Versatile construction geometry

[kowalskiw]

Two staged plane solution Actually used in MZ. The most affected beam is chosen in two stages. First, program chooses beam level, which is nearest to the fire Z coordinate. Next, specific beam, which plane distance to the fire (XY plane) is shortest. The above methodology is proper as long as construction is repetitive on each level.

Equation solution In case of irregular construction as not post and beam structures two-staged plane solution is not enough. There is a need to calculate spacial (XYZ) distance between fire origin point and set of elements considered to be the most affected one. One possible solution is to implement linear structure elements as mathematical objects i.e. lines, circles, ellipses, arches. XEL file will rather consist of set of equations' parameters than structured data of each beam or column. That solution has one more advantage: allows to implement structure in more than three (XY, YZ, XZ) planes. The fastest method of choosing the most affected (the nearest to the fire) element still needs to be considered.

[kowalskiw]

Node-like method Discretization of elements allows to simply calculate distance to each node. The shortest node-fire distance is attached to the element as specific distance value. Next, distance values of set of elements are compared and the nearest element is chosen. Easy to implement, working with any type of element. Needs many calculations (for each node of each element); resolution of discretization has to be low enough (like 0.05m or less).

[kowalskiw]

Cone method Using length of flame and fire dimension ratio the unit cone is constructed. While scaling the cone program checks if any element consists in the cone's surface or not. When more than one point of element consist in surface binary search is conducted in order to find convergence (one common point for either surface or element). Interpolate two points if convergence not found in specific resolution. No need to calculate through all elements; more adequate to conical flame spread implemented in OZone, work with any type of element. Complex code to implement.

[kowalskiw]

Shell Consider reducing 'compartment' geometry to shell dimensions. It would take into account heating up by hot gases also elements beneath the shell. So far only elements right beneath the ceiling are heated by upper layer.

[kowalskiw]

DXF format Using DXF format instead of XEL (JSON-like) allows to draw geometry in plenty of tools like CAD software. Also GiD (used in FEM analysis) supports export of geometry to DXF file. DXF seems to be easy to parse. shapely package would allow to handle complex geometries and construction mapping.