NIST Special Publication 1034

CFAST – Consolidated Model of Fire

Growth and Smoke Transport

(Version 5)

User’s Guide

Richard D. Peacock

Walter W. Jones

Glenn P. Forney

CFAST – Consolidated Model of Fire

Growth and Smoke Transport

(Version 5)

User’s Guide

Richard D. Peacock

Walter W. Jones

Glenn P. Forney

Fire Research Division

Building and Fire Research Laboratory

December 2004

U.S. Department of Commerce

Donald L. Evans, Secretary

Technology Administration

Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary for Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Arden L. Bement, Jr., Director
Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document

in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification

is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of

Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or

equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 1034

Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Spec. Pub. 1034, 109 pages (December 2004)

CODEN: NSPUE2

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 2004

_________________________________________

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov — Phone: (202) 512-1800 — Fax: (202) 512-2250

Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001
iii

Bibliographic Information

Abstract

CFAST is a two-zone fire model capable of predicting the environment in a multi-compartment

structure subjected to a fire. It calculates the time evolving distribution of smoke and gaseous

combustion products as well as the temperature throughout a building during a user-prescribed

fire. This report describes the use of the model, including installing and running the software, the

computer platforms upon which it is supported and examples to verify correct installation.

Keywords

Fire growth, smoke transport, computer models, fire models, fire research, hazard assessment,

toxicity
iv

DISCLAIMER

The U. S. Department of Commerce makes no warranty, expressed or implied, to users of -

CFAST and associated computer programs, and accepts no responsibility for its use. Users of

CFAST assume sole responsibility under Federal law for determining the appropriateness of its

use in any particular application; for any conclusions drawn from the results of its use; and for

any actions taken or not taken as a result of analyses performed using these tools.

Users are warned that CFAST is intended for use only by those competent in the field of fire

safety and is intended only to supplement the informed judgment of the qualified user. The

software package is a computer model which may or may not have predictive value when

applied to a specific set of factual circumstances. Lack of accurate predictions by the model

could lead to erroneous conclusions with regard to fire safety. All results should be evaluated by

an informed user.

INTENT AND USE

The algorithms, procedures, and computer programs described in this report constitute a

methodology for predicting some of the consequences resulting from a prescribed fire. They

have been compiled from the best knowledge and understanding currently available, but have

important limitations that must be understood and considered by the user. The program is

intended for use by persons competent in the field of fire safety and with some familiarity with

personal computers. It is intended as an aid in the fire safety decision-making process.
v

Contents

Contents .................................................................... v

Tables ..................................................................... vii

1 Introduction ............................................................... 1

2 Getting Started ............................................................. 3

2.1 How to Get CFAST ................................................... 3

2.2 Computer Hardware Requirements ....................................... 3

2.3 Computer Operating System and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.4 Verifying Correct Installation and Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Running CFAST ............................................................ 5

3.1 Creating a CFAST Input Data File ........................................ 5

3.2 File Naming and Location .............................................. 5

3.3 Starting a CFAST Calculation ........................................... 6

3.4 Monitoring Calculation Progress ......................................... 7

3.5 Model Output Options ................................................. 8

3.5.1 Graphical Output: How to Run TOSMOKEVIEW: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.5.2 Text Output: How to Run REPORT and REPORTSS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Setting Up the Input File for CFAST .......................................... 11

4.1 Overview .......................................................... 11

4.2 Preliminaries ....................................................... 12

4.2.1 Naming The Calculation ...................................... 12

4.2.2 Setting Time Limits and Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.2.3 Input and Output Files ........................................ 14

4.2.4 Ambient Conditions .......................................... 17

4.3 Compartment Geometry ............................................... 20

4.3.1 Defining Compartment Size and Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.2 Modeling the Compartment as a Tall Shaft or Long Corridor . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.4 Properties of Bounding Surfaces ........................................ 25

4.4.1 Thermal Properties of Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.4.2 Assigning Boundaries to Compartments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.5 Compartment Connections ............................................ 28

4.5.1 Defining Horizontal Natural Flow Connections (Doors, Windows) . . . . . 29
vi

4.5.2 Defining Vertical Natural Flow Connections (Ceiling or Floor Holes,

Hatches) .................................................. 32

4.5.3 Defining Mechanical Ventilation Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.6 Prescribing Fires .................................................... 39

4.6.1 Defining the Main Fire and Time-Dependent Fire Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4.6.2 Prescribing Additional Burning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.7 Special Features ..................................................... 51

4.7.1 Defining Targets ............................................. 51

4.7.2 Sprinklers and Detectors ...................................... 55

4.7.3 Defining Compartment Area .................................... 57

4.7.4 Inter-compartment Heat Transfer (Conduction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

4.7.5 The Ceiling Jet - An Additional Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

4.7.6 Utility Commands ........................................... 64

4.8 Scenario and Software Limits .......................................... 67

5 Output ................................................................... 69

5.1 Overview .......................................................... 69

5.1.1 Detailed Outputs ............................................ 70

5.1.2 Output for Option /R:I ........................................ 70

5.1.3 Output for Option /R:N ....................................... 76

5.1.4 Output for Option /R:W ....................................... 77

5.1.5 Output for Option /R:S ....................................... 78

5.1.6 Output for Option /R:F........................................ 79

5.2 Spreadsheet Output .................................................. 80

5.3 Error Messages ...................................................... 81

6 Concluding Remarks ....................................................... 87

7 References ................................................................ 89

Appendix A Databases Used by the Model ....................................... 93

A.1 Other Objects ...................................................... 93

A.2 Thermophysical Properties ............................................ 95

Appendix B Initialization Files ................................................ 97

B.1 Solver Initialization ................................................. 97

B.2 Configuration File .................................................. 97

B.3 Setting Options for the Solver (DASSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
vii

Tables

Table 1. The VERSN command (simulation title) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Table 2. The TIMES command (simulation and output times) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Table 3. The OBJFL command (object database file specification) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Table 4. The THRMF command (thermophysical properties database file specification) . . . . . 15

Table 5. The ADUMP command (spreadsheet output) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Table 6. The DUMPR command (binary data output) ................................. 16

Table 7. The RESTR command (simulation restart) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Table 8. The EAMB and TAMB commands (ambient conditions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Table 9. The WIND command (wind speed) ........................................ 19

Table 10. The WIDTH command (compartment width) ............................... 21

Table 11. The DEPTH command (compartment depth) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Table 12. The HEIGH command (compartment height) ............................... 21

Table 13. The HI/F command (floor height) ........................................ 22

Table 14. The CXABS and CYABS commands (compartment position) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Table 15. The SHAFT command (tall compartments) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Table 16. The HALL command (long compartments) ................................. 24

Table 17. Recommended compartment dimension limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Table 18. The CEILI command (ceiling materials) ................................... 26

Table 19. The WALLS command (wall materials) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Table 20. The FLOOR command (floor materials) ................................... 26

Table 21. The HVENT command (doors and windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Table 22. The CVENT command (opening and closing vents) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Table 23. The VVENT command (ceiling or floor holes, hatches) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Table 24. The MVDCT command (mechanical ventilation ductwork) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Table 25. Typical values for duct roughness ........................................ 35

Table 26. The MVOPN command (mechanical ventilation compartment connections) . . . . . . . 37

Table 27. The MVFAN command (mechanical ventilation fans) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Table 29. The LFBO command (main fire location) .................................. 42

Table 30. The LFBT command (fire type) .......................................... 43

Table 31. The CHEMI command (main fire characteristics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Table 32. The FTIME command (main fire timeline) ................................. 45

Table 33. The FHIGH and FPOS commands (main fire position) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Table 34. The FMASS and FQDOT commands (main fire pyrolysis and heat release rates) . . . 47

Table 35. The HCN, HCl, CT, HCR, O2, OD and CO commands (main fire species) . . . . . . . . 47

Table 36. The OBJECT command (secondary fire objects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Table 37. The TARGET command (arbitrarily-placed target objects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Table 38. The TARG command (targets on compartment surfaces) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Table 39. The DETECT command (heat detectors and sprinklers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
viii

Table 40. The ROOMA and ROOMH commands (variable compartment cross-section) . . . . . 58

Table 41. The CFCON command (vertical heat transfer between compartments) . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Table 42. The HHEAT command (horizontal heat transfer between compartments) . . . . . . . . . 62

Table 43. The CJET command (ceiling jet) ......................................... 64

Table 44. The INTER command (set initial interface height) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Table 45. The DTCHE command (set minimum time step and maximum iteration count) . . . . 65

Table 46. The SETP command (set initial parameters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Table 47. The STPMAX command (set maximum time step) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Table 48. Scenario and software limits for the CFAST model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Table 49. CFAST Error Messages ................................................ 82
1

CFAST – Consolidated Model of Fire Growth and

Smoke Transport (Version 5)

User’s Guide

Richard D. Peacock, Walter W. Jones, and Glenn P. Forney

Fire Research Division

Building and Fire Research Laboratory

1 Introduction

CFAST is a two-zone fire model used to calculate the evolving distribution of smoke, fire gases

and temperature throughout compartments of a building during a fire. These can range from very

small containment vessels, on the order of 1 m to large spaces on the order of 1000 m . This 3 3

guide describes how to obtain the model, verify its correct installation, create input data in an

appropriate form, and analyze of the output of a simulation. 

The modeling equations used in CFAST take the mathematical form of an initial value problem

for a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). These equations are derived using the

conservation of mass, the conservation of energy (equivalently the first law of thermodynamics),

the ideal gas law and relations for density and internal energy. These equations predict as

functions of time quantities such as pressure, layer height and temperatures given the

accumulation of mass and enthalpy in the two layers. The CFAST model then consists of a set

of ODEs to compute the environment in each compartment and a collection of algorithms to

compute the mass and enthalpy source terms required by the ODEs. The formulation of the

equations, their solution, and discussion of validation and verification of the code are presented

in a companion document [1].

All of the data to run the model is contained in a primary data file, together with databases for

objects, thermophysical properties of boundaries, and sample prescribed fire descriptions [2].

These files contain information about the building geometry (compartment sizes, materials of

construction, and material properties), connections between compartments (horizontal flow

openings such as doors, windows, vertical flow openings in floors and ceilings, and mechanical

ventilation connections), fire properties (fire size and species production rates as a function of

time), and specifications for detectors, sprinklers, and targets (position, size, heat transfer

characteristics, and flow characteristics for sprinklers). Materials are defined by their thermal

conductivity, specific heat, density, thickness, and burning behavior. Throughout the discussion

on the model inputs, notes are included to provide additional insight on the model’s operation.
2

The output of CFAST are the sensible variables that are needed for assessing the environment in

a building subjected to a fire. These include temperatures of the upper and lower gas layers

within each compartment, the ceiling/wall/floor temperatures within each compartment, the

visible smoke and gas species concentrations within each layer, target temperatures and sprinkler

activation time. 

Many of the outputs from the CFAST model are relatively insensitive to uncertainty in the inputs

for a broad range of scenarios. However, the more precisely the scenario is defined, the more

accurate the results will be. Not surprisingly, the heat release rate is the most important variable

because it provides the driving force for fire-driven flows. Other variables related to

compartment geometry such as compartment height or vent sizes, while important for the model

results, are typically more easily defined for specific design scenarios than fire related inputs. 

The first public release of CFAST was version 1.0 in June of 1990. This version was restructured

from FAST [3] to incorporate the "lessons learned" from the zone model CCFM [4], namely that

modifications and additions to the model are easier and more robust if the components such as

the physical routines are separated from the solver code used by the model. Version 2 was

released as a component of Hazard 1.2 in 1994 [5]. The first of the 3.x series was released in

1995 and included a vertical flame spread algorithm, ceiling jets and nonuniform heat loss to the

ceiling, spot targets, and heating and burning of multiple objects in addition to multiple

prescribed fires. Ignition was assigned based on a critical heat flux, a critical temperature, or a

critical time input by the user. As CFAST evolved over the next five years, version 3 included

smoke and heat detectors, suppression through heat release reduction, better characterization of

flow through doors and windows, vertical heat conduction through ceiling/floor boundaries, and

non-rectangular compartments. In 2000, version 4 was released and included horizontal heat

conduction through walls, and horizontal smoke flow in corridors. Version 5 improved the

combustion chemistry. The current version is 5.1.

The rest of this guide is organized as follows:

 • Chapter 2 describes how to obtain, set up, and install CFAST. Hardware requirements are

included.

 • Chapter 3 summarizes how to create an input file for a desired simulation, run the

program on a Windows PC and monitor progress of the simulation while the program is

running. Software implementation limits and error messages from the program are

described.

 • Chapter 4 details all of the inputs to the model. Default values and limits for the inputs

are included. Notes and limitations on the use of the model are presented where

appropriate.

 • Chapter 5 includes the model outputs and includes a description of each output and its

engineering units.
3

2 Getting Started

The software for the CFAST model is a Fortran 90 computer program that predicts the

environment within compartmented structures resulting from a fire prescribed by the user.

Details of the calculations are described in reference [1].

2.1 How to Get CFAST

All of the files associated with CFAST can be obtained at:

http://fire.nist.gov/cfast

Information about new versions, bug fixes, and documentation for the model and software are

available on this web site. The CFAST distribution consists of a self-extracting set-up program

for Windows-based PCs. After downloading the set-up program to a PC, double-clicking on the

file’s icon walks the user through a series of steps for installation of the program. The most

important part of the installation is the creation of a directory (called c:\nist\cfast5 by default) in

which the CFAST executable files, sample cases, and supplemental data files are installed.

CFAST is documented by two publications, this user’s guide and a technical reference guide [1].

The technical reference guide describes the underlying physical principles, provides a

comparison with other models and includes a description of the limitations of this zone model.

This user’s guide describes how to use the model and applies to version 5 and later. All the

documentation is available on the web site.

2.2 Computer Hardware Requirements

CFAST requires a relatively fast processor and a sufficient amount of random-access memory

(RAM) for complex cases. The processor should be at least as fast as a 1 GHz Pentium III, with

at least 256 MB of memory for complex cases. Typical calculation times for a 2 compartment

scenario can range from a few seconds to multiple hours, depending on the details of the

scenario. Plus, a large hard drive is needed to store the output of calculations. It is not

uncommon for a single calculation to generate output files as large as 1 GB.

2.3 Computer Operating System and Software Requirements

CFAST runs in a command prompt in Microsoft Windows. The latest version of the model has

been tested on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but should also run on any version

beginning with Windows 95.
4

2.4 Verifying Correct Installation and Operation

Sample input files are provided with the program for new users who are encouraged to first run

the sample calculations before attempting to create an input file. To run the model, open a

command prompt window (<START>/<RUN> cmd, in Windows XP) and change directories (“cd”)

to the installation directory, for example, \NIST\CFAST511. Then run the program with the

command

cfast

This runs a very simple test case and it should be completed quickly. Additional details on

running CFAST are included in the next chapter. To verify that the installation has been done

correctly, the first few lines at the beginning and end of the output of the model should appear as

** CFAST Version 5.1.1 Run 10/1/2004 **

 

**  A contribution of the **

** National Institute of Standards and Technology **

** Gaithersburg, MD 20899 **

** Not subject to Copyright **

...

Time = 1800.0 seconds.

Compartment Upper Lower Inter. Pyrol Fire Pressure Ambient

 Temp. Temp. Height Rate Size Target

 (K) (K) (m) (kg/s) (W) (Pa) (W/m^2)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 377.0 303.8 0.72 7.249E-03 1.050E+05-9.484E-02 437. 

Outside 0.00 

The date will change according to when the calculation was run. This case checks several

attributes of the installation including the presence of the database files (see auxiliary files in the

section on building input files). Additional explanation of the results of this run are described in

Chapter 5.

To further verify correct installation, the following commands can be used:

CFAST standard.dat standard.lst /r:winfs

REPORT standard.hi standard.rs

REPORTSS standard.hi standard.csv /r:winfs

This will generate the files standard.hi, standard.lst, standard.rs and standard.csv.

There is a set of equivalent files included with the distribution (named standardd.lst,

standardd.rs, and standardd.csv and are in the data directory of the standard installation,

typically located at c:\nist\cfast511\data), which can be compared to the installation test

results.
5

3 Running CFAST

Running CFAST is relatively simple. All of the parameters that describe a given fire scenario are

typed into a text file that is referred to as the "data" or "input" file. In this document, the data file

is designated as filename.dat, where "filename" stands for any character string that helps to

identify the simulation. All of the output files associated with the calculation would typically

have this common prefix. In addition to the input file, there are often several external files

containing input parameters for the simulation. These files are referred to as "database" files and

contain parameters describing common materials and fuels. 

It is suggested that a new user start with an existing data file, run it as is, and then make the

appropriate changes to the input file for the desired scenario. By running a sample case, the user

becomes familiar with the procedure and ensures that his/her computer is up to the task before

embarking on learning how to create new input files.

3.1 Creating a CFAST Input Data File

All of the data to run the model is contained in an input data file. Also needed are databases for

objects, thermophysical properties of boundaries, and sample prescribed fire descriptions

provided with the model [6]. These files contain information about the building geometry

(compartment sizes, materials of construction, and material properties), connections between

compartments (horizontal flow openings such as doors, windows), vertical flow openings in

floors and ceilings, and mechanical ventilation connections), fire properties (fire size and species

production rates as a function of time), and specifications for detectors, sprinklers, and targets

(position, size, heat transfer characteristics, and flow characteristics for sprinklers). Materials are

defined by their thermal conductivity, specific heat, density, thickness, and burning behavior

(heat release rate, ignition properties, and species yields). 

The input data file provides the program with parameters to describe the scenario under

consideration. The parameters are organized into groups of related variables. Each line of the

input data file contains inputs related to a single group and begins with a keyword that identifies

the input. For example, compartment geometry is described by a set of lines that define the

width (keyword WIDTH), depth (keyword DEPTH), and height (keyword HEIGH) of each

compartment. A description of the input parameters can be found in Chapter 4.

3.2 File Naming and Location

By default, the CFAST installation places all program files in the directory c:\NIST\CFAST511

and sample input data files in the directory c:\NIST\CFAST511\DATA. While these locations can

be changed during installation, the documentation in this user’s guide assumes these locations.
6

File naming conventions in CFAST limit the length of file names to the DOS standard of 8

characters plus a three character extension such as standard.dat. By default, all input data files

are assumed located in the data directory at c:\NIST\CFAST511\DATA and all output files are

written to this directory as well. The location of these files can only be changed by editing the

configuration file, below.

In addition, there are several files that CFAST uses to communicate with its environment. They

include 1) an input data file, required for every simulation, 2) a configuration file, 3) the thermal

properties database, 4) the database of additional fire objects, 5) a history file, and 6) a restart

file. Documentation of the input data file is included as chapter 4 of this user’s guide. The

format of the configuration file, thermal database and objects database are detailed in Appendix

A and Appendix B. Specification of the history and restart file are included in section 4.2.3.

There are defaults for the configuration file, thermal physical database and database of additional

fire objects. The default configuration file is HV5.CF. In this file there is a default data file. If

CFAST is run without arguments, the program will look for HV5.CF and run the data file

specified in the configuration file. The standard distribution specifies standard.dat as the

default data file. The initial instructions for installing and testing the model for correct

installation implies running this test case. Since it is only a 10 second simulation, the scenario

runs very quickly.

3.3 Starting a CFAST Calculation

CFAST is run from a Windows command prompt. To run the model, open a command prompt

window (<START>/<RUN> cmd) and change directories (“cd”) to the installation directory, for

example, \NIST\CFAST511. Then run the program with the command:

CFAST <input file> <output file> <options>

where

<input file> is the name of the input data file that defines the simulation. 

<output file> is the name of the file to which any specified text output will be written. If

omitted, the text output will go directly to the computer screen.

<options> specify any output reporting or other options to control the output of the program. 

The options available are as follows:

/k – directs that CFAST should ignore any input from the keyboard. This option is useful

mainly for running a number of test cases in batch mode
7

/l – directs that CFAST should generate an error log file named CFAST.LOG which

contains detailed debugging information.

/n – directs that CFAST should not print out the normal header to the console at the

beginning of a simulation. This option is useful mainly for running a number of test cases

in batch mode

/r – directs cfast to includes additional variables in any text or spreadsheet output. The /r

is followed by a colon and one or more of the following characters to indicate the level of

output:

w – include wall surface and target fluxes in the output

i – include model initial conditions and scenario description in the output

n – include “normal” printout of layer temperatures, interface height, and fire size

in the output

f – include vent flows in the output

s – include layer and wall surface species concentrations in the output

for example, the command: 

cfast filename.dat filename.lst /r:winfs

would run the program using the input file filename.dat, with text output going to the file

filename.lst, and include the most complete text or spreadsheet output.

3.4 Monitoring Calculation Progress

Two keys allow some interaction with the model while it runs. The first is the Esc key. When

pressed, the key terminates the run. The second key is the <f5> function key. Pressing the <f5>

function key causes the current simulation time and last time step to print to the text output. 

