FDS Mesh Size Calculator - Kristopher Overholt

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FDS Mesh Size Calculator

NOTE: You should always perform a grid sensitivity analysis and verify the grid resolution
yourself. This calculator should only be used as a guide / rule of thumb!

Enter the x, y, z dimensions (meters) and your

expected HRR

Xmin

Xmax

Ymin

Ymax

Zmin

Zmax

Heat Release Rate (Q)

kW

Density (p)

1.204

kg / m3

Specific Heat (cp)

1.005

kJ / kg-K

Ambient Temperature (T)

293

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FDS Mesh Size Calculator - Kristopher Overholt

Gravity (g)

9.81

m / s2

Calculate suggested cell sizes

To use the old MESH Size Calculator, click here

About this tool

This tool allows you to easily generate a MESH line for input into Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). It
automatically calculates the optimal (Poisson-friendly) mesh division numbers and returns a complete
MESH line to be used in an FDS input fle. The cell sizes are determined using the characteristic fre
diameter and cell size ratio that should accurately resolve your fre simulation based on the total heat
release rate.

Background
The cell size (dx) for a given simulation can be related to the characteristic fre diameter (D*), i.e., the
smaller the characteristic fre diamater, the smaller the cell size should be in order to adequately resolve
the fuid fow and fre dynamics.
The characteristic fre diameter (D*) is given by the following relationship:

http://www.koverholt.com/fds-mesh-size-calc/[05/07/2015 15:39:02]

FDS Mesh Size Calculator - Kristopher Overholt

A reference within the FDS User Guide (Verifcation and Validation of Selected Fire Models for Nuclear
Power Plant Applications. NUREG 1824, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2007) used a
D*/dx ratio between 4 and 16 to accurately resolve fres in various scenarios. From the FDS User Guide:
These values were used to adequately resolve plume dynamics, along with other geometrical
characteristics of the models as well. This range does not indicate what values to use for all models,
only what values worked well for that particular set of models.
For more information, see the FDS User Guide Section 6.3 or visit the offcial NIST FDS Website.
The FDS Mesh Size Calculator is powered by the free and open source tool Python, and the source
code is freely available here.
Please contact me regarding any bug reports or comments.

About
I am a software engineer at Continuum Analytics who works with scientifc software development
and scientifc computing.

@koverholt
Tweets by @koverholt

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http://www.koverholt.com/fds-mesh-size-calc/[05/07/2015 15:39:02]

FDS Mesh Size Calculator - Kristopher Overholt

2015
Kristopher Overholt

http://www.koverholt.com/fds-mesh-size-calc/[05/07/2015 15:39:02]