Quantifying the Conduction Pathways in a Laboratory-Scale Methanol Pool Fire

Abstract

This study focuses on quantifying the effects of the liquid-side boundary conditions on the burning characteristics of a laboratory-scale methanol pool fire. Pool walls were constructed from copper, stainless steel, or quartz, and the bottom temperature was altered from 0°C to 50°C. Burning rate, flame height, and wall and liquid temperature distributions were measured. The burning rate increased with a decrease in the wall thermal conductivity. Significantly different vertical profiles of fuel and wall temperature resulted from the different wall materials. Wall heat fluxes estimated from these temperature measurements were used in the pool fire energy analysis to estimate the burning rate within ±10% from the measured values. This analysis revealed that convection and conduction pathways dominate the heat transfer from the flame to the pool and their contributions were a function of the pool wall material. The ratio of the conduction to convection pathways was 4–10% for the copper pool and 26–37% for the quartz pool.