Study of Fire Propagation and Soot Flow in a Pantry Car of Railway Locomotive

Fire accidents in trains bring huge disaster to human
life and property. Evacuation becomes a major challenge in such
incidents owing to confined spaces, large passenger density and
trains moving at high speeds. The pantry car in Indian Railways
trains carry inflammable materials like cooking fuel and LPG and
electrical fittings. The pantry car is therefore highly susceptible to
fire accidents. Numerical simulations have been done in a pantry car
of Indian locomotive train using computational fluid dynamics based
software. Different scenarios of a fire outbreak have been explored
by varying Heat Release Rate per Unit Area (HRRPUA) of the fire
source, introduction of exhaust in the cooking area, and taking a
case of an air conditioned pantry car. Temporal statures of flame and
soot have been obtained for each scenario and differences have been
studied and reported. Inputs from this study can be used to assess
casualties in fire accidents in locomotive trains and development of
smoke control/detection systems in Indian trains.

Authors:

• Juhi Kaushik
• Abhishek Agarwal
• Manoj Sarda
• Vatsal Sanjay
• Arup Kumar Das

Keywords:

• Fire propagation
• flame contour
• pantry fire
• soot flow.

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