When the text output goes to the screen the user can see the progress of the model. When the

model runs with an output file as in the example, the information prints in the file.

For example, pressing <f5> during the run might produce:

Time = 9.58550207410571 DT = 0.353489940990121

The output means the model has completed about 9.59 s of simulated time and the last completed time step was about 0.353 s long. The first second of simulation time takes a while to run

because of the start up of the solver, so the <f5> function key doesn't provide a lot of information. After the first second, time steps larger than 0.2 s mean the model is having little problem

solving the differential equations and is moving very quickly. Times larger than 0.1 s indicate
8

the model is moving through the simulation at a sufficient speed. Steps sizes less than 0.01

seconds indicate that the solution of the differential equations is more difficult. While the

simulation will take longer to complete with such small time steps, precision of the resulting

calculations is unaffected.

3.5 Model Output Options

In addition to direct text output from the model, the programs TOSMOKEVIEW, REPORT and

REPORTSS can be used to generate output after the simulation is complete. TOSMOKEVIEW is used

to send data to the smokeview program for viewing output in three dimensional form [7]. REPORT

and REPORTSS generate text output, either as a normal text output in REPORT, or in spreadsheet

form in REPORTSS. All three programs use a binary output file named by the user and created by

CFAST during the simulation.

3.5.1 Graphical Output: How to Run TOSMOKEVIEW:

The program, TOSMOKEVIEW, uses only the history file generated by the model and the name is

given in the DUMPR keyword. For example, if a snippet from a data files called

STANDARD.DAT looked like:

DUMPR STANDARD.HI

then the “plt” and “smv” files for smokeview would be generated by:

TOSMOKEVIEW STANDARD

Please note that the extension is not used, and “hi” is assumed. There are no options for this

program. It generates the “smv” and “plt” files for view in smokeview. For further information

on using smokeview, please refer to its user’s guide[7].

3.5.2 Text Output: How to Run REPORT and REPORTSS:

These two programs are in the form:

REPORT <input file> <output file> /r:<options> and

REPORTSS <input file> <output file> /r:<options>

Output options for REPORT and REPORTSS are the same as those for CFAST. Details of the

outputs are included in Chapter 5.

REPORTSS outputs the same values as report. However, the format is a comma delimited file so

that it can be easily imported into a spreadsheet. The caution is that REPORTSS writes all
9

available data to the spreadsheet which can result in more columns than spread sheets can

handle. So it is recommended that only data of interest be written, rather than all options. The

full set is /r:winfs, as with the normal printout. The recommendation would be to use /r:n, then

/r:f and so on. This keeps the spread sheet to a manageable size.

The headings in the comma delimited file generally spell out the information that is in the

column. Output units are consistent with those described in Chapter 5.
10
11

4 Setting Up the Input File for CFAST

4.1 Overview

CFAST is a computer program which uses an input file and generates one or more output files.

The first step in performing a calculation is to generate a text input file that provides the program

with all of the necessary information to describe the scenario under consideration. The most

important inputs determine the geometry of the compartments in the scenario and the

connections between these compartments. Next, the fire, detection, and suppression

characteristics of the scenario are defined. Finally, there are a number of parameters that

customize the output from the model. Each line of the file contains a keyword label that

identifies the input, followed by a number of numerical or text inputs corresponding to the

particular input keyword. A simple input file is shown below. This example is used in the

discussion of the output in Chapter 5.

VERSN 5 Cable Tray Fire - Base Case

!Simulation time - 1800 seconds with printout every 120 and history file every 30 seconds

TIMES 1800 120 30

!These are the usual global configurations

TAMB 300 101300 0

EAMB 300 101300 0

!Put the history file to standard.hi - this is the usual naming convention

DUMPR STANDARD.HI

!Turn on the ceiling jet calculation

CJET ALL

!A single compartment 9x5x4.5

HI/F 0

WIDTH 9.1

DEPTH 5

HEIGH 4.6

!Set thermophysical properties

CEILI GLASSFB3

WALLS CONCRETE

FLOOR CONCRETE

!Add a door which is open always open

HVENT 1 2 1 2.4 1.00 0 0 0 0

CVENT 1 2 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

CHEMI 16 50 12 24100000 300 493.15 0.3

!Put a fire in the first compartment

LFBO 1

LFBT 2

FPOS 3 5.7 0

FTIME 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 1800

FMASS 0 0.00829876 0.0145228 0.0141079 0.00829876 0.00622407 0.00414938 0.00414938 0.0033195 0.00311203 0.00414938

FQDOT 0 200000. 350000. 340000. 200000. 150000. 100000. 100000. 80000. 75000. 100000.

HCR 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16

!Burn another object, still in compartment 1

OBJECT WARDROBE 1 0 1 2.15 1.65 0.00

!Add a target - now there are three

TARGET 1 2.20 1.88 2.34 0.00 0.00 1.00 CONCRETE IMPLICIT PDE

All of the inputs to the model are discussed in this chapter. Following the discussion that details

each input, their engineering units and default values, notes are included that provided additional
12

guidance or frequently addressed problems that may be encountered for the input. These notes

take the form of a bulleted list such as:

 • The inputs may be integers (a simulation time of 1800 s), real numbers (a mass loss rate

of 0.00829876 kg), or text (a floor material of CONCRETE), as appropriate. The input

file is an ASCII text file and may be edited with any text editor. It is possible to use a

word processor but it is important to save the file in ASCII text format and not in a word

processing format. It is worthy to note that some word processors will save punctuation

and other characters incorrectly for the simple ASCII text file used by CFAST. Use of a

simple text editor is often preferred.

 • Each line of input consists of a label followed by one or more alphanumeric parameters

associated with that input label. The label must always begin in the first space of the line

and be in capital letters. Following the label, the values may start in any column, and all

values must be separated by either a comma or a space. Values may contain decimal

points if needed or desired. They are not required. 

 • Inputs are in standard SI units. Most parameters have default values which can be

utilized by omitting the keyword line. These are indicated in the discussion. The

maximum line length is 1024 characters, so all data for each keyword must fit in this

number of characters.

4.2 Preliminaries

4.2.1 Naming The Calculation

The first thing to do when setting up an input file is to give the simulation a name. The first line

in the CFAST input data file must be the version identification along with an optional short

description for the simulation. This is a required input. The VERSN command is the line that

CFAST keys on to determine whether it has a correct data file. The format is fixed - the data

must appear in the columns specified. There is no default.
13

VERSN Version_Number Title

Example: VERSN 5 CFAST Simulation

Version Number: The version number parameter specifies the version of the CFAST model

for which the input data file is prepared. Normally, this is 5, although the program can make

use of input files for earlier versions of the model. The number must be in column 9. 

Title: The title is optional and may consist of letters, numbers, and/or symbols that start in

column 11 and may be up to 50 characters. It permits the user to label each run.

Example:

VERSN 5 Cable Tray Fire - Base Case

4.2.2 Setting Time Limits and Output Options

A TIMES line specifies the length of time over which the simulation takes place and how often

output will be generated. This is a required input. There are one to four entries in this line.

TIMES Simulation_Time Print_Interval History_Interval Spreadsheet_Interval

Example: TIMES 1800 50 0 10

Parameter Units Default

Simulation_Time: The length of time over which the

simulation takes place. This is a required input which should

be entered even if all other fields are not included. The

maximum value for this input is 86400 s (1 day).

s 0

Print_Interval: The print interval is the time interval between

each printing of the output values. If omitted or less than or

equal to zero, no output values will occur.

s 0

Table 1. The VERSN command (simulation title)

Table 2. The TIMES command (simulation and output times)
TIMES Simulation_Time Print_Interval History_Interval Spreadsheet_Interval

Example: TIMES 1800 50 0 10

14

History_Interval: CFAST can store all of the results of the

model simulation in a binary-formatted file which can be

saved for later analysis or output using utility programs that

come with the CFAST. software. This input defines the time

interval between output of the model results in binary format. 

If a non-zero value is specified, the name of the output file for

the binary-formatted history must also be specified using the

DUMPR keyword described on page 16.

s 0

Spreadsheet_Interval: CFAST can output a subset of the

results of the model simulation in a comma-delimited

alphanumeric format which can be read by most spreadsheet

software. This is designed to be imported into a spreadsheet

for further analysis or graphing of the results of the simulation. 

This input defines the time interval between output of the

model results in a spreadsheet-compatible format. A value

greater than zero must be used if the spreadsheet file is to be

used.

Example:

TIMES 200 10 5 2

would specify a simulation duration of 200 s, with a text output every 10 s, an entry written to

the binary history file every 5 s, and output to a spreadsheet-compatible file every 2 s.

4.2.3 Input and Output Files

In addition to the input data file created specifically for a CFAST simulation, there are several

files which CFAST uses to define default values and other input information and to output the

results of the simulation for later analysis. They include 1) a thermal properties file, 2) a file of

predefined fire objects, 3) a binary history file, 4) a spreadsheet-compatible output file, and 5) a

restart file.

The thermal properties file contains material properties for compartment surfaces, target objects

that may be placed in compartments in the simulation to monitor surface temperature and heat

flux to the objects, and fire objects in addition to the main fire in the simulation that may ignite

based on their surface temperature or incident flux onto the surface of the object. The predefined

fire objects file contains definition for a number of reference fires from the literature that may be
15

included in a simulation. The thermal properties and fire objects files may be modified by the

user. Details of the files are included in the section on databases. There are default files

included in the CFAST distribution if these keywords are not included in an input data file.

OBJFL Object_Fire_File

Example: OBJFL objects.df

Parameter Default

Object_Fire_File: The name specifies a file from which the program reads fire

object data. 

objects.df

 • There is a default version distributed with CFAST entitled objects.df. It is an indexed

database. The items in the file are detailed in the report by Gross [8]. 

 • The index is objects.ndx. If the index does not exist, CFAST will create it. If the database

is modified, this index must be deleted, to force the model to reindex it. Otherwise, the

input/output routines will not be able to make a correct association between the object

name and the object data. The format of this database is detailed in Appendix A.

THRMF Thermophysical_Properties_File

Example: TMRMF Thermal.df

Parameter Default

Thermophysical_Properties_File: The name specifies a file from which the

program reads data for names specified in CEILI/WALL/FLOOR. The default

name is THERMAL.DF which is included with the CFAST distribution. The

format of this file is detailed in Appendix A. As with the objects database, it is

an indexed file, the index file name being THERMAL.NDX. If the database is

modified, then the index must be deleted to force the model to re-index the file

and ensure that the model uses correct material thermophysical properties.

thermal.df

The output of the simulation may be written to a disk file for further processing by programs

such as REPORT or REPORTSS or to restart the CFAST model from the end of a previous

simulation. At each interval of time as specified by the history interval in the TIMES label, the

output is written to the file specified. For efficient disk storage and optimum speed, the data is

stored in an internal binary format and cannot be read directly with a text editor. For particularly

Table 3. The OBJFL command (object database file specification)

Table 4. The THRMF command (thermophysical properties database file specification)
16

complex scenarios or for debugging purposes, a restart command is included. The RESTR line is

an optional line used to restart the model at a specified simulation time within an existing history

file. These are optional parameters. In order to generate the output files, both these names must

be specified, and the TIMES line (section 4.2.2) must contain a non-zero interval.

ADUMP Spreadsheet_File Output_Options

Example: standard.csv WINFS

Spreadsheet File: The name specifies a file to which the program outputs are written in a

form readable by spreadsheet programs. This is an optional command. If omitted, the file

will not be generated.

Output Options: specifies the type of output(s) written to the spreadsheet file. One or more

of the letters WINFS may be specified. The default is IN. Additional parameters are also

allowed as follows:

W – include wall surface and target fluxes in the output

I – include model initial conditions and scenario description in the output

N – include “normal” printout of layer temperatures, interface height, and fire size in the

output

F – include vent flows in the output

S – include layer and wall surface species concentrations in the output

DUMPR History_File

Example: DUMPR standard.hi

History_File: The name specifies a file to which the program outputs for plotting are written.

Note that in order to obtain a history of the variables, this parameter must be specified, and

the history interval must be set to a non-zero value on the TIMES line (section 4.2.2).

Table 5. The ADUMP command (spreadsheet output)

Table 6. The DUMPR command (binary data output)
17

RESTR Restart_File Restart_Time

Example: RESTR standard.hi 120

Restart File: The name specifies a file from which the program reads data to restart the

model. This data must have been generated (written) previously with the history parameter

discussed earlier. 

Restart Time: A time step is given after the name of the file and specifies at what time the

restart should occur.

Example:

DUMPR PRM.HI

ADUMPF PRM.CSV NF

RESTR PRM.HI 120

The third command, for example, would read the PRM.HI file and initialize the run from the

output saved in the history file at the 120 s interval of that calculation.

 • It should be noted that there are two ways to generate a comma delimited file to import

into a spreadsheet: either by direct specification in the data file using the ADUMP

keyword, or through use of REPORTSS (see section 3.5.2), using data from a previouslygenerated history file. 

4.2.4 Ambient Conditions

Ambient conditions define the environment at which the scenario begins. This allows the user to

specify the temperature, pressure, and station elevation of the ambient atmosphere, as well as the

absolute wind pressure to which the structure is subjected. Pressure interior to a structure is

calculated simply as a lapse rate (related to the height above sea level) based on the

NOAA/NASA tables [9]. This modification is applied to the vents which connect to the exterior

ambient. The calculated pressure change is modified by the wind coefficient for each vent. This

coefficient, which can vary from -1.0 to +1.0, nominally from -0.8 to +0.8, determines whether

the vent is facing away from or into the wind. The pressure change is multiplied by the vent

wind coefficient and added to the external ambient for each vent which is connected to the

outside. There is an ambient for the interior and for the exterior of the structure. Three keywords

define the ambient conditions: TAMB for the interior of the structure, EAMB for the exterior of

the structure is EAMB, and WIND for the wind information. 

Table 7. The RESTR command (simulation restart)
18

TAMB Ambient_Temperature Ambient_Pressure Station_Elevation

EAMB Ambient_Temperature Ambient_Pressure Station_Elevation

Example: TAMB 300. 101300. 0.

Parameter Units Default

Ambient_Temperature: Initial ambient temperature inside

(for TAMB) or outside (For EAMB) the structure at the station

elevation. 

K 288

Ambient_Pressure: Initial values for ambient atmospheric

pressure inside (for TAMB) and outside (for EAMB) the

structure at the station elevation. Default value is standard

atmospheric pressure at sea level (0 m elevation) of 101.3 kPa.

Input units are in Pa. These values define standard conditions

as defined in Standard Atmosphere as noted in the Handbook

of Chemistry and Physics [10]. There is a set of numerical

approximations in the CFAST code which duplicate the

pressure/temperature/altitude relationships in the handbook.

Pa 101300

Station_Elevation: The height where the ambient pressure

and temperature were specified. This is the reference datum

for calculating the density of the atmosphere as well as the

temperature and pressure inside and outside of the structure as

a function of height. 

m 0

Example:

TAMB 300. 101300. 0 

EAMB 300. 101300. 0

The example specifies the base temperature to be 300 K, the base pressure to be 101,300 Pa and

a station elevation of 0 which is sea level.

The wind speed, scale height, and power law are used to calculate the wind coefficient for each

vent connected to the outside. The wind velocity is specified at some reference height. The

power law then provides a lapse rate for the wind speed. An assumption is that the wind speed is

zero at the surface. The formula used to calculate the wind speed at the height of any vent is

show below. The wind is applied to each external opening as a change in pressure outside of the

vent. 

Table 8. The EAMB and TAMB commands (ambient conditions)
19

WIND Wind_Speed Scale_Height Power_Law_Coefficient

Example: WIND 10. 3.0 0.16

Parameter Units Default

Wind_Speed: Wind speed at the reference elevation. m/s 0

Scale_Height: Reference height at which the reference wind

speed is measured.

m 10

Power_Law_Coefficient: The power law used to calculate the

wind speed as a function of height. Default value is 0.16.

Using the notation that VW, is the wind speed at the reference

height HW W , and P is the power law, the exterior pressure is

modified by and where Hi

is the position of the vent [1].

dimensionless 0.16

 • In order to see the effect of wind, the corresponding parameter for the ventilation

keyword must be specified. The default for the wind vector is 0, which turns off wind

effects. Please see the HVENT command, below.

 • The choice for the station elevation, temperature and pressure must be consistent. 

Outside of that limitation, the choice is arbitrary. It is often convenient to choose the

base of a structure to be at zero height and then reference the height of the structure with

respect to that height. The temperature and pressure must then be measured at that

position. Another possible choice would be the pressure and temperature at sea level,

with the structure elevations then given with respect to mean sea level. This is also

acceptable, but somewhat more tedious in specifying the construction of a structure. 

Either of these choices works though so long as they are consistent. Usually, the station

elevation is set to zero and the pressure to the current ambient. The effect of changing

these values is small for small changes. There will be an effect for places at altitude such

as Denver, Colorado but even there the effect is not pronounced. Note that the equations

implemented in the model are not designed to handle negative elevations and altitudes. It

is suggested that the defaults be used.

 • These three parameters are optional. If they are not included in the input file, default

values are used. 

Table 9. The WIND command (wind speed)
20

4.3 Compartment Geometry

In order to model a fire scenario, the size and elevation of each compartment in the structure

must be specified. For a compartment, the width, depth, compartment height and height of the

floor of the compartment provide this specification. The maximum number of compartments for

version 5 is thirty. The usual assumption is that

compartments are rectangular parallelepipeds.

However, the CFAST model can accommodate

odd shapes as equivalent floor area parallelepipeds

or with a cross-sectional area that varies with

height.

At least one compartment must be specified in the

input file. There are no defaults for compartment

size. There are defaults for absolute positioning

(0,0,0). The fully mixed (single zone) and corridor

models are turned off by default.

4.3.1 Defining Compartment Size and Position

Compartments in CFAST are most typically defined by a width, depth, and height. If desired,

the user can prescribe the cross-sectional area of the compartment as a function of height from

floor to ceiling for other shapes. The absolute position of the compartment with respect to a

single structure reference point can be defined to ease visualization or to allow exact placement

of vents and surfaces relative to other compartments in a detailed calculation. This specification

is important for utilizing the corridor flow algorithm with the HALL command and for

positioning the compartments for visualization in SMOKEVIEW. The relevant CFAST keywords are

WIDTH, DEPTH, HEIGHT, CXABS, CYABS, and HI/F. This is required as a basic definition

for a compartment, even if there are subsequent modifications by the ROOMA and ROOMH

keywords which follow.
21

WIDTH Width_1 Width_2 ... Width_N

Example: WIDTH 10.67 10.67 1.49 1.37 1.37 10.70

Parameter Units Default

Value

Width1, Width_2, ... Width_N: specifies the width of each of the

compartments as measured on the X axis from the origin (0,0,0) of

the compartment. The number of values on the line must equal the

number of compartments in the simulation.

m none

DEPTH Depth_1 Depth_2 ... Depth_N

Example:DEPTH 8.35 6.58 14.94 14.94 14.90 12.10

Parameter Units Default

Value

Depth_1 Depth_2 ... Depth_N: specifies the depth of each of the

compartments as measured on the Y axis from the origin (0,0,0) of

the compartment. The number of values on the line must equal the

number of compartments in the simulation.

m none

HEIGH Height_1 Height_2 ... Height_N

Example: HEIGH 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05

Parameter Units Default

Value

Height_1 Height_2 ... Height_N: specifies the height of each of the

compartments as measured on the Z axis from the origin (0,0,0) of

the compartment. The number of values on the line must equal the

number of compartments in the simulation.

m none

Table 10. The WIDTH command (compartment width)

Table 11. The DEPTH command (compartment depth)

Table 12. The HEIGH command (compartment height)
22

HI/F Floor_Height_1 Floor_Height_2 ... Floor_Height_N

Example: HI/F 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Parameter Units Default

Value

Floor_Height_1 Floor_Height_2 ... Floor_Height_N: specifies the

height of the floor of each compartment with respect to station

elevation specified by the TAMB parameter. The reference point

must be the same for all elevations in the input data. The number of

values on the line must equal the number of compartments in the

simulation. 

m 0

CXABS Absolute_X_1 Absolute_X_2 ... Absolute_X_N

CYABS Absolute_X_1 Absolute_X_2 ... Absolute_X_N

Example: CXABS 0. 0. 2.4 2.4 3.6 3.6

Parameter Units Default

Value

Absolute_X_1 Absolute_X_2 ... Absolute_X_N: specify the

absolute x, y coordinates of the lower, left, back corner of the room.

The number of values on the line must equal the number of

compartments in the simulation.

m 0

Example:

WIDTH 4.00 2.00

DEPTH 4.00 5.00

HEIGH 2.30 2.30

HI/F 0.00 2.30

CYABS 0.00 2.00

The above example configures the model for two

compartments. The first is 4.0 m x 4.0 m x 2.3 m.

