Transport and dispersion of fire extinguishing agents downstream from clutter elements of aircraft engine nacelles

The combination of highly turbulent airflow, flammable fluids, and numerous ignition sources makes aircraft engine nacelles a difficult fire zone to protect. Better understanding of nacelle air flow and how it influences the spread of fires and fire extinguishing agents is needed to improve the efficiency of fire suppression. The first objective was to establish a CFD model for a flow field test section to analyze the transport and dispersion of fire extinguishing agents in the presence of various clutter elements. To validate the use of the CFD model, the simulation results of the CFD model were compared to the experimental data and they show an agreement with the experimental data. The second objective was to present parametric studies to show the effects of the coflow speed, turbulence intensity and agent droplet size on the transport and dispersion of the agent particles downstream from the clutter elements.