Investigation of Flammability, Thermal and Toxic Hazards of Liquid Materials in Vehicles

Abstract

In case of vehicle fires, oil leakage fires along with the emissions of heat and smoke represent significant fire risk for the combustion of whole vehicles and ambient environment. In present study, the bench-scale cone calorimeter apparatus was employed to conduct fire hazards analysis. Three typical flammable oils, namely OAT, ATF and GLF were used as experimental materials. The heating radiation levels were set from 15 kW/m2 to 40 kW/m2 in steps of 5 kW/m2. Specific parameters, such as ignition time (TII), heat release rate (HRR), total heat release (THR) and CO concentration, have been studied to provide a comprehensive fire behavior assessment of the oils. The ignition times have a liner relationship with external heat fluxes. And the critical heat fluxes (CHF) of ATF and GLF are 6.0 kW/m2 and 3.8 kW/m2, respectively. The derived HRP, FPI and FGI values of ATF remarkably indicate that this oil can contribute more thermal hazard while OAT has the lowest. However, FED values reveal highest toxic hazards of GLF. OAT is the safest materials in terms of three typical oils.