Objective When a fire occurs in the multi-storey dwelling section of a ship, the temperature distribution pattern during the spread of smoke along corridors and ladder openings is significantly different from that of a building fire. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the characteristics of fire smoke in crew cabins.
Methods An experimental study on the temperature distribution characteristics of fire smoke in single and multi-storey corridors is carried out in a 1︰5 scaled down ship model by changing the size of the heptane oil pool and the states of ladder openings.
Results In the case of a single-storey spread of fire smoke, the vertical temperature distribution in the corridor shows an obvious thermal stratification phenomenon with a height of over 0.4 m. In the case of a multi-storey spread, the vertical temperature gradient in the corridors is lowered and the thermal stratification height is reduced to 0.2 m or less; the vertical thermal stratification height within the corridors is reduced at corners and turnouts; the smoke temperature continues to decrease during horizontal spreading; and the temperature distribution satisfies the exponential decay law.
Conclusions The thermal stratification height in a multi-storey corridor is significantly reduced compared with a single-storey spread of fire smoke, and the temperature attenuation coefficient k in the horizontal spread process increases as the size of the fire source increases. The results of this study can provide theoretical support for the fire risk assessment and fire protection design of ships.
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