Fire modeling software has become an indispensable tool for fire protection engineers, helping to design safer buildings and carefully evaluate fire risks in complex environments.
At TERPconsulting, a U.S.-based fire protection engineering and code consulting firm, we leverage a wide variety of fire, smoke, and egress modeling software to build safe spaces to meet the needs of our clients.
These tools are applied to smoke management, egress system evaluation, and pressurization analysis.
I will focus on the current trends and tools used in the industry.
When simulating fire and smoke behavior, PyroSim and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) are our go-to tools.
These programs are beneficial for modeling fire scenarios in all types of settings such as atriums and large warehouses, where smoke control can be especially challenging.
We can design effective smoke control systems that comply with code requirements by simulating how fire and smoke spread through different spaces.
Modeling these scenarios allows our team to create detailed smoke management solutions, while ensuring occupant safety.
Another important aspect of fire safety is ensuring that people can safely exit a building during an emergency.
Pathfinder is a powerful egress modeling tool we use to simulate evacuation scenarios.
We can optimize egress routes by evaluating various building layouts, occupancy levels, and emergency conditions and ensure compliance with life safety codes.
Pathfinder has been invaluable in allowing us to assess evacuation times from office buildings, shopping malls, and stadiums.
One of the newest software tools in our toolkit is Ventus by Thunderhead, which has become a game-changer in pressurization analysis.
The team at TERPconsulting had the opportunity to do a trial of Ventus during its infancy stages and explore its full capabilities before it became publicly available.
Ventus possesses a nimble and more intuitive graphic user interface (GUI), allowing us to create detailed building models using CAD and REVIT files.
This capability saves significant time compared to CONTAM, an older but widely used pressurization modeling tool.
While CONTAM remains a free option, building models and troubleshooting issues is more cumbersome.
Ventus simplifies this process and exports a validated CONTAM file, combining ease of use with industry-standard outputs.
Beyond the modeling software we use for daily operations, there are other innovations in fire protection engineering-specific software.
New modeling tools are being developed for tunnel fire safety, wildfire prediction, and fire risk management in the oil and gas industry.
These specialized tools represent the growing complexity of fire modeling as engineers must address increasingly diverse fire scenarios.
Fire modeling continues to evolve, and with the advancement of cutting-edge software solutions and optimization of computer processing, the future holds even greater potential for solving complex fire protection challenges with increased accuracy and efficiency.
Lana Benny, EIT, AIFireE, is a Fire Protection Consultant at TERPconsulting based in New York City, specializes in fire and smoke modeling, fire risk assessment, and code-compliant fire protection approaches.
Her portfolio includes projects like the NY Korea Center, Marjan Offshore Platform, and Expo 2020 pavilions.
A member of SFPE and IFE, Lana holds a master’s in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University.
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