Experimental study on burning rates of large-scale hydrocarbon pool fires under controlled wind conditions

Abstract

Open square fuel pools with areas of 50 m2, 100 m2, 200 m2, 380 m2, and 400 m2 were used to burn RP-5 aviation fuel and diesel oil, under a well-controlled and regulated horizontal wind field with speeds ranging from 0 to 17 m/s by a large-scale open jet wind tunnel. The mean mass burning rate of the fuel in the quasi-steady period was taken as the representative value. Under the calm condition, the burning rates of the two fuels were proportional to the ratios of the ideal heat of combustion to the effective heat of gasification. The burning rates of different size pool fires were little affected by various wind conditions. With the increase of wind speed, all pool fires exhibited a common pattern in the burning rate, a steady growth followed by a level-off constant value. The traditional Froude number (Fr) was unable to predict the behavior of large-scale pool fires under various wind speeds. A modified Froude number (Fr* = Fr·Re0.2) was developed based on the heat transfer correlation for turbulent mixed convection on a horizontal flat plate and successfully correlated a total of nine different large-scale pool fire experimental data under wind conditions.