Experimental study on burning behavior of small-scale n-heptane pool fire with brash ice

Abstract

In-situ burning is an effective method for oil spill cleanup in ice-covered areas. Although brash ice is commonly contained in the oil spill, nearly no work has been conducted to explore the influence of brash ice on pool fire burning. Aiming at characterizing the influence of the brash ice content on pool fire, a series of small-scale pool fire experiments were conducted using burners with different sizes (5, 7.5, and 10 cm). The results show that the brash ice significantly affects the ignitability and burning behavior of pool fires. When the brash ice content exceeds the critical value, the pool fire with brash ice is non-ignitable. And during the brash ice melting process, the flame height and mass loss rate decrease with the brash ice content increasing. Based on the theoretical and heat transfer analysis, it was found that the heat transfer between the fuel and ice would decrease the mass loss rate. Furthermore, the dimensionless mass loss rate could be correlated with the dimensionless size of brash ice and brash ice content. In order to explore the brash ice melting behavior in pool fire burning, a dimensionless correlation was proposed to describe the melting rate. This work provides basic experimental data and understanding of burning behavior for pool fire with brash ice, which can inform more practical in-situ burning applications in ice-covered areas.