Experimental investigation of compartment fires with circular opening: From the aspects of internal temperature and facade flame

Abstract

This paper experimentally investigated the internal temperature and the facade flame for compartment fires involving circular openings. A series of experiments were carried out by using a reduced-scale model which composed of a cube compartment with various circular openings and a vertical fireproofing board (used as building facade). A porous burner with propane fuel was set inside the compartment as fire source. The internal temperature profile was measured by vertical thermocouple arrays at the inner and outer corners, and the facade flame was captured by a CCD camera from a side view. This paper revealed that: (1) With the same area, maximum heat release rate inside the compartment with circular opening is larger than that with square opening. (2) For relatively larger circular openings, facade flames tend to ceiling jet flame extension. With the increasing of heat release rate, facade flame induced by ceiling jet flame extension will convert to spill fire plume. (3) A dimensionless number R, which represents the ratio of total heat release rate to internal maximum heat release rate, is proposed to distinguish spill fire plume and ceiling jet flame extension when facade flames appear at exterior. (4) A non-dimensional correlation is developed to characterize the facade flame heights for both ceiling jet flame extension and spill fire plume. These findings and results can provide fundamental knowledge for understanding compartment fire with a circular opening.