TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental investigation on the burning behaviors of thin-layer transformer oil on a water layer
AU - Zhao, Jinlong
AU - Zhang, Jianping
AU - Chen, CHangkun
AU - Huang, Hong
AU - Yang, Rui
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - This paper examines experimentally the burning behaviors of thin-layer transformer oil on a water layer. A series of transformer oil pool fire experiments with different initial fuel thicknesses was performed. The burning process, burning rate, liquid temperature and radiative heat flux were measured. The experimental results show that the whole process can be divided into five typical phases: (1) rapid growth burning, (2) steady burning, (3) short boilover burning, (4) continuous boilover and (5) fire decay. The appearance of the middle three phases (2-4) depends on initial fuel thickness. The steady burning rate is found to be independent of the fuel thickness but slightly higher than that of burning without a water layer, because of the decrease in the boiling point of the fuel-water mixture. A critical fuel thickness was found to determine whether continuous boilover or short boilover will occur. The results also show the intensity of the initial boilover increases with increasing fuel thickness but the intensity of subsequent boilover of thin-layer burning can surpass that of thick-layer burning for some cases. A linear correlation was found between the time to boilover and fuel initial thickness in agreement with literature findings. The present results are of practical importance in situ-burning and thermal hazard analysis for fire accidents due to leakage of liquid fuels on water.
AB - This paper examines experimentally the burning behaviors of thin-layer transformer oil on a water layer. A series of transformer oil pool fire experiments with different initial fuel thicknesses was performed. The burning process, burning rate, liquid temperature and radiative heat flux were measured. The experimental results show that the whole process can be divided into five typical phases: (1) rapid growth burning, (2) steady burning, (3) short boilover burning, (4) continuous boilover and (5) fire decay. The appearance of the middle three phases (2-4) depends on initial fuel thickness. The steady burning rate is found to be independent of the fuel thickness but slightly higher than that of burning without a water layer, because of the decrease in the boiling point of the fuel-water mixture. A critical fuel thickness was found to determine whether continuous boilover or short boilover will occur. The results also show the intensity of the initial boilover increases with increasing fuel thickness but the intensity of subsequent boilover of thin-layer burning can surpass that of thick-layer burning for some cases. A linear correlation was found between the time to boilover and fuel initial thickness in agreement with literature findings. The present results are of practical importance in situ-burning and thermal hazard analysis for fire accidents due to leakage of liquid fuels on water.
KW - boilover intensity
KW - burning rate
KW - critical thickness
KW - thin-layer burning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083782480&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psep.2020.04.016
DO - 10.1016/j.psep.2020.04.016
M3 - Article
VL - 139
SP - 89
EP - 97
JO - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
JF - Process Safety and Environmental Protection
SN - 0957-5820
ER -