Oscillation and Fire Area Shrinkage Phenomena of Wood Crib and Heptane Pool in Ventilation-Controlled Compartment Fires.
Oscillation and Fire Area Shrinkage Phenomena of Wood
Crib and Heptane Pool in Ventilation-Controlled
Compartment Fires.
(12768 K)
Utiskul, Y.; Quintiere, J. G.
Volume 1;
Interflam 2007. (Interflam '07). International
Interflam Conference, 11th Proceedings. Volume 1.
September 3-5, 2007, London, England, 465-476 pp, 2007.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Keywords:
test methods; compartment fires; wood cribs; heptane;
ventilation; structures; fire growth; burning rate;
fuels; mixing; vents; fire behavior; equations;
experiments; pool fires; fire models
Abstract:
To predict the effect of fire on the structures, one
needs to understand physics of the fire growth in a
compartment as to how the fuel interacts with the flame
and its surroundings. This study explores these effects
and applies them to the common fuel configurations such
as pool and crib fires. An experimental program for
single-wall-vent compartment using wood crib and heptane
pool as fuels is carried out to explore a full range of
phenomena associated with under ventilated compartment
fires: extinction, oscillation, fire area shrinkage,
and response of fuel to thermal and oxygen effects. A
single-zone compartment fire model is developed along
with a fuel mass loss rate model that accounts for the
thermal enhancement, oxygen-limiting feedback, and the
fuel type and configuration. The simulation from the
model is able to capture these phenomena and shows good
agreement with the experiments. Some generalities of the
fuel mass loss rate and compartment gas temperature are
presented using the experimental results and the model
simulations. From the simulation, the fire area
shrinkage can be the reason for the fuel mass loss rate
to follow the same trend as the burning rate in
ventilation-controlled fires. The developed model has a
potential to give burning time and temperature in a fire
for any fuel, scale and ventilation.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899