Mass
Soot Lower Layer Mass
Soot from Flaming Upper Layer Mass
Soot from Flaming Lower Layer Mass
Soot from Smoldering Upper Layer Mass
Soot from Smoldering Lower Layer Mass
Potential Total Heat Upper Layer -V option only
Potential Total Heat Lower Layer -V option only
Potential CO2 Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential CO2 Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential CO Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential CO Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Total Heat Upper Layer -V option only
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Potential Total Heat Lower Layer -V option only
Potential HCN Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential HCN Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential HCL Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential HCL Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential H2O Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential H2O Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot from Flaming Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot from Flaming Lower Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot from Smoldering Upper Layer Mass -V option only
Potential Soot from Smoldering Lower Layer Mass -V option only

92
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Vents Net Inflow _vents
Total Inflow Upper
Total Inflow Lower
Total Outflow Upper
Total Outflow Lower
Opening Fraction
Trace Species Flow
Trace Species Filtered

93
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Fires Ignition Device is identified by user- _fires
specified fire ID
Plume Entrainment Rate
Pyrolysis Rate
HRR Expected
HRR Actual
HRR Convective Actual
HRR Upper Actual
HRR Lower Actual
Flame Height
HRR Door Jet Fires
Total Pyrolysate Released
Total Trace Species Released

94
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Targets Target Surrounding Gas Temperature Device is identified by user- _devices
specified target ID
Target Surface Temperature
Target Internal Temperature
Target Incident Flux
Back Target Incident Flux
Target Net Flux
Back Target Net Flux
Target Gas FED
Target Gas FED Increment
Target Heat FED
Target Heat FED Increment
Target Obscuration

95
Target Radiative Flux -V option only
Back Target Radiative Flux -V option only
Target Convective Flux -V option only
Back Target Convective Flux -V option only
Target Radiative Fire Flux -V option only
Back Target Radiative Fire Flux -V option only
Target Surface Radiative Flux -V option only
Back Target Surface Radiative Flux -V option only
Target Gas Radiative Flux -V option only
Back Gas Target Radiative Flux -V option only
Target Radiative Loss Flux -V option only
Back Target Radiative Loss Flux -V option only
Target Total Gauge Flux -V option only
Back Target Total Gauge Flux -V option only
Target Radiative Gauge Flux -V option only
 Table C.1: Continued

DUMP (Spreadsheet Outputs)

Back Target Radiative Gauge Flux -V option only
Target Convective Gauge Flux -V option only
Back Target Convective Gauge Flux -V option only
Target Radiative Loss Gauge Flux -V option only
Back Target Radiative Loss Gauge Flux -V option only

Detectors Sensor Surrounding Gas Temperature Device is identified by user- _devices

specified detector ID
Sensor Surrounding Gas Velocity
Sensor Obscuration
Sensor Temperature
Sensor Activation

96
Appendix D

Running CFAST from a Command Prompt

The model CFAST can also be run from a Windows command prompt. CFAST can be run from
any folder, and refer to a data file in any other folder. The fires and thermophysical properties have
to be in either the data folder, or the executable folder. The data folder is checked first and then the
executable folder.

[drive1:\][folder1\]cfast [drive2:\][folder2\]project

The project name will have extensions appended as needed (see below). For example, to run a
test case when the CFAST executable is located in c:\firemodels\cfast7 and the input data file is
located in c:\data, the following command could be used:

c:\firemodels\cfast7\cfast c:\data\testfire0 <<< note that the extension is

optional.

Command line options

• -k - no interactive keyboard access

• -i - initialization only

• -c - compact output

• -f - full output (c and f are exclusive). Note the interaction of the f and c option. The default
for the console output is /c. The default for the file output is /f. This default action can be
overwritten by explicitly including the /f or /c option.

• -n - net heat flux option

• -v - validation output (outputs a modified set of spreadsheet files with different column headers
designed to facilitate automated analysis of the output)

97