Interactive 3D Modeling Simulation and Visualization for Zone-based

Models in Fire Probabilistic Risk Analysis

RAMPRASAD SAMPATH1, NIELS MONTANARI2,
STEVEN PRESCOTT3 and ROBBY CHRISTIAN4
1
Centroid Lab, Los Angeles, CA, USA ram@centroidlab.com
2
Centroid Lab, Los Angeles, CA, USA niels@centroidlab.com
3
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA steven.prescott@inl.gov
4
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA robby.christian@inl.gov
A considerable amount of time and effort is required to perform Fire Probabilistic Risk
Assessment (PRA) activities ranging from the identification and modeling of all necessary
components and possible ignition sources within the plant, to the characterization of the fire
risks. In practice, spatial information and relationships are limited and simplified, in order to
minimize the modeling effort. Consequently, the level of conservatism in current PRA tends to
be exaggerated.

This effort outlines an interactive methodology for automating Fire PRA with fire dynamics
code. It interfaces with the various plant databases, fire databases and adds three-dimensional
(3D) model information to the logical PRA elements. The relationships between fire
compartments, fire scenarios and other PRA elements are maintained and displayed in a
hierarchical manner. An advanced graphical user-interface makes it possible to interactively edit
and manipulate the compartments, vents and plant items in 3D with minimal effort. Once the
information is seamlessly fed to CFAST (Reneke, Peacock, Gilbert, & Cleary, 2021) and upon
completion of the simulation, the method processes CFAST output data to highlight failed
equipment and times, simultaneously visualizing various fields of interest resulting from the
simulation. The result also generates and visualizes cable failures by coupling the simulations
with other common methodologies like THIEF (McGrattan, 2008) which are injected into the
relational database indicating failure scenarios. The failure scenarios could be used for
subsequent PRA analysis for event trees and fault trees.

The use of a 3D environment eases the process of incorporating changes into a given fire
compartment or fire scenario thereby enabling sensitivity studies to be performed at ease. The
Fire risk analyst specialist could quickly identify what is impacted, why and when. The realism
of the fire PRA would be improved, thereby reducing user errors by automation. This
methodology would likely provide a time and cost benefit to the end user.
Keywords: fire, probabilistic risk assessment, 3D, modeling, visualization, user-interface, CFAST.
References

McGrattan, K. (2008). Cable Response to Live Fire (CAROLFIRE) Volume 3: Thermally-Induced

Electrical Failure (THIEF) Model., NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR. Cable
Response to Live Fire (CAROLFIRE) Volume 3: Thermally-Induced Electrical Failure
(THIEF) Model., NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR. Gaithersburg, MD: National
Institute of Standards and Technology. doi:10.6028/NIST.IR.7472
Reneke, P., Peacock, R., Gilbert, S., & Cleary, T. (2021). CFAST - Consolidated Fire and Smoke
Transport (Version 7) Volume 5: CFAST Fire Data Generator (CData). CFAST -
Consolidated Fire and Smoke Transport (Version 7) Volume 5: CFAST Fire Data Generator
(CData). Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD. doi:https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1889v5
2