Experimental study on combustion characteristics of pool fires in a sealed environment

• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128497
• Publication Date: 2023-07-21T02:14:45Z
• Authors: Jinhui Wang; Ruiqing Zhang; Yongchang Wang; Long Shi; Shaogang Zhang; Jiahao Liu
• Keywords: Dimensionless quantity; Limiting oxygen concentration; Confined space; Test bench; Fraction (chemistry)

The results of a series of bench-scale pool fire experiments to explore the burning characteristics under a sealedenvironment are presented in this work.Although the oxygen fraction in the space gradually decreases byburning consumingin comparison to open conditions, the transient heat release rate can still be calculated usingthe PER approach using the in-situ measured oxygen fraction. The dimensionless flame height can still becalculated using the McCaffrey’s model for open conditions, but a greater coefficient should be used because theflame burns in a ‘hunger’ mode when the oxygen fraction is low. The current non-sealed fire model for centerlinetemperature rise of pool fires is unsuitable for the sealed environment: the centerline temperature rise decreasesmore quickly than that predicted by Nasr’s model developed for cases with a limited ventilation in the middleand later stages of the fire. A new engineering model has been developed in this study by curve fitting sealed firetest results. Pagni’s law can still be suitable to describe the relationship between the frequency of flame oscillationand the diameter of a pool fire in a sealed environment, but the modified coefficients are required.