Experimental study on the flame length and burning behaviors of pool fires with different ullage heights

Jinlong Zhao, Xiang Zhang, Jianping Zhang, Wei Wang and Changkun Chen

Energy, 2022, vol. 246, issue C

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.

Keywords: Pool fire; Ullage height; Down-reaching flame length; Upper flame length; Theoretical model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544222003000
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:246:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222003000

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123397

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().