The second is 2.0 m x 5 m x 2.3 m. The first

Table 13. The HI/F command (floor height)

Table 14. The CXABS and CYABS commands (compartment position)
23

compartment is at the station elevation and the second is 2.3 m above the first. The configuration

would be used, for example, to build a two floor structure. The position of the front, lower corner

of compartment 2 is at (0.0 m, 2.0 m, 2.3 m).

Example:

An example from the file TEST03.DAT for a 6 compartment structure:

HI/F 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

WIDTH 10.67 10.67 1.49 1.37 1.37 10.70

DEPTH 8.35 6.58 14.94 14.94 14.90 12.10

HEIGH 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05 3.05

The code defines six compartment, all at the station elevation.

4.3.2 Modeling the Compartment as a Tall Shaft or Long Corridor

For tall compartments or those removed from the room of fire origin, the compartment may be

modeled as a single, well-mixed zone rather than the default two-zone assumption. A single zone

approximation is appropriate for smoke flow far from a fire source where the two-zone layer

stratification is less pronounced than in compartments near the fire. This is used in situations

where the stratification does not occur. Examples are elevators, shafts, complex stairwells, and

compartments far from the fire. 

SHAFT Compartment

Example: SHAFT 3

Parameter Units Default

Value

Compartment: Compartment to be modeled as a single, well-mixed

zone

none OFF

Example:

SHAFT 1

would use the single zone approximation for compartment 1.

Table 15. The SHAFT command (tall compartments)
24

For long hallways or corridors, there can be a significant delay time for the initial hot gas layer

to travel along the ceiling to the far end of the compartment. By estimating the time required for

a ceiling jet to travel in a corridor and the temperature distribution along the corridor, CFAST

can delay flow into compartments connected to corridors until the ceiling jet has passed the

connections to these compartments.

HALL Compartment Velocity Depth Decay_Distance

Example: HALL 3 0.15 0.1 16.7

Parameter Units Default

Value

Compartment: Compartment to be modeled as a hallway none none

Velocity: Optional parameter, ceiling jet velocity at the distance

from the reference point where the temperature falls off by 50 %.

m/s See note

Depth: Optional parameter, ceiling jet depth at the distance from the

reference point where the temperature falls off by 50 %. m See note

Decay Distance: Optional parameter, distance from the reference

point where the temperature falls off by 50 %. m 16.7

Note: Default velocity and depth are calculated by the program based on the vent size, flow and layer thickness in

the horizontal vent from which flow first enters the hallway, and on the width of the hallway [11].

Example:

HALL 1

would use the corridor flow model to model compartment number one as a long corridor.

 • Since the algorithm depends on the flow into the hallway to determine default ceiling jet

velocity and depth, the main fire compartment should not be specified as a hallway. In

the main fire compartment, a stable layer will build before flow into the compartment

through horizontal vents.

 • The zone model concept best applies for an enclosure in which the width and length are

not too different. If the horizontal dimensions of the room differ too much (i.e., the room

looks like a corridor), the flow pattern in the room may become asymmetrical. If the

enclosure is too shallow, the temperature may have significant radial differences. The

width of the plume may at some height become equal to the width of the room and the

model assumptions may fail in a tall and narrow enclosure. Therefore, the user should

Table 16. The HALL command (long compartments)
25

recognize approximate limits on the ratio of the length (L), width (W), and height (H) of

the compartment. 

If the aspect ratio (length/width) is over about 10, the corridor flow algorithm should be

used. This provides the appropriate filling time. Similarly, for tall shafts (elevators and

stairways), a single zone approximation is more appropriate and the shaft option should

be used. It was found experimentally [12] that the mixing between a plume and lower

layer due to the interaction with the walls of the shaft, caused complete mixing. The is

the flip side of the corridor problem and occurs at a ratio of the height to characteristic

floor length of about 10. The following quantitative limits are recommended:

4.4 Properties of Bounding Surfaces

To calculate heat loss through the ceiling, walls, and floor of a compartment, the properties of

the bounding surfaces must be known. This includes the thermophysical properties of the

surfaces and the arrangement of adjacent compartments if calculation of intercompartment heat

transfer is to be calculated.

4.4.1 Thermal Properties of Boundaries

The thermophysical properties of the surfaces which define compartments are described by

specifying the thermal conductivity, specific heat, emissivity, density, and thickness of the

enclosing surfaces for each material and then assigning the material to the ceiling, walls, and

floor of a compartment. Currently, thermal properties for materials are read from a thermal data

file unique to CFAST. The thermophysical properties are specified at one condition of temperature, humidity, etc. There can be as many as three layers per boundary, but they are specified in

the thermal database itself. (See the explanation in the section on auxiliary files for additional

details.)

Group Acceptable Special

consideration

required

Corridor flow or

shaft algorithm

max (L/W) L/W<3 3<L/W<5 L/W>5

max (L/H) L/H<3 3<L/H<6 L/H>6

min (W/H) W/H>0.4 0.2<W/H<0.4 W/H<0.2

Table 17. Recommended compartment dimension limits
26

The default name for the thermal properties database is thermal.df. Another name can be used

using the keyword THRMF in the input data file for the scenario of interest. This thermal data

file is also used for targets and other objects.

4.4.2 Assigning Boundaries to Compartments

The bounding surfaces are the ceilings, walls and floors that define a compartment. These are

referred to as thermophysical boundaries, since each participates in conduction and radiation as

well as defining the compartments, unless these phenomena are explicitly turned off. The

relevant keywords are CEILI for compartment ceilings, WALLS for compartment walls, and

FLOOR for compartment floors. The input on these lines must have the same number of entries

as the compartment definitions set by HI/F, HEIGH, DEPTH and WIDTH keywords. 

CEILI Ceiling_1 Ceiling_2 ... Ceiling_N

Example:CEILI GYPSUM GYPSUM

Ceiling_1 Ceiling_2 ... Ceiling_N: The label CEILI indicates that the names of thermophysical properties on this line describe the ceiling material. If this parameter is present, there

must be an entry for each compartment.

WALLS Wall_1 Wall 2 ... Wall_N

Example: WALLS GYPSUM GYPSUM

Wall_1 Wall 2 ... Wall_N: The label WALLS indicates that the names of thermophysical

properties on this line describe the wall material. If this parameter is present, there must be an

entry for each compartment.

FLOOR Floor_1 Floor_2 ... Floor_N

Example: FLOOR CONCRETE PLYWOOD

Floor_1 Floor_2 ... Floor_N: The label FLOOR indicates that the names of thermophysical

properties on this line describe the floor material. If this parameter is present, there must be

an entry for each compartment.

Table 18. The CEILI command (ceiling materials)

Table 19. The WALLS command (wall materials)

Table 20. The FLOOR command (floor materials)
27

Example:

CEILI GYPSUM GYPSUM 

WALLS PINEWOOD PINEWOOD

FLOOR CONCRETE CONCRETE

would assign properties of GYPSUM

GYPSUM 0.16 900 790 0.016 0.9 0.0063 191.8 0.0587 7476 193 1.021 0.431 Gypsum Board (5/8")

to the ceiling of compartments one and two. Similarly for WALLS and FLOOR. In order to set

the parameters for only some compartment surfaces, the entry OFF will turn off the

convection/conduction for that surface for that compartment. For example:

CEILI GYPSUM OFF 

WALLS PINEWOOD PINEWOOD

FLOOR CONCRETE CONCRETE

would turn off the convection/conduction for the ceiling in the second compartment, leaving

everything else the same.

 • If the thermophysical properties of the enclosing surfaces are not included, CFAST will

treat them as adiabatic (no heat transfer). 

 • If a name is used which is not in the database, the model should stop with an error

message. The keyword in the data file simply gives a name (such as CONCRETE) which

refers to the properties for that material in the thermal data file (see section 4.2.3 and

Appendix A for details on the thermophysical database). 

 • Since most of the heat conduction is through the ceiling, and since the conduction

calculation takes a significant fraction of the computation time, it is recommended that

initial calculations be made using the ceiling only. Adding the walls generally has a

small effect on the results, and the floor contribution is usually negligible. Clearly, there

are cases where the above generalization does not hold, but it may prove to be a useful

screening technique. A caveat in including floor properties is that the set of equations

describing heat transfer becomes difficult to solve once the thermal wave from the

compartments reaches the unexposed side of a floor. The back surfaces of compartments

are assumed to be exposed to ambient conditions unless specifically specified (see

section 4.7.4 to specify heat transfer connections between compartments).
28

4.5 Compartment Connections

Flow through vents can be natural flow through doors, windows, or openings in ceilings and

floors; or forced flow in a mechanical ventilation system. Natural flow comes in two varieties. 

The first is referred to as horizontal flow. It is the flow which is normally thought of in

discussing fires. It encompasses flow through doors, windows and so on. The other is vertical

flow and can occur if there is a hole in the ceiling or floor of a compartment. This latter

phenomena is useful in some scenarios such as in a ship where openings in floors and ceilings

through scuttles are common and in buildings with manual or automatic heat and smoke venting.

Flow through normal vents is governed by the pressure difference across a vent. There are two

situations which give rise to flow through vents. The first is flow of air or smoke driven from a

compartment by buoyancy. The second type of flow is due to expansion which is particularly

important when conditions in the fire environment are changing rapidly. Rather than depending

entirely on density differences between the two gases, the flow is forced by volumetric

expansion.

In addition to natural flow, forced flow from mechanical ventilation can affect a fire as well.

More important than affecting the fire, however, is the dispersal of the smoke and toxic gases

from the fire to adjacent spaces if ventilation is left operating after a fire starts.

Atmospheric pressure is about 100 000 Pa. Fires produce pressure changes from 1 Pa to 1000 Pa

and mechanical ventilation systems typically involve pressure differentials of about 1 Pa to 100

Pa. In order to address pressure-induced flow correctly, pressure differences of about 0.1 Pa out

of 100 000 Pa for the overall problem, or 10 Pa for adjacent compartments must be tracked. -4

The keywords which describe the various flow regimes are

Windows and doors (horizontal flow through vertical vents), section 4.5.1:

HVENT specify vent which connect compartments horizontally

CVENT opening/closing parameter

Holes in a ceiling/floor (vertical flow through horizontal vents), section 4.5.2:

VVENT specify a vent which connects compartments vertically

HVAC specification, section 4.5.3:

MVDCT describe a piece of (circular) duct work

MVFAN give the pressure - flow relationship for a fan

MVOPN Specify an opening between a compartment and ventilation system
29

Each of these commands is discussed in the sections that follow.

4.5.1 Defining Horizontal Natural Flow Connections (Doors, Windows)

Horizontal flow connections may include doors between compartments or to the outdoors as well

as windows in the compartments. These specifications do not necessarily correspond to

physically connecting the walls between specified compartments. Rather, lack of an opening

simply prevents flow between the compartments. Horizontal flow connections may also be used

to account for leakage between compartments or to the outdoors. 

Horizontal connections can only be created between compartments that physically overlap in

elevation at some point. These may include doors between compartments or windows in the

compartments (between compartments or to the outdoors). Openings to the outside are included

as openings to a compartment with a number one greater than the number of compartments

described in the geometry section. The relevant keyword is HVENT. If the HVENT line is

entered, the first six entries on the line are required. There is an optional seventh parameter to

specify a wind coefficient. 

HVENT First_Compartment Second_Compartment Vent_Number Width Soffit Sill

Wind First_Compartment_Position Second_Compartment_Position

Example: HVENT 1 2 1 2.4 1.00 0 0 0 0 

Parameter Units Default

First_Compartment: First of the two compartments to be

connected by a horizontal flow vent. An entry is required for each

vent.

None

Second_Compartment: Second of the two compartments to be

connected by a horizontal flow vent. An entry is required for each

vent.

Vent_Number: It is possible to define a total of four horizontal flow

connections between any pair of compartments. A number from 1 to

4 uniquely identifies the connection. The number can be chosen as

desired by the user. An entry is required for each vent.

Width: The width of the opening. An entry is required for each vent m

Soffit: Position of the top of the opening relative to the floor of the

compartment selected as the first compartment. An entry is required

for each vent. .

m

Table 21. The HVENT command (doors and windows)
HVENT First_Compartment Second_Compartment Vent_Number Width Soffit Sill

Wind First_Compartment_Position Second_Compartment_Position

Example: HVENT 1 2 1 2.4 1.00 0 0 0 0 

30

Sill: Sill height is the height of the bottom of the opening relative to

the floor of the compartment selected as the first compartment. An

entry is required for each vent.

m

Wind: The wind coefficient is the cosine of the angle between the

wind vector and the vent opening. This applies only to vents which

connect to the outside. The range of values is -1.0 to 1.0 with a

default value of zero. This is an optional parameter.

none 0

There are two additional parameters which are used to locate the

compartments relative to each other. These are used to incorporate

additional three dimensional information of the relative location of

the vents with respect to each other. In the compartment view of

CFAST, the orientation is that the rotation/translation point of the

compartment is the back/bottom/left. In this view, both parameters

would be with respect to the left hand side of the respective

compartments. This allows the corridor filling model to incorporate

a delay time for filling based on the separation between the vents.

These parameters are needed only if the HALL command is used. 

First_Compartment_Position: Horizontal distance between the

centerline of this vent and the reference point in the first

compartment.

m 0

Second_Compartment_Position: Horizontal distance between the

centerline of this vent and the reference point in the second

compartment.

m 0

Examples:

HVENT 1 2 1 2.4 1.00 0 0 0 0 

HVENT 2 3 3 1.07 2.00 1.00 0.00

The first example defines a door from compartment 1 to compartment 2, which has a width of

2.4 m, a soffit at 1.0 m above the floor and a sill at the floor. The wind is turned off and there is

no offset for the vent for either the first or second compartment.

The second example defines Vent 3 from compartment 2 to compartment 3. The width is 1.07 m,

the soffit at 2.0 m and the sill at 1.0 m. This is a large window.
31

 • The soffit and sill specifications are with respect to the first compartment specified and is

not necessarily symmetric since the elevation of the second compartment may be

different than the first. Reversing the order of the compartment designations does make a

difference.

Controlling Horizontal flow

Horizontal flow vents may be opened or closed during the fire with the use of the CVENT

keyword. The initial format of CVENT is similar to HVENT specifying the connecting

compartments and vent number. Each CVENT line in the input file details the open/close time

dependent characteristics for one horizontal flow vent by specifying a fractional value as a

function of time. The default is 1.0 which is a fully open vent. A value of 0.5 would specify a

vent which was halfway open. If this keyword is not present, then the vent will be open for the

duration of the fire. The time line for opening and closing vents derives from the time history of

the fire, so the number of entries on the line beyond the specification of the vent MUST match

the number of entries describing the evolution of the main fire. In order to use this keyword, at

least FQTIME must be specified (see the properties of the main fire).

CVENT First_Compartment Second_Compartment Vent_Number Width_1 Width_2 ...

Width_N

Example: CVENT 1 3 1 1.00 0.500

Parameter Units Default

First_Compartment: First of the two compartments to be

connected by a horizontal flow vent. This must correspond to an

existing horizontal flow vent

none none

Second_Compartment: The second compartment is the

compartment number to which the first compartment is connected.

This must correspond to an existing horizontal flow vent

none

Vent_Number: It is possible to define a total of four horizontal

flow connections between any pair of compartments. A number

from 1 to 4 uniquely identifies the connection. The number can be

chosen as desired by the user. This must correspond to an existing

horizontal flow vent

none

Width_1 Width_2 ... Width_N: Fraction of the full-open width

that the vent is open. This applies to the width only. The sill and

soffit are not changed. The number of values on the line must equal

the number of points on the fire timeline (FQTIME+1).

nondimensional1

Table 22. The CVENT command (opening and closing vents)
32

Example:

CVENT 1 3 1 1.00 0.500

CVENT 2 3 1 1.00 0.500

This code would set the vent open at the beginning of the simulation (time is 0.0) and half-open

at the second time node. As with the fire inputs, there is a linear interpolation from node to node.

4.5.2 Defining Vertical Natural Flow Connections (Ceiling or Floor Holes, Hatches)

This section of the input data file describes these vertical flow openings. Examples of these

openings are scuddles in a ship, or a hole in the roof of a residence. Combined buoyancy- and

pressure-driven (i.e., forced) flow through a vertical flow vent is possible when the connected

spaces the vent are filled with gases of different density in an unstable configuration, with the

density of the top space larger than that of the bottom space. With a moderate cross-vent

pressure difference, the instability leads to a bi-directional flow between the two spaces. For

relatively large cross-vent pressure difference the flow through the vent is unidirectional, from

the high- to the low-pressure space. 

Connections can exist between compartments or between a compartment and the outdoors.

Openings to the outside are included as openings to a compartment with a number one greater

than the number of compartments defined in the scenario (see section 4.3.1). These connections

are described by the VVENT keyword. Each VVENT line in the input file describes one vertical

vent. There are four parameters, the connected compartments, the shape of the opening, and the

effective area of the vent.
33

VVENT Top_Compartment Bottom_Compartment Area Shape

Example: VVENT 2 1 1.00 1

Parameter Units Default

Top_Compartment: The first compartment or compartment

on top. The vent is through the floor of this compartment.

none Required

Bottom_Compartment: The second compartment or

compartment on the bottom. The vent is through the ceiling

of this compartment..

none

Area: specifies the cross-sectional area of the vent

connecting the two compartments

m

2

Shape: The shape factor is 1 for circular openings and 2 for

square openings.

none 1

Example:

VVENT 2 1 1.00 1

 • At the present time, there is not an equivalent CVENT mechanism for opening or closing

the vertical vents. 

 • Vertical connections can only be created between compartments that could be physically

stacked based on specified floor and ceiling elevations for the compartments. Some

overlap between the absolute floor height of one compartment and the absolute ceiling

height of another compartment is allowed. However, whether the compartments are

stacked or overlap somewhat, the ceiling/floor absolute elevations must be within 0.01 m

of each other. The check is not done when the connection is to the outside.

4.5.3 Defining Mechanical Ventilation Connections

Fan-duct systems are commonly used in buildings for heating, ventilation, air conditioning,

pressurization, and exhaust. Generally, systems that maintain comfortable conditions have either

one or two fans. Residences often have a systems with a single fan. Further information about

these systems is presented in Klote and Milke [13] and the American Society of Heating,

Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers [14].

The model for mechanical ventilation used in CFAST is based on the theory of networks and is

based on the model developed by Klote [15]. This is a simplified form of Kirchoff's law which

Table 23. The VVENT command (ceiling or floor holes, hatches)
34

says that flow into a node must be balanced by flow out of the node. The equations used describe

the relationship between the pressure drop across a duct, the resistance of a duct, and the mass

flow. The pressure can be changed by conditions in a compartment, or a fan in line in the duct

system. Resistance arises from the finite size of ducts, roughness on duct surfaces, bends and

joints.

Each fan-duct system is represented as a network of nodes, each at a specific temperature and

pressure. The nodes may be connected by fans, ducts, fittings and other components. Except for

fans, air flows through these components from nodes of higher pressure to nodes of lower

pressure.

The MVOPN line is used to connect a compartment to a node in the mechanical ventilation

system. The elevation for each of these exterior nodes is specified as a relative height to the

compartment floor on the MVOPN line. The MVDCT keyword is used to specify a piece of the

mechanical ventilation duct work. All node elevations can be specified, but elevations for the

exterior nodes, that is those connected to a compartment, are ignored. These heights are

determined by entries on the MVOPN line. The heights for interior nodes are absolute heights

above the reference datum specified by TAMB. The heights are specified in pairs with the node

number followed by the height.

MVDCT First_Node Second_Node Length Diameter Absolute_Roughness

First_Flow_Coefficient First_Area, Second_Flow_Coefficient Second_Area

Example: MVDCT 1 2 2.30 0.10 .00200 0.00 1.0000 0.00 1.0000

Parameter Units Default

First_Node: First node number. This is a node in the mechanical

ventilation scheme, not a compartment number (see MVOPN). none none

Second_Node: Second node number. none none

Length: Length of the duct. m none

Diameter: Equivalent diameter of the duct. All duct work is assumed

to be circular. Other shapes must use an equivalent diameter and an

appropriate flow coefficient (see for example [16] and [17])

m none

Absolute_Roughness: The absolute roughness affects laminar flow

friction losses within the duct. It is obtained from reference books

and undergraduate texts on fluid flow [18].

m 0.0

Table 24. The MVDCT command (mechanical ventilation ductwork)
MVDCT First_Node Second_Node Length Diameter Absolute_Roughness

First_Flow_Coefficient First_Area, Second_Flow_Coefficient Second_Area

Example: MVDCT 1 2 2.30 0.10 .00200 0.00 1.0000 0.00 1.0000

35

First_Flow_Coefficient: Flow coefficient to allow for an expansion

or contraction at the end of the duct which is connected to node

number one. To use a straight through connection (no expansion or

contraction) set to zero. Values for these flow coefficients have been

tabulated for a substantial number of connection geometries [18],

[19]. 

none 1.0

First_Area: Cross-sectional Area of the duct at the first node. m none 2

Second_Flow_Coefficient: Coefficient for second node. none 1.0

Second_Area: Cross-sectional area at the second node. m none 2

 • All duct work is assumed to be circular. For square ducts, use an effective radius. The

roughness should be a small fraction of the duct diameter. This is the case in properly

installed mechanical ventilation systems and the solution of the equations assumes this. 

