Experimental study on the ignition and burning characteristics of liquid fuels on hot surfaces

Abstract

As a typical fire accident in industrial process, the liquid fuel fire ignited by hot surfaces may pose a threat to process safety and environmental protection. Therefore, the ignition and burning characteristics on hot surfaces are investigated for different liquid fuels, including light crude oil, transformer oil, and corn oil. In the experiment, the ignition and burning characteristic are obtained and discussed, including ignition probability, ignition delay time, burning behavior and flame height. Based on the logistic regression model, the ignition probability curves with S-shaped are fitted by experimental data, and the characteristic ignition temperatures and ignition temperature regions are obtained and compared. The mathematical model is developed to explain the variation of ignition delay time with hot surface temperature. Moreover, the burning processes of the liquid fuel samples ignited by hot surfaces is analyzed and discussed, and the phenomenon of flame overflow is observed to occur in the transformer oil. Based on dimensionless analysis, the maximum flame height could be related with the hot surface temperature and ignition delay time. This work is essential to improve industrial process safety management throughout the production, storage, transportation, and utilization of liquid fuels.