Plume flow in high rack storages

Abstract

A theoretical and experimental study of rack storage fires is presented. Free-burn tests with multiple-wall corrugated paper cartons were carried out in reduced scale and in large scale. The in-rack flame height, excess centreline gas temperature and gas velocity were plotted using axi-symmetric quasi-steady state power law correlations. The correlations include overall convective heat release rate, vertical flue width, height above the floor and height of virtual origin. The correlations obtained can be used to predict activation times of in-rack sprinklers and they can be incorporated into engineering models designed to predict flame spread and fire growth in storage geometries. The study shows that it is possible to reproduce flow conditions and flame heights in different scales which is of practical importance since all large scale testing with high rack storages is very expensive.