 • Examples of roughness values found in typical duct work are available [20]

 • The equations describe mechanical ventilation through a series of complex non-linear

algebraic equations. As such, they are difficult to solve and there are several errors which

might be encountered in using this system. Generally, the problem will manifest itself

Duct Material Category

Absolute

Roughness

(m)

Uncoated Carbon Steel, Clean. PVC Plastic

Pipe Smooth 0.00003

Galvanized Steel, Longitudinal Seams Medium 0.00009

Galvanized Steel, Longitudinal Seams Average 0.00015

Fibrous Glass Duct Rough 0.0009

Fibrous Glass Duct Liner, Flexible Duct,

Metallic. Flexible Duct, All Types of Fabric

and Wire

Rough 0.003

Table 25. Typical values for duct roughness
36

with an error returned from the solver indicating that a solution could not be reached. In

the section on error codes, these usually are returned as negative error codes.

 • Nodes specified by each MVDCT entry must connect with other nodes, fans, or

compartments. Do not specify ducts which are isolated from the rest of the system.

 • Nodes specified by each MVDCT entry must connect with other nodes, fans, or

compartments. Do not specify ducts which are isolated from the rest of the system. 

 • Elevations of the interior mechanical ventilation nodes can be done using the INELV

keyword. The specification of the interior elevations (INELEV) is maintained for

completeness with the validated ASHRAE model of mechanical ventilation [14]. It

accounts for the change of potential energy (Dgh) of mass moving from the top of a

building to the bottom. However, it has little effect in buildings subjected to fires, and

specifying node points outside of the building causes incorrect results. It is recommended

that this keyword not be used, and a description of the height z is not included here.

Mechanical ventilation systems are connected to compartments with diffusers located in the

walls or ceilings of a compartment. The relevant CFAST keyword is MVOPN.

Duct Work Node Number: The mechanical ventilation system node number to which the

mechanical ventilation system diffuser is connected.

Orientation: The orientation of the diffuser relative to the floor of the compartment. A

horizontal diffuser implies vertical flow through the ceiling or floor of the compartment. A

vertical diffuser implies horizontal flow through a wall of the compartment.

Height: Height of the duct opening above the floor of the compartment measured from the

midpoint of the register.
37

MVOPN Compartment_Number Duct_Work_Node Orientation Height Area

Example: MVOPN 1 1 V 2.10 0.12

Parameter Units Default

Compartment Number: The compartment to which the

mechanical ventilation system diffuser is connected

Integer none

Duct Work Node Number: The mechanical ventilation

system node number to which the mechanical ventilation

system diffuser is connected.

Integer none

Orientation: The orientation of the diffuser relative to the

floor of the compartment. A horizontal diffuser implies

vertical flow through the ceiling or floor of the compartment. 

A vertical diffuser implies horizontal flow through a wall of

the compartment.

V or H V

Height: Height of the duct opening above the floor of the

compartment measured from the midpoint of the register.

m 0

Area: Cross-sectional area of the opening into the

compartment. The area will be truncated if the midpoint

(height) is set such that the height plus or minus the effective

length is above the compartment ceiling or below the floor.

m 0 2

A fan is defined using the MVFAN line to indicate node numbers and to specify the fan curve

with power law coefficients. 

Table 26. The MVOPN command (mechanical ventilation compartment connections)
38

MVFAN First_Node Second_Node Minimum_Pressure Maximum_Pressure Coefficients

Parameter Units Default

First_Node: First node in the mechanical ventilation system to

which the fan is connected Integer none

Second_Node: Second node to which the fan is connected Integer none

Minimum_Pressure: Minimum pressure for which the

polynomimial fan curve is valid. Below this pressure, the flow

is assumed equal to the value at the minimum pressure

Pa 0

Maximum_Pressure: Above the maximum pressure, the flow

is assumed equal to the value at the maximum pressure Pa 300

Coefficients: At least one, and a maximum of five coefficients,

to specify the flow as a function of pressure. The fan

coefficients are simply the coefficients of an interpolating

polynomial for the flow speed as a function of the pressure

across the fan housing of the form: 

v = c0 1 234 + c )P + c )P + c )P + c )P

234

where v is the flow in m /s and )P is the pressure drop in Pa. 3

note 1 at least one

 Coefficients are typically a regression to experimental data. Units are appropriate so that resulting flow is in m /s. 1 3

See example below.

Example:

MVOPN 1 1 V 2.10 0.12

MVOPN 2 3 V 2.10 0.12

MVDCT 1 2 2.30 0.10 .00200 0.00 1.0000 0.00 1.0000

MVFAN 2 3 0.00 300.00 0.140E+00 -0.433E-03

In this example, the fan flow was developed

from a simple set of data points of flow as a

function of pressure. A straight line through

these data resulted in the fan coefficients

c0 1 = 0.140 m /s and c = -0.433x10 m /s Pa so 3 -3 3

the flow is

v = 0.140 - 0.433x10 )P

-3

Pressure (Pa) Flow (m /s) 3

Minimum 0.0 0.1400

Maximum 300.0 0.0101

Table 27. The MVFAN command (mechanical ventilation fans)
39

where v is the flow in m /s and )P is the pressure drop in Pa.. The resulting fan specification is 3

thus:

MVFAN 2 3 0.0 300.0 0.140E+00 -0.433E-03

 • CFAST does not include provisions for backward flow through a fan. Calibrations for

backward flow are not provided by fan manufacturers and the equations incorporated in

CFAST do not allow for such flow. The problem is simply that in this flow regime, the

fan has stalled, and will soon fail. The fan curves are steady state, and there is no

convenient way to represent this flow in a transient problem.

 • The description of the fan includes a minimum and maximum pressure. Below the

minimum the flow is assumed to be constant. Above the maximum, the flow is assumed

to stop.

4.6 Prescribing Fires

A simulated fire in CFAST is implemented as a source of fuel mass which is released at a

prescribed rate (the pyrolysis rate). Energy is released by the fuel and combustion products are

created as it burns. The model incorporates two distinct types of fires: unconstrained and

constrained. In the unconstrained fire, the fire simply releases mass and energy at a rate

prescribed by the user; no calculation or tracking of products of combustion is included. In the

constrained fire, species production is calculated based on production yields prescribed by the

user. In addition, for the constrained fire, the pyrolysis rate and resulting energy and species

generation may be limited by the oxygen available for combustion. When sufficient oxygen is

available for combustion, the heat release rate for the constrained fire is the same as for the

unconstrained fire.

The model can simulate multiple fires in one or more compartments of the building. These fires

are treated as totally separate entities, with no interaction of the plumes. These fires are generally

referred to as “objects” and can be ignited at a prescribed time, temperature or heat flux.

CFAST does not include a pyrolysis model to predict fire growth. Rather, pyrolysis rates for

each fire are prescribed by the user. While this approach does not directly account for increased

pyrolysis due to radiative feedback from the flame or compartment, in theory these effects could

be prescribed by the user as described in this section. In an actual fire, this is an important

consideration, and the specification used should consider the experimental conditions as closely

as possible.
40

Unconstrained Fire

An unconstrained fire releases energy based on the pyrolysis rate of the fuel. This type of fire is

applicable to fuels for which there is always sufficient oxygen in the fuel for combustion to take

place and when the concentrations of products of combustion are not of interest.

Constrained Fire

A constrained fire releases energy based on the pyrolysis of fuel, but may be constrained by the

oxygen available for combustion depending on the compartment conditions. Complete burning

will take place only where there is sufficient oxygen. When insufficient oxygen is entrained into

the fire plume, unburned fuel will be transported from zone to zone until there is sufficient

oxygen and a high enough temperature to support combustion. In general, CFAST uses a simple

definition of a combustion reaction that includes major products of combustion for hydrocarbon

fuels:

(3)

whe 1 2 re the coefficients m , m , etc. represent appropriate molar ratios for a stoichiometric balance

of the equation. For complete combustion of the simplest hydrocarbon fuel, methane reacts with

oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. The only input required is the pyrolysis rate and the

heat of combustion. For fuels that contain oxygen, nitrogen, or chlorine, the reaction becomes

more complex. In this case, production yields for the species are prescribed by the user.

Stoichiometry is used to insure conservation of mass and elements in the reaction. The species

which are calculated are oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water, total unburned

hydrocarbons (tuhc), and soot. Gaseous nitrogen is included, but only acts as a diluent.

Production of hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen chloride are tracked solely based on user

prescribed yields. 

The heat release rate for a constrained fire may be reduced below its prescribed value based

upon the oxygen available for combustion. For the constrained fire, the burning rate may be less

than the pyrolysis rate and cannot be simplified as in the case of the unconstrained fire. As fuel

and oxygen are consumed, heat is released and various products of combustion are formed.

Constraint on the Fire by Limiting Combustion by Available Oxygen (LOI)

For a constrained fire, the heat release rate is limited by available oxygen. This limit is applied in

three places: The first is burning in the portion of the plume which is in the lower layer of the

room of fire origin; the second is the portion of the plume in the upper layer, also in the room of

origin; the third is in the vent flow which entrains air from a lower layer into an upper layer in an
41

adjacent compartment. The unburned hydrocarbons are tracked in this model. Combustion of CO

2

to CO is not included in the model. Actual combustion chemistry is not considered in CFAST

due to the complexities associated with detailed kinetics and transport.

Visibility

There are two calculations involving radiation in this model. One is for energy balance and is

based on broadband radiation absorption. The amount of radiation absorbed in sensitive to the

species present, specifically water vapor, soot and carbon dioxide.

The other is for visibility of egress signs. This calculation is based solely on the soot

concentration and is reported as optical depth (per meter). The conversion factor is based on the

recent work by Mulholland and Croarkin [21]. The value for converting mass density in kg/m to 3

optical depth is 3817 m /kg. The value reported is intended specifically for assessing the 2

visibility of egress signs, based on the work of Jin [22]. It is not applicable to the far blue or red

regions of the spectrum and so should not be used for assessing optical detection of fires through

smoke.

Since chemical species are tracked only for a constrained fire, the optical depth for an

unconstrained fire is fixed at 0.5 m for the upper layer and 0.05 m for the lower layer.

-1 -1

4.6.1 Defining the Main Fire and Time-Dependent Fire Curves

The fire specifications allow the user to describe the fire source in the simulation. The location

and position of the fire are specified using the LFBO, FPOS and FHIGH entries. Chemical

properties of the fuel are specified with the CHEMI keyword along with miscellaneous

parameters.

The time dependent variables of the fire are described by the mass loss rate, rate of heat release,

fuel height, and fuel area inputs. All of these specifications are optional. The number of entries

on all time dependent lines must be consistent. The count is determined by the number of entries

on the FTIME line. There is an implied value of zero (beginning of the simulation) for FTIME.

For every other entry (the fire parameters discussed in this section as well as the CVENT

keyword) there must be one more than the values included on the FTIME line.

Species production rates are specified in a manner similar to the fire, entering the rates as a

series of points with respect to time. The species which are followed by CFAST are: carbon

dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen, oxygen, soot, total

unburned hydrocarbons and water.
42

The keywords which set values for the primary fire are:

CHEMI specify parameters of the combustion chemistry for the main fire

LFBO compartment of fire origin for the main fire

LFBT fire type (unconstrained or constrained)

FPOS position of the fire within the compartment

FTIME time points for the main fire curve

FMASS pyrolysis rate of the main fire as a function of time

FQDOT heat release rate of the main fire as a function of time

FHIGH height of the base of the fire as a function of time

HCR hydrogen / carbon ratio of the fuel as a function of time

CO Carbon monoxide / Carbon dioxide ratio of the fuel as a function of time

OD Carbon / Carbon dioxide ratio in the fuel as a function of time

O2 Oxygen / Carbon ratio in the fuel as a function of time

HCN Hydrogen Cyanide / fuel ratio in the fuel as a function of time

HCL Hydrochloric Acid / fuel ratio in the fuel as a function of time

CT mass of toxic combustion products produced per mass of fuel as a function

of time

For an unconstrained fire (LFBT=1), only the concentration-time product of pyrolysate (CT) can

be specified. No other species are followed. For a constrained fire (LFBT=2), nitrogen (N2),

oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN),

hydrogen chloride (HCL), soot (OD), unburned fuel and water (H2O) can be specified and

tracked. 

Fire type and location

Two CFAST keywords define the compartment of fire origin and the level of detail in the

combustion chemistry calculation. 

LFBO Compartment_of_Fire_Origin

Example: LFBO 1

Parameter Default

Compartment of fire origin: specifies the compartment that contains the main

fire for the simulation. Any compartment defined is valid. An entry of 0 turns off

the main fire.

0

Table 29. The LFBO command (main fire location)
43

LFBT Fire_Type

LFBT 2

Parameter Default

Fire type: unconstrained, constrained, or flame spread. A value of 0 turns the

main fire off, a value of 1 is the unconstrained fire, 2 the constrained fire, and 3

is an object on which fire spread (flame spread) occurs. A flame spread object

can only be specified by the OBJECT keyword and there can only be one of

these. For a detailed description, please see the technical reference manual [1],

and in Appendix A on the “Other Objects” database.

1

Characteristics of the fuel

The CHEMIE input defines characteristics of the main fire source including heat of combustion,

the fraction of heat generated by the main fire that goes into radiation, and ignition temperature

of the fuel.

CHEMI Molar_Weight Relative_Humidity Lower_Oxygen_Limit Heat_of_Combustion

Initial_Fuel_Temperature Gaseous_Ignition_Temperature Radiative_Fraction

Example: CHEMI 16. 0. 10.0 18100000. 300. 400. 0.

Parameter Units Default

Relative Molecular Mass: This is the conversion factor

from mass density to molecular density for “Total

Unburned Hydrocarbon,” the fuel vapor. It is used only

for conversion to parts-per-million and has no effect on

the model itself.

g/mol 16

Relative humidity: The initial relative humidity in the

system. This is converted to kilograms of water per

cubic meter.

%

Lower oxygen limit: The limit on the ratio of oxygen to

other gases in the system below which a flame will not

burn. This is applicable only to constrained or flame

spread fires.

% 10

Table 30. The LFBT command (fire type)

Table 31. The CHEMI command (main fire characteristics)
CHEMI Molar_Weight Relative_Humidity Lower_Oxygen_Limit Heat_of_Combustion

Initial_Fuel_Temperature Gaseous_Ignition_Temperature Radiative_Fraction

Example: CHEMI 16. 0. 10.0 18100000. 300. 400. 0.

44

Heat of combustion: The energy released per kilogram

of mass burned.

J/kg 50 000 000

Initial fuel temperature: The temperature of the vapor

as it is emitted from a fuel source. Typically, the initial

fuel temperature is the same as the ambient temperature

specified on the ambient conditions window. This may

not be true if significant conductive or radiative heat

transfer affects the fuel. This affects the enthalpy since

temperatures below the lower layer ambient cause the

plume to cool. The effect is not large, but it is

noticeable. 

K Ambient

Gaseous ignition temperature: The lower temperature

limit on the burning of fuel in a gas layer. Since CFAST

does not support a combustion kinetics model, this is the

algorithm used for fires out of vents. If omitted, the

default is arbitrarily set to the initial fuel temperature

plus 100 /C.

K Fuel

temperature plus

100 K

Radiative fraction: The fraction of the energy produced

in combustion that is radiated from the fire and plume.

Within CFAST, the radiative fraction defaults to 0.30

[23]; i.e., 30 % of the fire’s energy is released via

radiation. For other fuels, the work of Tewarson [24],

McCaffrey [25], or Koseki [26] is available for

reference. The typical range for the radiative fraction is

from about 0.05 to 0.4.

nondimensional0.3

Time dependent parameters

All of the time dependent variables depend on a predefined time line. The FTIME input specifies

a sequence of time points that define the timing of the main fire. An entry indicates a point on

the time-line when the mass loss rate, fuel height and other time dependent values are specified

for the fire. This time is independent of the simulation time which is specified by the TIMES

line. If the simulation time is longer than the total duration of the fire, the final values specified

for the fire (mass loss rate, fuel height, fuel area, and species) are continued until the end of the

simulation.
45

FTIME Fire_Time_1 Fire_Time_2 ... Fire_Time_M

Example: FTIME 60 120 180

Fire_Time_1 Fire_Time_2 ... Fire_Time_M: specify a sequence of time

points that define the timing of the main fire. An entry indicates a point on

the time-line when the mass loss rate, fuel height and other time dependent

values are specified for the fire. 

There is an assumed value of time equals zero for the first step, so each

time dependent parameter below requires one additional entry. The model

checks for consistency of the time dependent parameters, including

CVENT, based on the entries of the FTIME line.

real numbers

Each of the following gives time dependent characteristics of the fire, and each of these entries is

related to the values of FTIME defined above. 

FHIGH Fuel height - the height of the base of the fire (note the interaction with

FPOS). 

FPOS Position of the fire within the compartment (not time dependent).

FMASS Pyrolysis rate - The rate at which fuel is pyrolyzed at times corresponding

to each time point of the specified fire.

FQDOT Heat of combustion of the fuel.

LFBO Compartment of origin.

HCR, O2, CO, CT, OD, HCN, HCL species yields, see definition below.

The units for species (HCR, etc.) are kilograms per kilogram. However, the meaning is different

for fuel properties and species production rates. The input for CT is the kilograms of "toxic"

combustion products produced per kilogram of fuel pyrolyzed. Input for HCR is the mass ratio

of hydrogen to carbon ratio in the fuel. Input for O2 is the mass ratio of oxygen to carbon as it

becomes available from the fuel. Input the ratio of the mass of carbon to carbon dioxide

produced by the oxidation of the fuel for OD. The input for CO is the ratio of the mass of carbon

monoxide to carbon dioxide produced by the oxidation of the fuel.

Table 32. The FTIME command (main fire timeline)
46

FHIGH Fire_Height_1 Fire_Height_2 ... Fire_Height_M

Example: FHIGH 0. 0.25 0.25

Parameter Units Default

Fire_Height_1 Fire_Height_2 ... Fire_Height_M: Time-based

values for height of the base of the fire. Actual height of the base of

the fire is the sum of the value specified by FPOS and by FHIGH for

a particular time in the fire development.

m 0

FPOS Fire_Depth_Position Fire_Width_Position Fire_Height_Position

Example: FPOS 1.2 1.2 0.

Parameter Units Default

Fire_Depth_Position: Position of the center of the base of the fire

measured in the y direction from the front lower left corner of the

compartment origin (0,0,0) in the compartment of fire origin.

m Depth/2

Fire_Width_Position: Position of the center of the base of the fire

measured in the x direction from the front lower left corner of the

compartment origin (0,0,0) in the compartment of fire origin.

m Width/2

Fire_Height_Position: Position of the center of the base of the fire

measured in the z direction from the front lower left corner of the

compartment origin (0,0,0) in the compartment of fire origin.

Actual height of the base of the fire is the sum of the value specified

by FPOS and by FHIGH for a particular time in the fire

development.

m 0

Table 33. The FHIGH and FPOS commands (main fire position)
47

FMASS Pyrolysis_Rate_1 Pyrolysis_Rate_2 ... Pyrolysis_Rate_M

Example: FMASS 0 0.00829876 0.0145228 0.0141079

Parameter Units Default

Pyrolysis_Rate_1 Pyrolysis_Rate_2 ... Pyrolysis_Rate_M:

Pyrolysis rate of the fire as a series of time points consistent with

the FTIME keyword specification.

kg/s none

FQDOT HRR_1 HRR_2 ... HRR_N

Example: FQDOT 0 200000. 350000. 340000.

Parameter Units Default

HRR_1 HRR_2 ... HRR_N: Heat release rate of the fire as a series

of time points consistent with the FTIME keyword specification.

