AN EXPERIMENTAL FIRE IN COMPARTMENT WITH DUAL VENT ON OPPOSITE WALLS

Abstract

Ventilation plays an important role in growth and development of fire in compartment. In literature a number of studies on behaviour of fires in compartment are available but most of the studies have been conducted for the compartment with single ventilation opening. Only a few experimental studies are available for compartment with two ventilation openings. Recently, Utiskul (2003) have conducted studies on the dual vent compartment. Utiskul (2003) developed a model and validated it with experiments conducted in a compartment with dual opening—one at upper end near to ceiling and another at lower end near to floor, on the same wall. No study has been reported so far, on the effect of two or more openings of the same size located on opposite wall, i.e., in cross condition, on the development of fire in a compartment (Feasey and Buchanan, 2002). In the present study, an effort has been made to study the effect of cross-ventilation on the burning rates and the temperature profiles at different locations in hot gas layer in the compartment. Experiments have been conducted by burning two different fuels in three different size fuel trays with and without cross-ventilation. It is observed that the temperature in cross ventilation condition are higher than those in single ventilation condition for larger fire size. The experimental data generated in the present study can also be utilized for validation of zone as well as field models.