Numerical experiments and compartment fires

Fires are complex and it is hard to derive relationships from theory in fire science. Full-scale and small-scale experiments have been used with great success in order to increase the understanding of fire chemistry and fire dynamics. An alternative or complement to these often expensive and resource demanding traditional experiments are numerical experiments. In this paper, numerical experiments are reviewed as a research method and put into the context of traditional compartment fire experiments. Benefits and challenges with numerical experiments compared to traditional compartment fire experiments are presented and discussed in this paper. Numerical experiments are a promising method in fire science research. However, it is currently not considered satisfying to solely use a numerical experiment to study a certain fire phenomena. Different experimental methods should not be regarded as competitive but as complementary, and a combination of traditional and numerical experimental methods are in many cases appropriate in order to analysis a certain fire phenomena.