The multi-cell concept is applied to simulate fire in a big compartmen
t with the zone model CFAST. The predicted physical properties of the
smoke layer are used to justify the results, including the smoke layer
temperature, smoke layer thickness and flows between each cell. Micro
scopic pictures of the flow pattern and smoke temperature distribution
similar to the results predicted by the Computational Fluid Dynamics
technique can be obtained. This idea is recommended to study fires in
big enclosures.