Gas temperature rise and flame length induced by two buoyancy-controlled propane burners aligned parallel to the cross wind

Abstract

This paper investigates the gas temperature rise and flame length of buoyant turbulent diffusion flames under cross wind, which does exist in fuel leakage fire accidents. Two identical propane burners with the same heat release rate were employed as fire sources. The burner spacing, heat release rate and cross wind velocity were changed. The results show that with the increase of the cross wind velocity, the gas temperatures in downwind region are strongly increased, resulting in a strong heat transfer to nearby energy loads. On the other hand, the non-monotonic trend of the flame length is caused by the cross wind effect. In addition, a segmented function predicting the flame length under cross wind is developed for merging and non-merging flames, which involves the heat release rate, burner spacing, pool size and cross wind velocity. The findings of this work have potential practical applications for optimal arrangements of energy loads, which allow predictions to be made regarding the possible threat and the establishment of the necessary safety distance to prevent the damage of multiple fires.