Experimental and numerical investigation into burning rate and fire plume characteristic of pool fire with plate obstacle

Abstract

Pool fire is a common type of fire accident in the petrochemical industry, which often causes significant casualties and property damage. In most real fire scenarios involving the interaction between pool fire and obstacles, the surrounding obstacles would impact the development of the pool fire significantly, altering the results of fire risk assessment. To address these knowledge gaps, a comprehensive experimental and numerical analysis was conducted to explore the pool fire behavior with plate obstacle. The results show that as the obstacle height decreases or diameter increases gradually, the average burning rate increases obviously. The temperature and flow fields were obtained through numerical simulation, and indentified as three distinct patterns. It was found that the vortices formed near the obstacles facilitate the mixing of air and fuel vapor, thereby changing the fire plume behavior. In addition, the classical model for the plume centerline temperature was modified for pool fire with plate obstacle. This work enhances understanding of pool fire behavior with plate obstacles, which directly contribute to mitigating fire damage and improving energy application safety.