W None

HCN Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M

HCL Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M

CT Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M

HCR 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16

Parameter Units Default

Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M: Composition of the pyrolyzed fuel

per mass of fuel produced in the pyrolysis of the fuel.

kg/kg 0

Table 34. The FMASS and FQDOT commands (main fire pyrolysis and heat release rates)

Table 35. The HCN, HCl, CT, HCR, O2, OD and CO commands (main fire species)
48

HCR H_Yield_1 H_Yield_2 ... H_Yield_M

O2 O2_Yield_1 O2_Yield_2 ... O2_Yield_M

Example: HCR 0.333 0.333 0.333

Parameter Units Default

H_Yield_1 H_Yield_2 ... H_Yield_M: the hydrogen component of

the pyrolyzed fuel. HCR is the ratio of hydrogen to carbon

produced in the pyrolysis of the fuel.

kg/kg 0.333

O2_Yield_1 O2_Yield_2 ... O2_Yield_M: Oxygen component of

the pyrolyzed fuel. O2 is the ratio of oxygen to carbon produced in

the pyrolysis of the fuel. The O2 input thus represents excess

oxygen available from the fuel for combustion. For normal fuels,

this input should be omitted. 

kg/kg 0

OD Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M

CO Yield_1 Yield_2 ... Yield_M

Example: CO 0.003 0.003 0.21 0.21

Parameter Units Default

Species yields ratios of soot to carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide

to carbon dioxide produced in the pyrolysis of the fuel.

kg/kg 0

Example:

CHEMI 16. 0. 10.0 18100000. 300. 400. 0.

LFBO 1

LFBT 2

FPOS 2.00 2.00 0.00

FTIME 400. <<<=== There is an implicit point at time=0

FMASS 0.0014 0.0014

FHIGH 0.00 0.01

FAREA 0.00 0.00

FQDOT 2.53E+04 2.53E+04

HCR 0.333 0.333

CO 0.010 0.020

OD 0.020 0.010

 • With the three parameters, heat of combustion (HOC) from CHEMI, FMASS and

FQDOT, the pyrolysis and heat release rate are over specified. The model uses the last

two of the three to obtain the third parameter. That is, if the three were specified in the

order HOC, FMASS and FQDOT, then FQDOT would be divided by FMASS to obtain

the HOC for each time interval. If the order were FMASS, FQDOT and HOC, then the
49

pyrolysis rate would be determined by dividing the heat release rate by the heat of

combustion. If only two of the three are given, then those two determine the third, and

finally, if none or only one of the parameters is present, default values are used.

 • By default, the fire is placed in the center of the compartment on the floor. To place the

fire in a different location, the FPOS keyword may be included in the input file. If values

for any of the three variables are invalid (i.e., less than zero or greater than the

compartment dimension in the appropriate direction), the location for that direction

defaults to the center of the appropriate direction.

 • It is not necessary to define a main fire. This feature can be turned off by setting the type

(LFBT) to zero.

4.6.2 Prescribing Additional Burning Objects

The OBJECT keyword allows the specification of additional objects to be burned in the fire

scenario. The object name and object compartment are required if the OBJECT keyword is

used. All other input items have default values if they are not specified. These defaults are:

start time 0.0, first element 1, depth (x position) one half the depth of the compartment, breadth

(y position) one half the width of the compartment, and height (z position) 0.0. To specify any

input item, all preceding items on the OBJECT line must also be specified. For example, the

first element can not be set if the start time is not set. Positioning of the object within a

compartment is specified in the same manner as for the main fire. 

OBJECT Name Compartment Ignition_Criterion_Value Ignition_Criterion_Type

Depth_Position Breadth_Position Height_Position Normal_Dept) Normal_Breadth

Normal_Height Horizontal_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Vertical_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Example: OBJECT SOFA 1 10 1 4.00 2.00 0.00

Parameter Units Defaults

Name: The name from the objects database for the desired object. 

Specifying a name not found in the database causes CFAST to stop

with an appropriate error message. 

none none

Compartment: The compartment that the object is in during the

simulation. If a compartment number outside the range of specified

compartments is used, CFAST provides an error message and stops. 

none none

Table 36. The OBJECT command (secondary fire objects)
OBJECT Name Compartment Ignition_Criterion_Value Ignition_Criterion_Type

Depth_Position Breadth_Position Height_Position Normal_Dept) Normal_Breadth

Normal_Height Horizontal_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Vertical_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Example: OBJECT SOFA 1 10 1 4.00 2.00 0.00

50

Ignition Criterion Value: The numerical value at which ignition

will occur. If it is less than or equal to zero, the default is taken. For

constrained and unconstrained fires, the default is and ignition at

time of zero. For flame spread objects, the default is the ignition

temperature in the database.

s, K, or 

W/m2 0 s

Ignition Criterion Type: The type of ignition condition specified by

the Ignition Criterion Value. Acceptable values are 1 for time, 2 for

object surface temperature, and 3 for incident flux to object surface.

none none

Depth Position: Position of the object as a distance from the rear

wall of the object compartment (X direction). m 1⁄2 depth

Breadth Position: Position of the object as a distance from the left

wall of the object compartment (Y direction). m

1⁄2

breadth

Height Position: Height of the object above the floor (Z direction). m 0

Normal Vector (Depth): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the object. (Depth)

component is in the direction from the rear wall of the object

compartment. Default value is a horizontal, upward facing object,

unit vector = (0,0,1)

m 0

Normal Vector (Breadth): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the object. (Breadth)

component is in the direction from the left wall of the object

compartment. Default value is a horizontal, upward facing object,

unit vector = (0,0,1)

m 0

Normal Vector (Height): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the object. (Breadth)

component is in the direction from the floor of the object

compartment. Default value is a horizontal, upward facing object,

unit vector = (0,0,1)

m 1
OBJECT Name Compartment Ignition_Criterion_Value Ignition_Criterion_Type

Depth_Position Breadth_Position Height_Position Normal_Dept) Normal_Breadth

Normal_Height Horizontal_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Vertical_Flame_Spread_Ignition_Position

Example: OBJECT SOFA 1 10 1 4.00 2.00 0.00

51

Horizontal Flame Spread Ignition Position: Assuming the ignition

surface is a wall with the corner closest to the lower back left corner

of the compartment, the horizontal flame spread ignition position is

the horizontal distance from the rear lower corner of the object. Only

applicable to flame spread objects.

m 0

Vertical Flame Spread Ignition Position: Assuming the ignition

surface is a wall with the corner closest to the lower back left corner

of the compartment, the horizontal flame spread ignition position is

the vertical distance from the rear lower corner of the object. Only

applicable to flame spread objects.

m 0

Example:

OBJECT SOFA 1 10 1 4.00 2.00 0.00

OBJECT WARDROBE 1 20000 3 0.00 2.00 0.00

This example show two objects, a sofa and a wardrobe, both in compartment 1. The sofa is

ignited at a time of 10 s in the simulation and the wardrobe is ignited when the incident flux on

the surface of the wardrobe reaches 20 kW/m .

2

 • Object fires are used to include additional burning objects in a simulation. Flame spread

calculations are a special case of burning objects. For additional details of flame spread

objects, see the CFAST technical reference guide [1], the work of Cleary and Quintiere

[27], or Babrauskas and Grayson [28].

4.7 Special Features

4.7.1 Defining Targets

CFAST can track and report calculations of the net heat flux striking arbitrarily positioned and

oriented targets and the temperature of these targets. Two keywords are used to specify targets:

TARGET to calculate net heat flux to an arbitrarily-placed object in a compartment

TARG to calculate net heat flux to an object on an interior surface of a

compartment. It is a simplified version of TARGET.
52

In addition to any user-defined targets, there are always two targets that are automatically placed

in any compartment containing a fire. Both are included for reporting purposes. The first is an

“ambient target” and is intended to represent the net flux to a human body. This is used for the

flux in the hazard calculation for tenability. The assumption is that the target will remain at

ambient temperature, which is a surrogate for body temperature. The second determines the net

flux to a horizontal target on the floor whose temperature is assumed to be the same as the floor

surface. The calculation can be used to estimate the ignition of combustibles on the floor as a

surrogate for estimating time time to flashover, typically taken to be 20 kW/m . Thus if one of 2

the target keywords is used, it will be in addition to these two predefined targets.

For all targets, heat flux is calculated to the surface specified by the user (with the normal

vector). Conduction into the target is assumed to occur only from this surface.

TARGET Compartment Depth Breadth Height Normal_Depth Normal_Breadth

Normal_Height) Material Method Equation_Type

Example: TARGET 1 7.62 1.52 4.26 0. 1. 0.

Parameter Units Default

Compartment: The compartment in which the target is located none none

Depth: Position of the target as a distance from the rear wall of the

target compartment (X direction). m 1⁄2 depth

Breadth: Position of the target as a distance from the left wall of the

target compartment (Y direction). m 1⁄2 breadth

Height: Height of the target above the floor (Z direction). m 0

Normal Vector (Depth): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the target. (Depth)

component in the direction from the rear wall of the target

compartment. Default value is a horizontal, upward facing target,

unit vector = (0,0,1)

none 0.0

Normal Vector (Breadth): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the target. (Breadth)

component in the direction from the left wall of the target

compartment. Default value is a horizontal, upward facing target,

unit vector = (0,0,1)

none 0.0

Table 37. The TARGET command (arbitrarily-placed target objects)
TARGET Compartment Depth Breadth Height Normal_Depth Normal_Breadth

Normal_Height) Material Method Equation_Type

Example: TARGET 1 7.62 1.52 4.26 0. 1. 0.

53

Normal Vector (Height): specifies a vector of unit length

perpendicular to the exposed surface of the target. (Breadth)

component in the direction from the floor of the target compartment.

Default value is a horizontal, upward facing target, unit vector =

(0,0,1)

none 1.0

Material: An optional parameter used to specify the wall material of

the target. Any material from the thermal database used to represent

wall materials may be used here. Since the transient heat conduction

problem is not solved now for the target this parameter is not used.

none none

Method: Optional parameter that indicates the solution method.

STEADY for steady state solution, XPLICIT for explicit solution,

MPLICIT for implicit solution

none MPLICIT

Equation Type: If METHOD is not STEADY, this parameter

further indicates the equation type to be either ODE or PDE. none PDE

 • The TARGET (and TARG) keywords perform a heat transfer calculation between the

compartment and the target. The steady state option assumes that the target material

reacts instantly to changing conditions and computes the target temperature that would

result in a balance of incoming and outgoing heat (i.e., a steady state). If a transient target

temperature is modeled, then one can either assume that there is a temperature variation

within the target or assume that the target is “thin” and can be modeled using only one

temperature. If the target is assumed to be thin then the ODE option should be used set

since this is how the equations are solved. If the target is assumed to be thick then the

PDE option should set. Finally, if one of the two transient options are set (ODE or PDE),

the numerical solution can be solved using an explicit or an implicit method. Typically,

the implicit method will work in all cases. The explicit method is recommended only

when the implicit method fails to come to a solution.

Calculating Normal Vectors

The general equations for determining the normal vectors in the x, y, and z directions are:

Normal vector in the x direction, x = x / (x +y +z )

2 2 2 .5

Normal vector in the y direction, y = y / (x +y +z )

2 2 2 .5

Normal vector in the z direction, z = z / (x +y +z )

2 2 2 .5
54

The simplest way to calculate the unit vector is to draw an imaginary line at right angles (i.e., 90o

angle) from the exposed surface of the target and to extend this imaginary line until it hits the

walls, floor or ceiling of the compartment in which it is located. This imaginary line is actually a

vector that starts at the surface of the exposed target and terminates on a wall, floor, or ceiling. 

Once the start point and the end point of a vector are known, the unit vector for this imaginary

line may be calculated as follows:

x end start end start end start end start = (x - x ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 0.5

y end start end start end start end start = (y - y ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 0.5

z = (zend start end start end start end start - z ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 0.5

As an example, assume the following scenario:

 • A square shaped target object is located in the middle of the floor of a compartment.

 • The target is constructed from non-combustible materials except the top.

 • The square shaped material is 1 m in depth, 1 m in breadth, and 1 m high.

 • The reference point (0,0,0) in the compartment is the lower left hand side of the rear wall.

 • The compartment is 3 meters in the x direction (i.e., the distance from the rear wall to the

front wall of the compartment), 4 meters in the y direction (i.e., the distance from the left

wall to the right wall of the compartment), and 5 meters in the z direction (i.e., the

distance from the floor to the ceiling of the compartment).

Since the only side of the target that is combustible is the top surface of the target object, an

imaginary line is draw perpendicular (i.e., at a 90 angle) from the top surface of the target object o

and extended until it reaches the outer boundary of the compartment. In this case, since the top

of the target object is facing the ceiling, the imaginary line would run straight up to the ceiling,

running parallel to the four walls of the compartment, and terminating at the ceiling at the point

(1.5 m, 2 m, 5 m). Since the vector starts at point (1.5-m, 2-m, 1-m) and terminates at (1.5-m, 2-

m, 5-m), the unit vectors can be calculated as follows:

x end start end start end start end start = (x - x ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 .5

 = (1.5 – 1.5) / ((1.5 -1.5) + (2 – 2) + (5 - 1) ) = 0 2 2 2 .5

y end start end start end start end start = (y - y ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 .5

 = (2- 2)/ ((1.5 -1.5) + (2 – 2) + (5 - 1) ) = 0 22 2 .5

z = (zend start end start end start end start - z ) / ((x - x ) +(y - y ) +(z - z ) )

2 2 2 .5

 = (5 - 1) / ((1.5 -1.5) + (2 – 2) + (5 - 1) ) = 1 2 2 2 .5

In this case, the unit vector is in the + Z direction.
55

TARG Compartment Surface Depth Breadth Method Equation_Type

Example: TARG 1 DOWN 4.57000 7.62000

Parameter Units Default

Compartment: The compartment in which the target is located none none

Surface: Surface defines the compartment surface on which the

target is located. It is one of the character strings, UP, FRONT,

RIGHT, BACK, LEFT and DOWN

none none

Position 1: Position of the target on the surface as a distance from

the front wall (Z direction) of the target

compartment for targets on the floor,

ceiling, left, or right walls and from the

left wall (X direction) for targets on the

front or back wall (see figure).

Position 2: Position of the target as a

distance from the left wall (X direction)

of the target compartment for targets on

the floor or ceiling and from the floor (Z direction) for targets on the

walls (see figure).

m 1⁄2 depth

m 1⁄2 breadth

Method: Optional parameter that indicates the solution method.

STEADY for steady state solution, XPLICIT for explicit solution,

MPLICIT for implicit solution. The default is an implicit solution.

none MPLICIT

Equation Type: If METHOD is not STEADY, this parameter

further indicates the equation type to be either ODE or PDE. The

default is PDE

none PDE

Example:

TARGET 1 7.62000 1.52400 4.26720 0.000000 1.00000 0.000000

TARG 1 DOWN 4.57000 7.62000

4.7.2 Sprinklers and Detectors

Sprinklers and detectors are both considered detection devices by the CFAST model and are

handled using the same input keywords. Detection is based upon heat transfer to the detector.

Fire suppression by a user-specified water spray begins once the associated detection device is

Table 38. The TARG command (targets on compartment surfaces)
56

activated. A maximum of 20 sprinklers or detectors can be included for any input file and model

run. These can be in one compartment or scattered throughout the structure. The DETECT

keyword is used for both detectors and sprinklers. The first three parameters are required. The

next three have defaults. The last three must be specified if this is a heat detector or sprinkler.

DETECT Type Compartment Activation_Temperature Depth Width Height RTI

Suppression Spray_Density

Example: DETECT 2 1 330. 2.5 4.55 4.59 50. 1 7.E-5

Parameter Units Default

Type: type of detector, use 1 for smoke detector and 2 for heat

detector or sprinkler.

Integer None

Compartment: the compartment in which the detector or sprinkler is

located.

Integer None

Activation temperature: the temperature at or above which the

detector link activates.

K None

Depth (Y): position of the detector or sprinkler as a distance from

the front wall of the compartment (Y direction).

m 1⁄2 depth

Width (X): position of the object as a distance from the left wall of

the compartment (X direction).

m 1⁄2 width

Height (Z): position of the object as a distance from the floor of the

compartment (Z direction).

m comp.

height

RTI: the Response Time Index (RTI) for the sprinkler or detection

device.

(m@s) none 1⁄2

Suppression: If set to a value of 1, the sprinkler will quench the fire

with the specified spray density of water. If turned off with a value of

0, the device is handled as a heat or smoke detector only – values

entered for activation temperature, RTI, and spray density are

ignored.

Integer none

Table 39. The DETECT command (heat detectors and sprinklers)
DETECT Type Compartment Activation_Temperature Depth Width Height RTI

Suppression Spray_Density

Example: DETECT 2 1 330. 2.5 4.55 4.59 50. 1 7.E-5

57

Spray density: the amount of water dispersed by a water spraysprinkler. The units for spray density are length/time. These units

are derived by dividing the volumetric rate of water flow by the area

protected by the water spray. The suppression calculation is based

upon an experimental correlation by Evans [29], and depends upon

the RTI, activation temperature, and spray density to determine the

behavior of the sprinkler. 

m/s none

Example:

DETECT 2 1 330.370 2.50000 4.55000 4.59900 50.0000 1 7.00000E-005

This example defines a residential sprinkler in compartment 1 placed near the ceiling in the

center of the compartment. The activation temperature of the sprinkler is 330 K, RTI of the

sprinkler is 50 m s and the spray density is 7x10 m/s. 1/2 1/2 -5

 • Often, the activation of smoke alarms is simulated with a temperature-based criterion.

Davis and Notarianni [30] studied the activation of heat and smoke alarms in small and

large compartments. They conclude that a temperature rise of approximately 5 /C

corresponded to activation of ionization alarms for a range of fire sources and ceiling

heights.. 

 • Several cautions should be observed when using estimates of sprinkler suppression

within the model: 1) the first sprinkler activated controls the effect of the sprinkler on the

heat release rate of the fire. Subsequent sprinklers which may activate have no additional

effect on the fire simulation. 2) The fire suppression algorithm assumes the effect of the

sprinkler is solely to reduce the heat release rate of the fire. Any effects of the sprinkler

spray on gas temperatures or mixing within the compartment are ignored. 3) The

sprinkler always reduces the heat release rate of the fire. The ability of a fire to

overwhelm an under-designed sprinkler is not modeled. 4) Since the dynamics of the

sprinkler and direct effects of the spray on gas temperatures and velocities are not

modeled, calculated times of activation of secondary sprinklers and / or detectors after

the first sprinkler is activated should be not be modeled since the impact of the first

sprinkler on the activation of additional sprinklers is not included in the CFAST model.

4.7.3 Defining Compartment Area

Two additional keywords, ROOMA and ROOMH, may be used for defining compartment

properties for spaces which are not rectangular in area. The ROOMA and ROOMH keywords
58

allow the user to define non-rectangular rooms by specifying cross-sectional area as a function

of height. One set of values is included for each compartment that has a variable cross-sectional

area.

ROOMA Compartment Number_of_Area_Values Area_Values

Example: ROOMA 1 3 10.0 5.0 3.0

Parameter Units Default

Value

Compartment: The compartment in which the cross-sectional area

varies as a function of height none none

Number_of_Area_Values: A varying cross-sectional area is

specified by including the specified number of cross-sectional area

values as a function of height, with matching height values specified

with the ROOMH command. The number of area data points

specified must equal the number of matching cross-sectional area

values specified below. The number of values for the compartment

must match those included for the same compartment on the

ROOMH command, below.

none none

Area Value(s): Values of cross-sectional area of the compartment as

a function of height measured from the floor of the compartment.

The values for the compartment correspond to height values included

for the same compartment on the ROOMH command, below

m none 2

ROOMH Compartment Number_of_Height_Values Height_Values

ROOMH 1 3 0.0 1.0 2.0

Parameter Units Default

Value

Compartment: The compartment in which the cross-sectional area

varies as a function of height

none none

Table 40. The ROOMA and ROOMH commands (variable compartment cross-section)
ROOMH Compartment Number_of_Height_Values Height_Values

ROOMH 1 3 0.0 1.0 2.0

59

Number of Height Data Points: A varying cross-sectional area is

specified by including a specified number of height values with

matching cross-sectional area values specified with the ROOMA

command. The number of height data points specified must equal the

number of matching cross-sectional area values specified above. The

number of values for the compartment must match those included for

the same compartment on the ROOMA command.

none none

Height Data Point(s): Values of height for the corresponding crosssectional area values measured from the floor of the compartment.

The values for the compartment correspond to cross-sectional area

values included for the same compartment on the ROOMA

command.

m none

Example:

ROOMA 1 3 10.0 5.0 3.0

ROOMH 1 3 0.0 1.0 2.0

The above example specifies that compartment 1 has a cross-sectional area of 10 m , 5 m and 2 2

3 m at elevations 0.0 m, 1.0 m and 2.0 m respectively.

