Introduction

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier-Stokes equations appropriate for low-speed, thermally-driven flow, with an emphasis on smoke and heat transport from fires.

Smokeview (SMV) is a visualization program that is used to display the output of FDS and CFAST simulations.

Please read the manuals for each program and be aware that FDS is not a typical "point and click" computer program. Rather, FDS is run from the command line, and it requires that input parameters be written into a text file. Third party software is available to assist in the preparation of the input files and execution of the program, but this software is not necessarily free. See the 3rd Party Tools page for more information.

The Fire Dynamics Simulator and Smokeview applications are developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States Department of Commerce, in cooperation with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

FDS and Smokeview is free software developed through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by employees of the Federal Government in the course of their official duties. Pursuant to Title 17, Section 105 of the United States Code . This work is not subject to copyright protection and is in the Public Domain .

NIST assumes no responsibility whatsoever for use by other parties of its source code, documentation or compiled executables, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about its quality, reliability, or any other characteristic. See the Disclaimer page for additional information.

FDS-SMV User Community Map

The map below contains markers placed by members of the FDS-SMV user community. It is a collaborative map that anyone may add a marker on to indicate where they are and information about their use of FDS and Smokeview in the marker description. While this is not a comprehensive reporting of all of the users in the community, is does provide some scope to the large number of places and ways that FDS and Smokeview are used around the world.

View Collaborative Map for the FDS-SMV user community in a larger map

Most Recent FDS-SMV Blog Post

To read the full text of the post, click the title link .

FDS Roadmap

The FDS Roadmap provides an overview of the development of the Fire Dynamics Simulator. This overview encompasses the progression of development over time, from the origins of FDS, the current features and development work and on to the future goals of the development team. The Roadmap is presented as a Wiki to allow the developers to shape and transform the Roadmap through the natural evolution of the FDS application over time. This link: FDS_Road_Map will open the wiki document in a new tab or window.

Support Options

Report to the Support Issue Tracker specific bugs or problems that you encounter with either Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), FDS+EVAC or Smokeview.

Please go to the Discussion Group, for general questions and/or to provide feedback related to your experience using FDS, Smokeview, the documentation, the web sites, etc.

NOTE: See the Support page for more user and developer support options.