Effects of elevated pool fire in a naturally ventilated compartment

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental analysis of fire behavior due to elevated fuel pan with diesel in a fixed ventilated compartment of size 4 m (height) × 4 m (length) × 4 m (width) having door opening of 2 m (Hd) × 1 m (W). A reasonably large pool size of diameter 0.8 m is used in experiments so that the results may be useful for industrial fire hazard analysis. The variable parameter, taken as fire source height ‘h’ is from the floor that is 0.3 m, 0.6 m, 0.9 m, 1.2 m, 1.5 m and 1.8 m. During experimentation, it is observed that variation in pan height significantly affects the mass loss rate (MLR), heat release rate (HRR), flame behavior, smoke layer height, doorway mass flow and global equivalence ratio (GER). In case of higher elevated fire, HRR decreased drastically, one-fourth of maximum HRR value obtained in case of lower elevation of fire source. Lowest elevated pool fire shows good agreement for MLR and HRR with other experiment performed in an open space, i.e., well ventilated condition. For a significant elevated fire, the average fuel mass loss rate, flame temperature, smoke layer height, doorway mass flow rate and exit velocity were lower. With respect to above parameters, fire scenario inside the compartment seems to be less hazardous in case of higher elevated fire. A completely different trend has been found for the variation of GER with respect to MLR in current study.