2

4.7.4 Inter-compartment Heat Transfer (Conduction)

There are twor keywords that define physical connections which affect heat conduction between

compartments. They are:

CFCON ceiling/floor heat conduction (vertical heat flow)

HHEAT heat transfer between connected compartment walls (horizontal heat flow)

Energy can be transferred from compartment to compartment through solid boundaries (walls,

ceilings and floors) by means of conduction. The heat transfer between connected compartments

is modeled by merging the connected surfaces for the ceiling and floor compartments or for the

connected horizontal compartments. The heat conduction problem is solved for the merged

walls using a temperature boundary condition for both the near and far wall. As before,

temperatures are determined by the solver so that the heat flux striking the wall surface (both

interior and exterior) is consistent with the temperature gradient at that surface. This option is

implemented with the CFCON (for vertical heat transfer) and the HHEAT (for horizontal heat

transfer) keywords. 
60

Vertical Heat Transfer

Heat transfer between the ceiling and floor of specified compartments is included with the

CFCON keyword. Ceiling to floor heat transfer occurs between interior compartments of the

structure or between an interior compartment and the outdoors. The model checks to make sure

that the ceiling and floor are reasonably contiguous (within 0.01 m). The assumption is made

that this is true for the entire ceiling and floor.

CFCON First_Compartment Second_Compartment

Example: CFCON 1 2

First Compartment: First of the connected compartments. Order of the inputs is not

important

Second Compartment: Second of the connected compartments. Order of the inputs is not

important

Example:

CFCON 1 2

 • In order for this command to work, the CEILI and FLOOR (see section 4.4.2) properties

must be specified so that conduction through ceilings and floors can be calculated.

Horizontal Heat Transfer

Horizontal conduction between specified compartments is included with the HHEAT keyword. 

Ceiling to floor heat transfer occurs between interior compartments of the structure or between

an interior compartment and the outdoors.

There are three forms of this command. If the keyword is present, then the command takes one

of three forms. The first is HHEAT with no arguments. In this case, CFAST computes heat

conduction between every pair of rooms connected by a horizontal flow vent. The second form is

to include a compartment number. In this case, CFAST will calculate the conductive heat

transfer to all compartments connected to this compartment by horizontal convective flow. The

third form specifies the compartments to be connected and what fraction of the compartment is

connected to an adjacent compartment. This latter is particularly useful for rooms which are

connected to adjacent rooms as well as hallways.

The user of the model is responsible for the consistency of these pairings. CFAST does not

Table 41. The CFCON command (vertical heat transfer between compartments)
61

check to insure that the specified compartment pairs are located next to one another.
62

HHEAT First_Compartment Number_of_Parts N pairs of {Second_Compartment,

Fraction}

Example: HHEAT 1 3 2 0.3 3 0.5 4 0.1

Parameter Units Default

First Compartment: If First Compartment is specified,

CFAST calculates heat conduction between that compartment

and all compartments connected to First Compartment by

horizontal convective flow. If omitted, heat conduction

between all compartments connected by a horizontal flow vent.

none All

compartments

Number of Parts: Specify the fraction(s) of wall surface

connecting the First Compartment and any number of other

compartments. The number of parts specifies the number

“second compartment” and “fraction” pairs to be specified

below.

none none

Second Compartment If the number of ordered pairs is

specified, pairs of numbers which specify a connected

compartment and the fraction of the vertical surface areas of

the compartments which are connected can be specified. The

second compartment specifies the compartment number of a

compartment connected by a wall surface to the first

compartment. One pair of numbers should be included for each

pair of compartments to connect.

none none

Fraction: If the number of ordered pairs is specified, pairs of

numbers which specify a connected compartment and the

fraction of the vertical surface areas of the compartments

which are connected can be specified. The fraction specifies

the fraction of the vertical surface area connecting the first and

second compartment pair. One pair of numbers should be

included for each pair of compartments to connect.

none none

As an example, four cases were simulated by modeling all wall surfaces in a test case with

gypsum and steel and by turning on and off the horizontal heat transfer option. The following

table summarizes the results for these four cases. Each table entry gives the Upper room 1

temperature, upper room 2 temperature, upper wall temperature in room 1 and upper wall

temperature in room 2.

Table 42. The HHEAT command (horizontal heat transfer between compartments)
63

HHEAT Off HHEAT On

Steel walls 1106/528.3/374.9/319 1118/535.3/399.6/340.2

Gypsum walls 1147/545.4/462.9/338 1148/545.8/464.1/339.3

The results are as one would expect. For each wall material turning HHEAT on leads to warmer

calculated temperatures since the outside environment (where heat goes when HHEAT is off) is

cooler than the adjoining room. The temperature differences are greater for steel than for

gypsum since steel conducts heat more effectively.

4.7.5 The Ceiling Jet - An

Additional Zone

Typically, zone models incorporate

two zones in each compartment, one

for the upper layer and one for the

lower layer. A plume from a fire then

pumps energy from the fire and lower

layer into the upper layer. However, it

has been observed that the heat loss

from the upper layer to the ceiling and

walls is higher than this paradigm

would indicate. The cause is that a

plume does not truly mix with the upper layer initially as indicated in the figure 

This leads to higher convective heat transfer than the mixed model would indicate. CFAST has

incorporated a model of this additional heat loss based on the work of Cooper [31]. Heat loss by

this mechanism to the ceiling is well established, the loss to walls is somewhat more uncertain

due to the uncertainty of how far the plume descends below the ceiling. 

To include ceiling jet effects in the calculation of the surface temperature of the ceiling, wall, or

both surfaces, the CJET keyword is used. The ceiling jet calculation can be used for the ceiling,

walls, or all surfaces. At present, this keyword effects only the calculation of the convective

heating boundary condition for the conduction routines. If a particular surface is on, the ceiling

jet algorithm is used to determine the convective heating of the surface. If CJET is off, the bulk

temperature of the upper layer determines the convective heating.
64

CJET Ceiling_Jet_Flag

Input: OFF, CEILING, WALL, or ALL

Example: CJET CEILING

Parameter Units Default

Ceiling Jet Flag: directs the model to calculate the effects of a ceiling

jet in all compartments containing a fire. The value of the flag may

be OFF (to not calculate ceiling jets), CEILING (to include

calculations for ceiling surfaces only, WALL (to include calculations

for wall surfaces only), or ALL (to include calculations for both

ceiling and wall surfaces).

none OFF

Example:

CJET CEILING

This command directs the program to use the ceiling jet algorithm for all compartment ceiling

heat transfer calculations.

 • Using this option affects all fires and it is suggested that this option be turned on and set

to “CEILING.”

4.7.6 Utility Commands

Occasionally, it is necessary to start a calculation with default values different from those

typically used by the model. There are several utility commands to control execution of the

model: 

INTER to set the intial layer interface position in all compartments

DTCHE prevent excessive computation

SETP set initial values for temperature, pressure, and interface height

STPMAX set initial and maximum time increments

The initial interface height is normally at the ceiling of a compartment. When it is desired to set

it at some other value, use INTER. Each invocation can have as many entries as desired, but they

must be in pairs of (compartment#NR, height).

Table 43. The CJET command (ceiling jet)
65

INTER Initial_Interface_Height_1 Initial_Interface_Height_2 ...

Initial_Interface_Height_N

Example: INTER 2 1.2 3 2.0

Parameter Units Default

Initial_Interface_Height_1 Initial_Interface_Height_2 ...

Initial_Interface_Height_N: specifies the initial height of the layer

interface in each compartment of the simulation. The number of

values on the line must equal the number of compartments in the

simulation. By default, CFAST sets the layer thickness to a small

value to avoid numerical instabilities calculating layer volume as the

thickness approaches 0. Normally, this command would not be used.

m 0.999

ceiling

height

Example: 

INTER 2 1.2 3 2.0

The purpose of DTCHE is to prevent excessive computation with a very small time step. This

often appears to users as a stalling condition, when it is simply the set of equations has reached a

point that requires a very small increment in time for the solver to converge. Note that if DASSL

cannot converge it will quit by itself. However, there is no lower limit.

DTCHE Minimum_Time_Step Maximum_Iteration_Count

Example: 1.0e-10 1000

Parameter Units Default

Minimum time step: smallest value the model will use to advance the

solution of the equation set

s 1.0x10-9

Maximum iteration count: Maximum number of iterations the model

will use at this minimum time step in attempting to advance the

solution of the equation set.

Count 100

Example:

DTCHE 1.0e-10 1000

Table 44. The INTER command (set initial interface height)

Table 45. The DTCHE command (set minimum time step and maximum iteration count)
66

would stop CFAST after 1000 iterations of the solver below a time step of 1.0x10 .

-10

The purpose of SETP is to allow variables to be set so that the model can be updated in real time.

SETP File_Name

Example: SETP newdata.p0

Parameter default

File Name: File name for setting internal values. This keyword should be used

with caution since it does not necessarily set the model consistently. The file

named in the SETP command has a special format. The first line must be the

name of the input data file referencing the SETP set, followed by lines specifying

the conditions

Compartment Value {‘L’ or ‘U’} {‘PRESS’ TEMP’ or ‘INTER’}

none

For example, if one were using the input data file DATA.DAT and it had the entry:

SETP newdata.p0

then newdata.p0 might look something like

FILE DATA.DAT

1 230. U TEMP

2 101303. L PRESS

The purpose of STPMAX is to limit the maximum time step that will be taken by the solver. 

Generally, the numerical solver in CFAST will take as big a time step as it can so long as there is

convergence. In many cases this works well. However, the descritization in CFAST is on one

second intervals. If fire events change (for example, a door is opened), the prediction can go

beyond the desired time and the code has to backtrack to the beginning of the event. This can

slow the computation. In order to prevent the model from slowing down in many cases, the

maximum time step is set to one second. Larger values are okay, so long as the model converges.

Table 46. The SETP command (set initial parameters)
67

STPMAX Maximum_Time_Step

Example: STPMAX 5.0

Parameter Units Default

Maximum time step: Largest time interval that the model will

use in attempting to advance the solution of the equation set. 

The model may use smaller values if a solution cannot be

obtained at this value.

s 1

Example:

STPMAX 5.0

4.8 Scenario and Software Limits

CFAST is intended for use with a wide variety of fire scenarios. A number of limits to the

inputs in the software implementation of the model are noted below. Details of all of the inputs

for the program are included in Chapter 4.

Maximum simulation time in seconds 86 400

Maximum number of compartments 30

Maximum number of fires which can be included in a single test case

(including the main fire)

31

Maximum number of fire definitions which can be included in a single fire

database file

30

Maximum number of data points for a single main or secondary object fire 21

Maximum number of material thermal property definitions which can be

included in a single thermal database file

56

Maximum number of slabs in a single surface material in the thermal

database file

3

Table 47. The STPMAX command (set maximum time step)

Table 48. Scenario and software limits for the CFAST model
68

Maximum total number of fans in all mechanical ventilation systems which

can be included in a single test case

5

Maximum total number of ducts in all mechanical ventilation systems which

can be included in a single test case

62

Maximum total number of connections between compartments and

mechanical ventilation systems which can be included in a single test case

62

Maximum number of independent mechanical ventilation systems which can

be included in a single test case

10

Maximum number of targets which can be included in a single test case. In

addition, the CFAST model includes a target on the floor of each

compartment in the simulation and one for each object fire in simulation.

30

Maximum number of data points in a history or spreadsheet file 900
69

Time = 0.0 seconds.

Compartment Upper Lower Inter. Pyrol Fire

 Temp. Temp. Height Rate Size 

 (K) (K) (m) (kg/s) (W)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 1 300.0 300.0 2.3 1.400E-03 2.530E+04

 2 300.0 300.0 2.3 0.000 0.000 

 Outside 0.000 

Time = 200.0 seconds.

Compartment Upper Lower Inter. Pyrol Fire

 Temp. Temp. Height Rate Size 

 (K) (K) (m) (kg/s) (W)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 1 1252. 475.1 0.63 0.278 4.831+06

 2 828.7 325.4 1.0 0.000 0.000 

 Outside 1.609E+03

5 Output

5.1 Overview

The output of CFAST are the sensible variables that are needed for assessing the environment in

a building subjected to a fire. These include temperatures of the upper and lower gas layers

within each compartment, the ceiling/wall/floor temperatures within each compartment, the

visible smoke and gas species concentrations within each layer, target temperatures and sprinkler

activation time. The amount of information can be very large, especially for complex

geometries and long simulations.

The default output is called the compact form, and shows the basic information about a scenario,

including layer temperatures and the size of fires. This can be duplicated from other programs

with the /r:c option. Default text output provides a simple overview for the user to make sure the

case runs as expected. Using the /r reporting options allow the user to obtain additional details

of the simulation results.

The compact output for each compartment is listed across the screen and the compartments are

listed down the screen starting with compartment one and ending with the outside. The example

below shows the initial and final conditions for a calculation:

The first column contains the compartment number. On each row with its compartment number

from left to right is the upper layer temperature, lower layer temperature, the height of the
70

interface between the two layers, the total pyrolysis rate, and finally the total fire size. The only

value given for the outside is the total heat release rate of fires venting to the outside.

5.1.1 Detailed Outputs

The reporting options are /R:WINFST

The options are listed consecutively without commas or spaces between. The option is not case

sensitive and order in the option list is not significant. When invoked the reporting option

overrides the default output and reports only the information that the user requests. The

following sections describe each of the options. Each section refers to a specific part of the print

out at the end of the chapter and appears in the order the output appears. A description of each

option follows.

5.1.2 Output for Option /R:I

To get a summary of the input file, use /R:I. This option prints the initial conditions to the

output before the actual run starts. This merely mimics the inputs specified by the user in the

input data file The initial conditions brake down into seven sections. Each is described below

with the section name. The following explanation uses the output from the case STANDARD.DAT

which is captured using the program report. STANDARD.DAT is included in the distribution.

Please note, there are not mechanical ventilation or horizontal vents in STANDARD.DAT, so below

the section saying there are no mechanical ventilation connections, there is an annotated section

from additional data files, TESTVVENT.DAT, TESTHVAC.DAT and TESTSPEC.DAT.

Title: The title line consists of the version of CFAST and the title included in the file. The first

line of the output is the title line. It is the only section of the initialization output without a

section header. The Checksum at present doesn't do anything. It is for future verification that a

file has not been changed. 

** CFAST Version 5.1.1 Run 10/25/2004 **

 

**  A contribution of the **

** National Institute of Standards and Technology **

** Gaithersburg, MD 20899 **

** Not subject to Copyright **

Data file is standard.dat (Checksum 00000000)

Overview: The overview gives a general description of the case. The output is fairly self

explanatory. Doors, ..." is the total number of horizontal natural flow vent connections in all

compartments of the simulation. "Ceil. Vents, ..." gives the total number of vertical natural flow

vent connections in all compartments of the simulation. The last header on the line "MV

Connections" has the total number mechanical flow connections to all compartments in the

simulation. Times in these outputs come from the TIMES input. All times are in s.
71

OVERVIEW

Compartments Doors, ... Ceil. Vents, ... MV Connects

 1 1 0 0

Simulation Print History Restart

 Time Interval Interval Interval 

 (s) (s) (s) (s) 

 1800 10 10 0

Ceiling jet is on for all 

History file is STANDARD.HI

Ambient Conditions: This section, like the overview section, needs little elaboration. It gives

the starting atmospheric conditions for the simulation both for outside and inside the structure.

Data for these outputs come from the TAMB and EAMB inputs. Temperatures are in K, pressure

in Pa, elevations in m, and wind speed in m/s. Wind Power is the dimensionless power law

coefficient from the WIND input.

AMBIENT CONDITIONS

Interior Interior Exterior Exterior Station Wind Wind Wind 

Temperature Pressure Temperature Pressure Elevation Speed Ref. Height Power

(K) (Pa) (K) (Pa) (m) (m/s) (m)

 300. 101300. 300. 101300. 0.00 0.0 10.0 0.16

Compartments: The compartments section gives a summary of the geometry for the simulation. 

A simple table summarizes the geometry with compartments running down the page in

numerical order. The various dimensions for each compartment are on the row with its compartment number. Two columns need explanation. The second to last column "Ceiling Height"

gives the height of the ceiling relative to the station height in the Ambient Conditions section. 

Similarly the "Floor Height" refers to the height of the floor above the station height.

COMPARTMENTS

Compartment Width Depth Height Area Volume Ceiling Floor 

 Height Height 

 (m) (m) (m) (m^2) (m^3) (m) (m)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 9.10 5.00 4.60 45.50 209.30 4.60 0.00

 • Values for width, depth, height, and floor height come directly from the WIDTH,

DEPTH, HEIGH, and HI/F specifications in the input data file. 

 • Area is calculated as width x depth in m . 

2

 • Volume is calculated as width x depth x height in m . 

3

 • Floor height is the absolute elevation of the ceiling of the compartment and is just station

elevation (from the ambient conditions section) + compartment height in m.
72

Vent Connections: Vent connections further divides into three distinct parts. Each part has its

own sub heading. A description of each follows.

Horizontal Natural Ventilation is the first table in the vent connections sections. Each row in the

table characterizes one vent. The first two columns contain the two compartments connected by

the vent. Each vent is ordered first by the lower number of the two compartments and then the

numeric order of the second compartment. The third column gives the vent number. Column

four is the width of the vent. The next two columns report the sill and soffit height for the vent

relative to the floor of the first compartment. The seventh and eighth columns have a second

listing of the sill and soffit height, this time relative to the station height. Area of the vent is in

the last column.

VENT CONNECTIONS

Horizontal Natural Flow Connections (Doors, Windows, ...)

From To Vent Width Sill Soffit Abs. Abs. Area

Compartment Compartment Number Height Height Sill Soffit

 (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m^2)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 Outside 1 2.40 0.00 1.00 0.00 1.00 2.40

 • From compartment, to compartment, vent number, width, sill height, and soffit height all

come directly from the HVENT specifications in the input data file.

 • Absolute sill height and absolute soffit height is the station elevation + compartment

floor height + sill height. Absolute soffit height and absolute soffit height is the station

elevation + compartment floor height + soffit height

Vertical Natural Ventilation prints out in a similarly simple table. Again each vent is one row of

the table. The first column is the upper compartment. The upper compartment is the compartment where the vent opens into the floor. The second column is the lower compartment where

the vent is in the ceiling. The third column describes the shape of the vent, which can be either

round or square. The fourth column gives the area of the vent. The last two columns are the

height of the vent, relative to the floor of the lower room and relative to the station height

respectively.

This is the output from STANDARD.DAT

There are no vertical natural flow connections

There are no mechanical flow connections

This is an alternate example that includes a vertical flow connection from TESTVVENT.DAT
73

Vertical Natural Flow Connections (Ceiling, ...)

Top Bottom Shape Area Relative Absolute

Compartment Compartment Height Height

 (m^2) (m) (m) 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 2 1 Round 0.10 2.30 2.30

which shows a circular hole in the ceiling of area 0.1 m . 

2

 • Top compartment, bottom compartment, shape, and area come from the VVENT

specifications in the input data file.

 • Relative height is the height of the vent above the floor of the bottom compartment and

absolute height is the height of the vent above the station elevation.

Mechanical Flow Connections uses two tables. The first table lists all the connections to

compartments and ducts. Each row is either a connection or duct. The first column tells to

which system the duct or connection belongs. A system is a set of continuously linked connections, ducts and fans. The example contains only one system. If a second system had been part

of the file, a line would have been skipped before starting into the second system. The second

and fourth columns give both ends of either the connection or duct. The words "comp" or

"node" proceeds the numbers in these two columns. "Comp" means a compartment number. 

Rows with a compartment number in either the "from" or "to" columns are connections to

compartments, which are basically vents. The rest of the rows define ducts. The third and fifth

columns give the elevations of the proceeding columns. The sixth column is the length which

only applies to ducts. Connections do not have a length so the column is left blank. Next comes

the cross sectional area. The last column tells the absolute roughness. This value is the

resistance the duct provides to the flow of air. Like the length, this value only has meaning for a

duct so it is blank for a connection. Air flows both ways though connections and ducts. The

headers "from" and "to" say nothing about the direction of air flow. The headers only provide a

convenient way of listing both ends of a duct or connection.

Mechanical Flow Connections (Fans, Ducts, ...)

Connections and Ducts

System From From To To Length Area Rough

 Elev. Elev.

 (m) (m) (m) (m^2) (mm)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 Comp 1 2.10 Node 1 2.10 0.12

 Node 1 2.10 Node 2 0.00 2.30 0.08 0.00

 • All of the inputs come from the MVOPN and MVDUCT specifications in the input data

file.

The second table lists the fans. The first five columns in the fan table appear almost the same as

the connections and ducts table. The table lists, in order, the number of the system the fan is a
74

part, the "from" node and its height, the "to" node and its height. A fan actually draws air from

the first or "from" node and pushes it to the second or "to" node. In the second table, the headers

give the direction of the flow of air. The sixth column is the fan number as defined in CEdit. 

The next two columns are the minimum and maximum pressures at which the fan curve is

defined. The rest of the row is made up of the two to five fan curve coefficients in the input file.

Fans

System From From To To Fan Minimum Maximum Fan Curve

 Elev. Elev. Number

 (m) (m) (Pa) (Pa)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 Node 2 0.00 Node 3 2.10 1 0.00 300.00 0.14 -4.33E-04

 Node 3 2.10 Outside 2.10 0.12

 • All of the inputs come from the MVFAN specifications in the input data file.

