Abstract
Floating-roof tanks are widely used in chemical parks and in case of fires, it is common to form pool fires with varying ullage height. This paper is aimed at examining experimentally and analytically the effects of ullage height on the burning and flame behaviors of heptane pool fires. A series of pool fire tests with four fuel tray sizes (D=20-35 cm) and five ullage heights (h=3 cm, 5 cm, D/2, D, 2D) was conducted. The flame characteristics (length and position) and mass burning rate were measured. Experimental results indicate that the total flame length can be divided into (i) a down-reaching flame length, (Lf,down), and (ii) an upper flame length (Lf,upper). The data shows that Lf,down increases as the ullage height increases whereas Lf,upper shows an opposite trend. For the tests with very large ullage heights (h/D=1.93), it was found that the flame fluctuated periodically and, in some cases, self-extinguishing of the flame occurred due to lack of oxygen inside the fuel tray. A theoretical model is developed to calculate the total flame length by considering the influence of ullage height on air entrainment and heat feedback and subsequently validated against the experimental data.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 123397 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Energy |
| Volume | 246 |
| Early online date | 5 Feb 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 1 May 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51906253 ), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2020QN05 and No. 2021JCCXAQ01 ), Key Laboratory of Emergency Management Department of Fire Emergency Rescue Equipment ( 2019XFZB16 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Pool fire
- Ullage height
- Upper flame length
- Theoretical model
- Down-reaching flame length
