Experiment study on the burning rates of ethanol square pool fires affected by wall insulation and oblique airflow

Abstract

The effects of pool wall insulation condition and oblique air flow on the burning rates of ethanol square pool fires have been studied experimentally in a small-scale wind tunnel, which focused on the heat transfer process of the fuel pool system due to flame tilt and wall insulation. The results showed that the mass burning rate of a pool fire decreased when the pool wall was insulated, especially in the cases with larger airflow speeds. The maximum value of the mass burning rate without wall insulation reached approximately 2.3 times of that with wall insulation at an air speed of 2.93m/s and a tilt angle of 0°. For both cases with or without wall insulation, the mass burning rates decreased with increase in pool sizes and increased with increase in airflow tilt angles. However, for the cases with wall insulation, the differences in the mass burning rates with different pool sizes are relatively small as the airflow speeds exceed 1.5m/s, while the differences are relatively large for the cases without wall insulation. In addition, the turbulence of the flame fluid would be weakened when the pool wall was insulated.