Study on Fire Evolution Simulation of Zoning Strategy for Battery Electric Vehicles in RoPax Ship

The transportation of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) on Roll-on/Roll-off Passenger (RoPax) ships is increasing rapidly in recent years. However, the rapid combustion of BEV fire incidents in such confined space has raised considerable safety concerns. This study proposes a zoning parking strategy for BEVs and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) to mitigate fire consequences of RoPax vessels. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is evaluated by comparing the Fire Dynamic Simulation (FDS) results with those under the conventional transportation strategy. First, a Solid Flame Model (SFM) is proposed to streamline the simulation of large-scale, multi-vehicle fire scenarios aboard RoPax ship. Then, the model is applied to simulate full-scale fire scenarios on RoPax ships to compare the fire consequences under two transportation strategies and analyze critical data such as fire spread rate, temperature distribution, and thermal radiation intensity. The results show that the zoning strategy can prolong the time for the fire to reach its peak by 46% and maintain a stable fire state for 1100 seconds. In the zoning parking model, the sequential propagation of fire along the vehicle parking order allows for clear prediction of its next phase. This study provides technical references for formulating fire emergency response strategies for RoPax ships and contributing to the development of safety and emergency response regulations for the emerging scenarios of electric vehicle transportation.