Thermal Properties The thermal properties section brakes into two parts. The first part is a

table that lists the material for each surface of each compartment. The compartments appear as

rows down the page in numerical order. From left to right next to the compartment number

comes the material for the ceiling, wall and floor. The second part lists the entries in the thermal

data base. The first line gives the database file used. Next comes a listing of each material used.

In addition to materials for compartment surfaces, any materials specified for targets are also

listed. For each listing of a material, the name is followed by the conductivity, specific heat,

density, thickness and emissivity. Additionally, the HCl constants used to calculate the HCl

deposition for the surface are displayed.

THERMAL PROPERTIES

Compartment Ceiling Wall Floor

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 GLASSFB3 CONCRETE CONCRETE

Thermal data base used: THERMAL.DF 

Name Conductivity Specific heat Density Thickness Emissivity HCL B's (1->5)

GLASSFB3 3.600E-02 795. 105. 1.300E-02 0.900 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00

CONCRETE 1.75 1.000E+03 2.200E+03 0.150 0.940 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00

PLYWOOD 0.120 1.215E+03 545. 1.300E-02 0.900 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00

 • Material choices of the ceiling, walls, and floors come from the CEILI, WALLS, and

FLOOR specifications in the input data file.

 • Materials properties for the chosen materials come from the specified thermal properties

file.

 • Units for thermal properties are standard S.I. units. For thermal conductivity, W/m K;

for specific heat, J/kg K; for density, kg/m ; for thickness, m; emissivity is 3

dimensionless.
75

Targets: The entry for targets shows the orientation of additional targets specified in the data

file. Note that the first two are always present. The third one is the target specified in the data

file. Each target is numbered based on the order of the target specifications in the input data file. 

The compartment number, position of the target within the compartment, direction of the front

face of the target object expressed as a normal unit vector to the surface, and object material.

TARGETS

Target Compartment Position (x, y, z) Direction (x, y, z) Material

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 1 2.20 1.88 2.34 0.00 0.00 1.00 CONCRETE 

 2 1 2.15 1.65 0.00 -1.00 0.00 0.00 PLYWOOD 

 3 1 2.50 4.55 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 CONCRETE Floor, compartment 1

 • All of the inputs for targets come from the TARGET or TARG commands in the input

data file. Direction is specified as a unit vector as described in the section on target input.

 • Units for position and direction are all in m.

Fires The fire section lists all the information about the main fire and any object fires that might

exist. All the information for each fire is listed separately. If there is a main fire, it comes first. 

Each fire listing has the same form. First is the name of the fire followed by a list of general

information. Listed left to right is the compartment the fire is in, the type of fire, the x, y, z

position, the relative humidity, the lower oxygen limit, and finally the pyrolysis temperature. A

table of time history curves for the fire follows. The table contains all the time history curves for

the fire. Each row on the table is a specific time given in the left most column. The rest of the

columns give the values at that particular time. The column headers are keywords used in the

datafile. The keyword meanings are: fmass is pyrolysis rate; hcomb is heat of combustion; fqdot

is heat release rate; fhigh is height of fire; C/CO2 is carbon to carbon dioxide ratio; CO/CO2 is

the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide ratio; H/C is the hydrogen to carbon ratio; O/C is the

oxygen to carbon ratio; HCN is the hydrogen cyanide production rate; and HCl is the hydrogen

chloride production rate.

FIRES

Name: Main Fire

Compartment Fire Type Position (x,y,z) Relative Lower O2 Pyrolysis

 Humidity Limit Temperature

 1 Constrained 3.00 5.70 0.00 50.0 12.00 300.

 Time Fmass Hcomb Fqdot Fhigh C/CO2 CO/CO2 H/C O/C HCN HCL

 (s) (kg/s) (J/kg) (W) (m) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 0. 0.0 2.41E+07 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 60. 8.30E-03 2.41E+07 2.00E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 120. 1.45E-02 2.41E+07 3.50E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 180. 1.41E-02 2.41E+07 3.40E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 240. 8.30E-03 2.41E+07 2.00E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 300. 6.22E-03 2.41E+07 1.50E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 360. 4.15E-03 2.41E+07 1.00E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0
76

 420. 4.15E-03 2.41E+07 1.00E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 480. 3.32E-03 2.41E+07 8.00E+04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 540. 3.11E-03 2.41E+07 7.50E+04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

 1800. 4.15E-03 2.41E+07 1.00E+05 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.16 0.0 0.0 0.0

Name: WARDROBE Referenced as object # 1

Compartment Fire Type Position (x,y,z) Relative Lower O2 Pyrolysis

 Humidity Limit Temperature

 1 Constrained 2.15 1.65 0.00 50.0 12.00 300.

 Time Fmass Hcomb Fqdot Fhigh C/CO2 CO/CO2 H/C O/C HCN HCL

 (s) (kg/s) (J/kg) (W) (m) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg) (kg/kg)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 0. 0.0 1.59E+06 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 70. 3.14E-02 1.59E+06 5.00E+04 0.0 1.60E-02 0.23 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 100. 8.17E-02 1.59E+06 1.30E+05 0.0 1.90E-02 0.13 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 140. 0.33 1.59E+06 5.30E+05 0.0 4.00E-03 9.00E-03 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 190. 1.57E-02 1.59E+06 2.50E+04 0.0 0.0 1.60E-02 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 200. 3.77E-02 1.59E+06 6.00E+04 0.0 0.0 3.10E-02 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 340. 1.57E-02 1.59E+06 2.50E+04 0.0 0.0 6.30E-02 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 1170. 3.10E-03 1.61E+06 5.00E+03 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.33 0.0 0.0 0.0

 • All of the inputs for the main fire come from the fire specifications in the input data file.

Data for the object fire comes from the object data file included with the CFAST

software.

 • Units for most values are included in the output. Fire position is in m, relative humidity

is in %, lower oxygen limit is in volume percent, and pyrolysis temperature is in K.

5.1.3 Output for Option /R:N

An expanded version of the compact default output called the normal print out can be obtained

using the /R:N option. When requested, the normal print out is the first information printed at

each interval. The first part of the print out looks similar to the default print out. It is laid out

along the same lines, with the calculated values for each compartment listed left to right and

compartments listed down. The left most column has the compartment. The next three columns

also give the same values as the default output. They are upper layer temperature, lower layer

temperature and interface height. The output changes at this point. The fifth column gives the

upper layer volume. In the sixth, in parenthesis, is the percent of the total compartment volume

the upper layer takes up. The pressure difference from ambient follows in the seventh column. 

The rest of the columns are the temperature of the surfaces that are turned on in K.

Time = 1800.0 seconds.

Compartment Upper Lower Inter. Upper Upper Lower Pressure Ambient Floor

 Temp. Temp. Height Vol. Absorb Absorb Target Target

(K) (K) (m) (m^3) (m^-1) (m^-1) (Pa) (W/m^2) (W/m^2)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 377.0 303.8 0.7236 1.76E+02( 84%) 1.000E-02 1.000E-02 -9.483E-02 437. 335. 
77

The second table of the normal print out has information about the fires. In essence it is two

tables joined. The first part lists information by fire. It starts with the main fire, if there is one,

and then the object fires down the page. The fires are listed in the second column followed by

the plume flow rate, the pyrolysis rate and the fire size. The next three columns are then

skipped. The next column with information is the amount of heat given off by each fire

convectively, followed by the amount of heat given off radiantly. The second part starts after all

the fires have been individually listed. It gives the totals for all fires in each compartment. The

first column has the compartment number. The compartments start at one and are listed down

the page in order. The third to fifth columns are the same as the first part except the values are

totals for the compartment and not just for one fire. The sixth column has the total heat release

rate that occurs in the upper layer. The next column has the same total in the lower layer. The

eighth column has the total size of vent fires in the compartment. The last two columns of the

table gives the convective and radiative parts of the fire heat release.

Fires

Compartment Fire Plume Pyrol Fire Flame Fire in Fire in Vent Convec. Radiat.

 Flow Rate Size Height Upper Lower Fire

 (kg/s) (kg/s) (W) (m) (W) (W) (W) (W) (W)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Main 0.291 4.149E-03 9.998E+04 1.11 6.999E+04 3.000E+04

 WARDROBE 5.026E-02 3.100E-03 4.988E+03 0.120 3.492E+03 1.496E+03

 1 0.341 7.249E-03 1.050E+05 0.00 1.050E+05 0.00 

 • Flame height is calculated from the work of Heskestad [32]. Valid for a wide range of

hydrocarbon and gaseous fuels, the correlation is given by

where H f is the average flame height and Q is the fire size. The mean flame height is

defined as the distance from the fuel source to the top of the visible flame where the

intermittency is 0.5. A flame intermittency of 0.5 means that the visible flame is above

the mean 50 % of the time and below the mean 50 % of the time.

5.1.4 Output for Option /R:W

The /R:W option provides two tables displaying information about wall surface or target

temperatures and fluxes, and heat detectors or sprinklers. The left most column specifies the

compartment number; followed by four columns providing the temperatures of the bounding

surfaces of the compartment in contact with the ceiling, upper wall surface (in contact with the

upper layer gases), lower wall surface (in contact with the lower layer gases), and floor, in that

order. Next comes information about targets in the compartment, with each target listed on a

separate line. Information in the columns includes the surface temperature of the target, net heat

flux to the target, and the percentage of that net flux that is due to radiation from the fire,

radiation from compartment surfaces, radiation from the gas layers, and convection from the gas
78

surrounding the target. CFAST includes one target in the center of the floor for all

compartments. Information on additional targets specified by the user in the input data file are

also included, in the order specified in the input file.

Surfaces and Targets

Compartment Ceiling Up wall Low wall Floor Target Target Flux To Fire Surface Gas

 Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Target Rad. Rad. Rad. Convect.

 (K) (K) (K) (K) (K) (W/m^2) (%) (%) (%) (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 339.2 312.3 306.3 310.8 Floor 311. 863.4 0.0 27.9 74.7 -2.6

 1 320. 1318. 0.0 7.7 71.7 20.6

 2 367. 647.8 0.0 25.9 120.5 -46.4

The second table provides information about heat detectors and sprinklers included in the input

data file. For each output time, the output includes the sensor temperature, whether the sensor

temperature has exceeded its specified activation temperature, and the temperature and velocity

of the gas adjacent to the sensor. For sensors placed near the ceiling of a compartment with a

fire, the temperature and velocity are those of the ceiling jet; for other compartments, it is the

upper layer temperature and a default velocity of 0.1 m/s.

Sensors

 Sensor Smoke

Number Compartment Type Temp (K) Activated Temp (K) Vel (M/S)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 1 HEAT 3.149E+02 YES 3.136E+02 4.152E-01

 • Temperatures are all in K, fluxes in w/m , and velocities in m/s.

2

 • In all cases, the flux to/from a target is net radiation or net convection. That is, it is the

incoming minus the outgoing. So while a target or object is heating, the flux will be

positive, and once it starts to cool, the flux will be negative.

 • Values for radiation from fires (fire rad.), radiation from surfaces (surface rad.), radiation

from the gas layers (gas rad.), and convection from surfaces (convect) are expressed as a

percentage of the net flux to target (flux to target). Positive values indicate heat gains by

the target and negative values indicate heat losses.

5.1.5 Output for Option /R:S

The /R:S option has two tables displaying information about the amounts of species in each

layer. The species information follows the normal print out. The first table gives species

concentrations for the upper layers of all the compartments and the second reports the same for

the lower layers of all the compartments. Again the compartments are listed down the page and

the information across the page. The species are each given in one of several different terms. 
79

Below each header is the units for the given value. Most of the headers are simply the chemical

formula for the species being tracked. However, a couple are not obvious. "TUHC" is the total

unburned hydrocarbons or the pyrolyzed fuel that hasn't burned yet. "OD" is the obscuration

density, which is a measure of the amount of smoke. The last four columns, "HCl c", "HCl f",

"HCl uw" and "HCl lw", are the amount of HCl deposition on the ceiling, floor, upper wall and

lower wall respectively.

Time = 1800.0 seconds.

Upper Layer Species

Compartment N2 O2 CO2 CO HCN HCL TUHC H2O OD CT 

 (%) (%) (ppm) (ppm) (ppm) (%) (%) (%) (1/m) (g-min/m3)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 77.5 18.1 1.24 777. 568. 415. 0.00 2.55 7.26 353. 

Lower Layer Species

Compartment N2 O2 CO2 CO HCN HCL TUHC H2O OD CT 

 (%) (%) (%) (ppm) (ppm) (ppm) (%) (%) (1/m) (g-min/m3)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 79.3 20.7 7.209E-08 4.531E-05 3.312E-05 2.417E-05 0.00 7.677E-07 4.830E-07 0.860

 • The report by species for nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen chloride and the total unburned

hydrocarbons (fuel vapor in the layer) are percent by volume. Carbon dioxide, carbon

monoxide and hydrogen cyanide are in parts per million, which is also a volume fraction. 

Optical depth per meter is a measure of the visibility in the smoke. This is covered in

detail in the comment on visibility in the section on fires and species specification. The

concentration-time (CT) calculation is an integration of the species input for type CT

(See section 4.6.1 for the input of CT) and is intended to represent a relative dose of toxic

gas species [33].

5.1.6 Output for Option /R:F

Information about hallway and vent flow is obtained by using this option. It includes two

sections, one with information about hallway flow specified with the HALL command, and a

larger section detailing mass flow through horizontal, vertical, and mechanical vents. For

hallway flow, the output begins with the compartment specified as a hallway in the input data

file, followed by the time at which gas began to flow into the hallway through the vent that

connects the hallway to the main fire compartment. Following the start time are the average gas

velocity, the layer depth of the initial flow down the corridor, and the distance from the end of

the corridor that the hot layer is estimated to have reached.

Hall Flow

Compartment Start Time Velocity Depth Distance

 (s) (m/s) (m) (m)

----------------------------------------------------------------

 3 2.59 1.69 0.573 32.3 
80

The section for vent flow is titled "Flow Through Vents (kg/s)." Because flow is always given in

positive values, each vent is listed twice. Once for flow going from compartment A to

compartment B and a second time for flow from B to A. As the example below shows, the first

column lists the compartment. The second column specifies the vent, including the type of vent

(an “H” in this column stands for horizontal flow, such as through a doorway or window; a “V”

here would mean vertical flow, such as through an opening in the ceiling, and an “M” stands for

a mechanical ventilation connection) and the compartment from which the flow comes. Up to six

additional columns detail the flow at this vent. Flow into and out of the compartment through the

vent in the upper and lower layers are included, along with mixing between layers at the vent

into the upper layer and into the lower layer.

Flow Through Vents (kg/s)

To Through Upper Layer Lower Layer Mixing Mixing

Compartment Vent Inflow Outflow Inflow Outflow To Upper To Lower

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1 H Outside #1 0.344 0.401 6.416E-02 

Outside H Comp 1 #1 0.344 6.416E-02 0.401

 • The mass balance is the sum of the flow in minus the flow out. (Note that this is an

extended run to achieve results close to steady state.) For any compartment, this is just

(“Upper Layer Inflow” + “Lower Layer Inflow” + “Pyrol Rate”) – ((Upper Layer

Outflow + Lower Layer Outflow) with the inflow and outflow summed for each vent.

Note that the mixing flows are ignored since they are just exchanged between layers in

the same compartment. For the above example, the mass balance is:

(0.0 + 0.401 + 7.2x10 ) kg/s – (0.344 + 6.4x10 ) kg/s = -0.002 kg/s -3 -2

where the pyrolysis rate (from the”normal” output) is 7.2x10 kg/s. The result is about -3

the right magnitude (about 0.5% of the mass flow into or out of the vent) for net mass

loss. The mass loss should still be slightly negative since the compartment continues to

heat.

5.2 Spreadsheet Output

CFAST and REPORTSS generate the same type of output as report. However, the format is a

comma delimited file so that it can be easily imported into a spread sheet. The caution is that

reportss writes all available data to the spreadsheet which can result in more columns than spread

sheets can handle. So it is recommended that only data of interest be written, rather than all

options. The full set is /r:winfs. The recommendation would be to use /r:n, then /r:f and so on.

This keeps the spread sheet to a manageable size.

The headings in the comma delimited file generally spell out the information that is in the
81

column. An example from STANDARD.DAT is

row 1: "TIME","Upper Layer Temp( 1)","Lower Layer Temp( 1)","Layer Height( 1)","Upper Layer Volume( 1)","Pressure( 

1)","Ambient Target( 1)","Floor Target( 1)","Main Plume Flow","Main Pyrolysis Rate","Main Fire Size","Main Flame

Height","Main Convec. Size","Plume Flow( 1)","Pyrolysis Rate( 1)","Fire Size( 1)","Flame Height( 1)","Convec. Size( 

1)","Target Temperature( 1)","Target Flux( 1)","Target Fire Rad.( 1)","Target Surface Rad.( 1)","Target Gas Rad.( 

1)","Target Convec.( 1)","Target Temperature( 2)","Target Flux( 2)","Target Fire Rad.( 2)","Target Surface Rad.( 

2)","Target Gas Rad.( 2)","Target Convec.( 2)","Target Temperature( 3)","Target Flux( 3)","Target Fire Rad.( 

3)","Target Surface Rad.( 3)","Target Gas Rad.( 3)","Target Convec.( 3)"

row 2 (0 seconds):

0.000000E+00,0.300000E+03,0.300000E+03,0.459954E+01,0.209300E-01,0.324148E-20,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.0000

00E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.300000E+03

,0.459270E+03,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.300000E+03,0.459270E+03,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000

000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.300000E+03,0.459270E+03,0.000000E+00,0.967660E+02,0.323401E+01,0.000000E+00

row 17 (1800 seconds):

0.180000E+04,0.377000E+03,0.303842E+03,0.723557E+00,0.176378E+03,-.948170E-01,0.436614E+03,0.334626E+03,0.291118E+00,0.4149

38E-02,0.999839E+05,0.110673E+01,0.699887E+05,0.502605E-01,0.310000E-02,0.498795E+04,0.119848E+00,0.349156E+04,0.319643E+03

,0.131802E+04,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.367099E+03,0.647807E+03,0.000000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.000

000E+00,0.000000E+00,0.310750E+03,0.863351E+03,0.000000E+00,0.279026E+02,0.747219E+02,-.262447E+01

There is a label in quotes and, the compartment or counter (target) in parentheses. The units are

the same as in report (SI), and flux is net flux to the surface or target.

5.3 Error Messages

In some (hopefully rare) cases, a simulation will fail to complete. In those cases, an error

message provides guidance to the user on possible reasons for the failure. The message will

contain an error number which provides a reference to additional information from the table

below. Most often, these errors result from improper information in the input data files.
82

Error

Number

Error(s) Causing This Message Possible Fixes

1 Wrong CFAST fire type The data file for the chosen scenario

defines the fire type by number. In a

CFAST input file, this number is

identified on the line beginning with

LFBT. This number must be 0, 1, or

2.

4 No data file selected The CFAST fire model was executed

without an associated data file.

14 Interior node has too many or too few

connections

A maximum of three connections to a

single node is allowed for each interior

connection in a mechanical ventilation

system. Revise the test case so that the

maximum number of connections to each

node is less than or equal to three.

16 Node range exceeded A maximum of 62 nodes are allowed in a

mechanical ventilation systems. Simplify

the test case to reduce the total number

of nodes in the mechanical ventilation

systems.

17 RAD2 – singular matrix An internal error has occurred

calculating radiative heat transfer. This

message should not occur.

18 RAD4 – singular matrix An internal error has occurred

calculating radiative heat transfer. This

message should not occur.

19 Overwrite, input and index An internal error has occurred writing

the history file to disk. This message

should not occur. Revise the test case so

that a history file is not generated.

Table 49. CFAST Error Messages
Error

Number

Error(s) Causing This Message Possible Fixes

83

20 Incorrectly defined object type Within the object database, each object

fire is defined by an object type and

additional inputs that depend upon the

type of the object. Currently, only three

different types are allowed:

Unconstrained, Constrained, or Flame

Spread. Most typically, this error results

from a corrupt object database file.

Reinstall the CFAST software to recover

the original object database. Note that

any changes made to the object database

will be lost.

21 Failure of target initialization Within the CFAST fire model, heat flux

to the floor is calculated by defining a

position on the floor called a target. An

internal error has occurred in the

definition of the target. This message

should not occur.

22 Error initializing graphics descriptor The selected input file contains errors in

the description of graphical output

beginning with the DEVICE line in the

input file. This message should not

occur. Use a text editor to remove all

lines from the line beginning with

DEVICE to the end of the file.

24 Invalid detector specification There is a syntax error in the input file

describing one of the detectors included

in the scenario. 

25

36 Thermophysical properties file does not

exist.

The file THERMAL.DF has been

deleted from the CFAST subdirectory.

