Flame properties of large kerosene fires

Abstract

In order to provide experimental data to develop fire spread models, numerous tests were performed for a wide range of fire sizes and fuels. Here we focus on large scale kerosene tests (approx. 0.5 to 6 m2), with an emphasis on radiative flame properties and present a novel multispectral approach composed of an opacimetry setup and a FTIR spectrometer. This allowed to compute emittance values (based on transmittance measurements) and equivalent soot temperatures (by fitting the calculated intensities to the measured ones). These results, as well as mass loss rates and flame heights, show good repeatability and agree well with the literature, including with correlations predicting the burning rate, flame height and spectral dependence of the extinction coefficient. Generally it is shown that radiation emitted by the flame is not gray, and can only be considered black for very large flames (i.e. wider than 2.5 m for these tests). Additional data (smaller fires, other fuels, complementary parameters - e.g. flame shape) are still to be analyzed and used to model flame heat radiation.