Reinstall the CFAST software to recover

the file.

37 Improper definition of thermophysical

properties

One of the files THERMAL.DF or

THERMAL.NDX has been corrupted

and contains invalid information

defining thermal properties of materials.

Reinstall the FAST / FASTLite software

from the CD-ROM to recover the files.
Error

Number

Error(s) Causing This Message Possible Fixes

84

38 Too many time points in fire definition The defined fire curve has too many

times points. A maximum of 21 points

can be defined. Define a new fire curve

to replace the existing fire curve in the

selected data file.

43 Detector is placed in a non-existent

compartment

The detector is placed in a compartment

which no longer exists in the scenario.

Delete defined detectors.

44 RTI value for a detector is invalid The RTI value for a detector is outside

the range of 1 m s to 400 m s .

1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2

Correct RTI value

45 Location of detector is outside physical

dimensions of compartment

The specified location for a detector is

outside the defined dimensions for a

compartment. Check detector locations.

46 Invalid detector type Detectors may be either smoke detectors

or heat detectors. The fire model has

read in a definition for a detector which

is neither. Check detector type.
Error

Number

Error(s) Causing This Message Possible Fixes

85

Less than 0 DASSL error An error has occurred in the solution of

the differential equation set in the fire

model. The differential equation solver

in CFAST, DASSL, has returned an

error message after failing to converge to

a solution within acceptable error

tolerances. There are many possible

causes for this error.

Often, changing the size of ventilation

openings to the outside allows the

simulation to proceed. Providing

sufficiently large openings for the first

few seconds of a simulation allows the

differential equation solver to proceed

without effecting the ultimate outcome

of the fire. Once the model has

initialized to appropriate values, the

vents can be closed and the simulation

allowed to proceed.

Defining an extremely large fire in a

small compartment with limited

ventilation can cause the differential

equation solver to fail. Usually the fire

size is orders of magnitude larger than

can be supported with available oxygen. 

Reduce the fire size to allow the

simulation to proceed.
86
87

6 Concluding Remarks

CFAST is a collection of data, computer programs, and documentation which are used to

simulate the important time-dependent phenomena describing the character of a compartment

fire. The major functions provided include calculation of the buoyancy-driven as well as forced

transport of energy and mass through a series of specified compartments and connections (e.g.,

doors, windows, cracks, ducts), and the resulting temperatures, smoke optical densities, and gas

concentrations after accounting for heat transfer to surfaces and dilution by mixing with clean

air.

The CFAST model has been subjected to extensive evaluation studies by NIST and others.

Although differences between the model and the experiments were evident in these studies, most

differences can be explained by limitations of the model or the experiments. Like all predictive

models, the best predictions come with a clear understanding of the limitations of the model and

of the inputs provided to do the calculations. The user must supply all of the inputs for the model

for any particular simulation, and then validate the predictions of the model with experiments to

ensure the accuracy of the simulations. Only then can the model be expected to predict the

outcome of fire scenarios that are similar to those that have actually been tested. 
88
89

[1] Jones, W.W., Peacock, R.D., Forney, G.P., and Reneke, P.A., “CFAST – Consolidated

Model of Fire Growth and Smoke Transport (Version 5), Technical Reference Guide,”

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Spec. Pub. 1030 (2004).

[2] Gross, D., “Data Sources for Parameters Used for Predictive Modeling of Fire Growth

and Smoke Spread,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, NISTIR 85-3223

(1985).

[3] Jones, W.W. and Peacock, R.D., “Technical Reference Guide for FAST Version 18,”

National Institute of Standards and Technology, TN 1262 (1989).

[4] Cooper L.Y. and Forney, G. P., “The Consolidated Compartment Fire Model (CCFM)

computer application CCFM-VENTS – part I: Physical reference guide,” National

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[5] Peacock, R. D., Jones, W. W., Forney, G. P., Portier, R. W., Reneke, P. A., Bukowski, R.

W., and Klote, J. H., “Update Guide for HAZARD I Version 1.2,” National Institute of

Standards and Technology, NISTIR 5410 (1994).

[6] Gross, D., “Data Sources for Parameters Used for Predictive Modeling of Fire Growth

and Smoke Spread,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, NISTIR 85-3223

(1985).

[7] Forney, G. and McGrattan, K., “User’s Guide for Smokeview Version 4,” National

Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 1017 (2004).

[8] D. Gross, Data Sources for Parameters Used in Predictive Modeling of Fire Growth and

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[9] U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1976, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,

1976.

[10] The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, David Lide, Editor, CRC Press, Boca

Raton (1994).

[11] Forney, G. P. , “Note on Improving Corridor Floor Predictions in a Zone Fire Model,”

National Institute of Standards and Technology, NISTIR 6046 (1997).

[12] Klote, J. H., “Fire Experiments of Zoned Smoke Control at the Plaza Hotel in

Washington DC,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, NISTIR 90-4253

(1990).

[13] Klote, J.K. and Milke, J.A., Design of Smoke Management Systems, American Society

of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA (1992).

7 References
90

[14] ASHRAE Handbook HVAC Systems and Equipment, American Society of Heating,

Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA (1992).

[15] Klote, J. H., A Computer Model of Smoke Movement by Air Conditioning Systems,

NBSIR 87-3657 (1987).

[16] Huebscher, R. G., “Friction Equivalents for Round, Square, and Rectangular Ducts,”

ASHVE Transactions (renamed ASHRAE Transactions), Vol. 54, pp 101-144.

[17] Heyt, J. W., and Diaz, J. M., “Pressure Drop in Flat-Oval Spiral Air Duct,” ASHRAE

Transactions, Col. 81, Part 2, pp 221-230.

[18] Welty, J.R, Wicks, C.E, Wilson, R.E., Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat and Mass

Transfer, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, 1984.

[19] Moody, L.F., "Friction "Factors for Pipe Flow," Transactions of ASME, Vol. 66, 1944, p.

671-684.

[20] Moody, L.F., “Friction Factors for Pipe Flow,” Transactions of ASME, 66 pp 671-684

(1944).

[21] G. W. Mulholland and C. Croarkin, Specific Extinction Coefficient of Flame Generated

Smoke, Fire and Materials 24, 227 (2000).

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Control, Detection, Sprinklers. Session 4. Passive Systems Performance and Criteria:

Combustibles, Fire Resistance. August 29-30, 1979, Tsukuba, Japan, III/73-78 pp, 1979.

[23] Drysdale, D., “An Introduction to Fire Dynamics,” John Wiley and Sons, New York,

(1985).

[24] Tewarson, A., “Combustion of Methanol in a Horizontal Pool Configuration,” Factory

Mutual Research Corp., Norwood, MA, Report No. RC78-TP-55 (1978).

[25] McCaffrey, B.J., “Entrainment and Heat Flux of Buoyant Diffusion Flames,” National

Bureau of Standards (U. S.), NBS IR 82-2473 (1982).

[26] Koseki, H., “Combustion Properties of Large Liquid Pool Fires,” Fire Technology 25,

241 (1989).

[27] Cleary, T. G. and Quintiere, J. G., “A Framework for Utilizing Fire Property Tests,” Natl.

Inst. Stand. Technol., NISTIR 4619 (1991).

[28] Babrauskas, V. and Grayson, S. J., “Heat Release in Fires” Elsevier Applied Science,

London (1992).
91

[29] Evans, D. D., “Sprinkler Fire Suppression Algorithm for HAZARD,” Natl. Inst. Stand.

Technol., NISTIR 5254 (1993).

[30] Davis, W. D. And Notarianni, K. A., “NASA Fire Detector Study,” Natl. Inst. Stand.

Technol., NISTIR 5798 (1996).

[31] Cooper, L. Y., Fire-Plume-Generated Ceiling Jet Characteristics and Convective Heat

Transfer to Ceiling and Wall Surfaces in a Two-Layer Zone-Type Fire Environment,

National Institute of Standards and Technology, IR 4705, 57 p. (1991).

[32] Heskestad, G., "Fire Plumes, Flame Height, and Air Entrainment" in The SFPE

Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 3rd Ed., National Fire Protection Association

(2002).

[33] Peacock, R. D., Jones, W. W., Bukowski, R. W., and Forney, C. L., “Technical

Reference Guide for the HAZARD I Fire Hazard Assessment Method, Version 1.1,”

Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol., Handbook 146 (1991).
92
93

Appendix A Databases Used by the Model

The models uses two databases, one for the thermophysical properties needed for conduction in

bounding surfaces and targets, and the other for implementing more than a single (main) fire.

A.1 Other Objects

Burning items other than the main fire must be defined in the “other objects” database. The

format of the file is

line 1) OBJECT OBJNAM

OBJNAM(NUMOBJL) = Name of object (up to 8 characters)

line 2) OBJTYP OBJCRI(2,I) OBJCRI(3,I) OBJMAS OBJGMW OBJVT OBJHC

 OBJTYP(NUMOBJL) = Object type

 1 unconstrained burn

2 constrained burn

3 flame spread model

 OBJCRI(2,NUMOBJL) = Flux for ignition (W/m )

2

 OBJCRI(3,NUMOBJL) = Surface temperature for ignition (k)

 OBJMAS(NUMOBJL) = Total mass (kg)

 OBJGMW(NUMOBJL) = Gram molecular weight

 OBJVT(NUMOBJL) = Volatilization temperature (k)

 OBJHC(NUMOBJL) = Heat of combustion (J/kg)

line 3) OBJXYZ(1,I) OBJXYZ(2,I) OBJXYZ(3,I) OBJORT(1,I) OBJORT(2,I) OBJORT(3,I)

 OBJXYZ(1,NUMOBJL) = Panel length (m)

 OBJXYZ(2,NUMOBJL) = Panel height or width (m)

 OBJXYZ(3,NUMOBJL) = Panel thickness (m)

 OBJORT(1,NUMOBJL) = x component of the normal

 OBJORT(2,NUMOBJL) = y component of the normal

 OBJORT(3,NUMOBJL) = z component of the normal

For type 1 and 2 fires line 4) is blank. For type 3 objects line 4 has data specific only to flame

spread. The format for a flame spread object follows.

line 4) OBJMINT OBJPHI OBJHGAS OBJQAREA

 OBJMINT = Minimum surface temperature for lateral flame spread (K)

 OBJPHI = Lateral flame spread parameter (J^2/s^2*m^3)
94

 OBJHGAS = Effective heat of gasification (J/kg)

 OBJQAREA = Total heat per unit area (J/m^2)

The effective heat of gasification is the one unusual parameter for the flame spread object. The

method given by Brown in Heat Release in Fires [28] is to plot the peak heat release rate (HRR)

against the radiant flux used for a number of cone calorimeter runs at different fluxes. The slope

of the curve that bests fits the data is taken to be the ratio of the effective heat of combustion to

the heat of gasification.

line 5) OTIME(1,I) to OTIME(TOTJ,I)

 OTIME(NV,NUMOBJL) = Time history (s)

Each OTIME(J,I) represents a point on the objects burn time line where the variables below are

defined exactly. CFAST will interpolate values between any two points. TOTJ is the total

number of points on the specified time line. CFAST automatically assigns an initial time zero

for the objects time line so that there will always be one fewer specified value for the time line

than for the history variables below. For type three objects the curves are straight lines to

represent the constants that CFAST uses for the flame spread objects.

The following lines are the histories for the individual parameters at each of the OTIME points.

Line 6) OMASS(1,I) to OMASS(TOTJ+1,I)

OMASS(NV,NUMOBJL) = Pyrolysis rate time history (kg/s)

line 7) OQDOT(1,I) to OQDOT(TOTJ,I)

OQDOT(NV,NUMOBJL) = Rate of heat release time history (w)

line 8) OAREA(1,I) to OAREA(TOTJ,I)

OAREA(NV,NUMOBJL) = Area of fire time history (m )

2

line 9) OHIGH(1,I) to OHIGH(TOTJ,I)

OHIGH(NV,NUMOBJL) = Height of flame time history (m)

line 10) OCO(1,NUMOBJL) to OCO(TOTJ,NUMOBJL) 

OCO(NV,NUMOBJL) = CO/CO2 time history

line 11) OOD(1,NUMOBJL) to OOD(TOTJ,NUMOBJL)

OOD(NV,NUMOBJL) = OD or soot time history

line 12) OHRC(1,NUMOBJL) to OHRC(TOTJ,NUMOBJL) 

OHCR(NV,NUMOBJL) = H/C time history
95

line 13) OOC(1,I) to OOC(TOTJ,I)

 OOC(NV,NUMOBJL) = O/C time history

line 14) OMPRODR(1,10,I) to OMPRODR(TOTJ,10,I)

 OMPRODR(NV,10,NUMOBJL) = CT time history

line 15) OMPRODR(1,5,I) to OMPRODR(TOTJ,5,I)

 OMPRODR(NV,5,NUMOBJL) = HCN time history

line 16) OMPRODR(1,6,I) to OMPRODR(TOTJ,6,I)

OMPRODR(NV,6,NUMOBJL) = HCl time history

A.2 Thermophysical Properties

Thermophysical properties are defined in the database THERMAL.DF, which can be changed by

using the THRMF keyword. The relationship is by the name used in specifying the boundary. 

Any name can be used so long as it is in the thermal database. If a name is used which is not in

the database, then CFAST will turn off the conduction calculation, and FAST will stop with an

appropriate error message. The form of an entry in the database is:

name conductivity specific heat density thickness emissivity

and the units are:

name 1 to 8 alphanumeric characters

conductivity Watts/meter/Kelvin

specific heat Joules/kilogram/Kelvin

density kilograms/cubic meter

thickness meters

emissivity dimensionless.

The first three entries in the default data base are

GYPSUM 0.16 900 790 0.016 0.9 0.0063 191.8 0.0587 7476 193 1.021 0.431 Gypsum Board (5/8") 

GYP1/2 0.16 900 790 0.013 0.9 0.0063 191.8 0.0587 7476 193 1.021 0.431 Gypsum Board (1⁄2")

GYP3/4 0.16 900 790 0.019 0.9 0.0063 191.8 0.0587 7476 193 1.021 0.431 Gypsum Board (3/4") 

which specifies three different thicknesses of gypsum, whose conductivity is 0.16 W/m K,

specific heat is 900 J/k K and density is 790 kg/m . The fourth number is the thickness and is 3

represented in the name (normal, 0.013 m and 0.019 m). The fifth is the emissivity, 0.9 in the

above example. The next seven parameters deal with adsorption/absorption of hydrogen chloride

on the surface. This is discussed in detail in the Technical Reference Guide.
96

All of the examples shown above represent single layer partitions. The model, however, will

handle up to three layers, or slabs, per partition. To specify multiple layers, each property is

given one, two or three values separated by slashes. It is important that this be consistent across

the whole entry, otherwise CFAST will have an ambiguous situation. The ambiguity is resolved

by using the lowest number of layers.

The layers are numbered from the inside to outside. That is, the first material property

represents the material on the compartment interior, and the last property is on the outside. 

There are several examples of this format in the THERMAL.DF file included in this distribution. 

One example is:

FC1_L003 .15/.03/.22 1500./1042./1047. 790./1.2/128. .016/.24/.019 .9

Since the emissivity applies only to the interior surface, it will always have only a single entry. 

Other values are ignored. This example represents a three layer assembly taken from

Underwriters Laboratory (UL) "Fire Resistance Directory." The code stands for Floor

Combustible 1 Hour, and L003 is assigned by UL.

Finally, the HCl coefficients are included for each entry in THERMAL.DF since they pertain to

surface effects, and the current algorithm uses a similarity solution for the heat and mass

transfer. There are seven coefficients for the HCl absorption. If the first two are zero, the others

are not used even though they must be present. These coefficients have only been measured for

a few materials. The most commonly used material is:

GYPSUM [0.16 900. 790. 0.016 0.90] 0.0063 191.8 0.0587 7476. 193 1.021 0.431
 This value may be modified with the keyword STPMAX. Normally, it should be left at 1

the default value to allow the solver to chose the step size automatically.

97

Appendix B Initialization Files

B.1 Solver Initialization

These are the defaults for the solver. The name is SOLVER.INI

C ABS PRESSURE TOL, REL PRESSURE TOL, ABS OTHER TOL, REL OTHER TOL

 DATA APTOL, RPTOL, ATOL, RTOL/1.D-5, 1.D-5, 1.D-2, 1.D-2/

C ABS WALL TOL, REL WALL TOL

 DATA AWTOL, RWTOL, ALGTOL/1.4D-2, 1.4D-2, 1.D-8/

C ABS HVAC PRESS, REL HVAC PRESS, ABS HVAC TEMP, REL HVAC TEMP

 DATA AHVPTOL,RHVPTOL,AHVTTOL,RHVTTOL/1.D-5,1.D-5,1.D-2,1.D-2/

 DATA (OPTION(J),J=1,16)/ 

C OPTIONS FIRE, HFLOW, ENTRAIN, VFLOW, CJET, DOOR-FIRE, CONVEC, RAD,

 + 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 

C CONDUCT, DEBUG, EXACT ODE, HCL , MFLOW, KEYBOARD, 

 + 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0,

C TYPE OF INITIALIZATION, MV HEAT LOSS

 + 1, 0/

C NUMBER OF WALL NODES, FRACTIONS FOR FIRST, MIDDLE AND LAST WALL SLAB

 DATA NWPTS /20/

C BOUNDARY CONDITION TYPE (1=CONSTANT TEMPERATURE, 2=INSULATED 3=FLUX)

 DATA IWBOUND /1/

C COMPUTED VALUES FOR BOUNDARY THICKNESS

 DATA (WSPLIT(J),J=1,3) /0.65, 0.15, 0.20/

C TURN DEBUGGING OPTIONS OFF - THIS IS NOT CURRENTLY USED

 DATA DEBUG /MXOPT*0/

C MAXIMUM STEP SIZE , MAXIMUM FIRST STEP: IF NEGATIVE THEN SOLVER WILL DECIDE 1

 DATA STPMAX /-1.0/, DASSLFTS/-1.0/

B.2 Configuration File

The default configuration file is HV5.CF. These entries are fixed format, and must be set as

shown.

header (a6): $$CF$$

version, color table: 2311 15 14 15 11 15 15 0 1 1 0 12 6 2 10 13 4 16 16 1T

file name for the thermophysical properties (a60): THERMAL.DF (default is THERMAL.DAT)

restart file (a60): BURN.DAT

geometric database (a60): GEOMETRY.DAT 

multiple objects database (a60): OBJECTS.DF (default is OBJECTS.DAT)

partition data base (a60): PARTITIN.DAT 

data base path (a64): \NIST\CFAST511\BIN (defaults to current directory if blank)

data directory (a64): \NIST\CFAST511\BIN\DATA (defaults to current directory if blank)

default graphics display (for pc displays) (a2,i1): IV3
98

Note that the version number is the current verion, 511 offset by 1800 which is the transition

version of FAST.

B.3 Setting Options for the Solver (DASSL)

The following table documents components of the OPTION array in CFAST. This array is

defined in the FORTRAN subroutine INITSOLN.sor and is over-ridden by the data file

SOLVER.INI. The OPTION array is used to turn on and off various sub-models in CFAST for

debugging purposes. If any component of OPTION is set to zero then the sub-model or CFAST

using that component is not used during the current calculation.

Option index default Description (0 is off)

FFIRE 1 2 then the “CFAST” fire is used. (1 is not used)

FHFLOW 2 1 Horizontal flow.

FENTRAIN 3 1 Entrainment.

FVFLOW 4 1 Vertical flow.

FCJET 5 2 Ceiling jet (1 is not used)

FDFIRE 6 1 Door jet fires.

FCONVEC 7 1 Convection.

FRAD 8 1 1 - call ABSORB for all rooms (use species)

2 - call ABSORB only for the fire room (use 0.5, 0.01

otherwise)

3 - the gas in the fire room is black (otherwise use 0.5,

0.01)

4 - Use 0.5 and 0.01 (used in 2.n)

FCONDUC 9 1 not used

FDEBUG 10 0 1, 2 and 3 - produce levels of debug print

FODE 11 1 0 - don’t use dP/dt in the solution of T and other variables

1 - include dP/dt for V, T, and so on

FHCL 12 1 model HCL. deposition

FMVENT 13 1 Include mechanical ventilation

FKEYVAL 14 1 not used
99

FPSTEADY 15 1 1 - pressures are initialized so that dP/dt=0. 

2 - pressures and upper layer temperatures are initialized

so that dP/dt=0 and dTU/dt=0. 

FHVLOSS 16 0 Heat loss to mechanical ventilation shafts is modeled.

FMODJAC 17 1 Structure of the Jacobian is exploited to produce more

efficient (ie faster) calcuations

FPDASSL 18 0 Produce debug print

FOXYGEN 19 0 1 - species oxygen is solved for by DASSL.

FBDTECT 20 0 not used

FBTOBJ 21 0 Objects are “backtracked” after burning starts