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Experimental study of reduced pressure effect on radiation feedback to the fuel surface of pool fires

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Abstract

To investigate low air pressure effect on the flame radiative feedback to the fuel surface, pool fires with stable liquid surface were performed by employing three round burners with diameters of 0.15 m, 0.25 m and 0.35 m in both Lhasa (3650 m/64 kPa) and Hefei (24 m/100.8 kPa). Incident heat flux at fuel surface, flame shape and axial temperature distribution were compared at two sites. The flame envelope for 0.15 m appears to be cylinder, while that for 0.35 m tends to be cone, and the mean flame height is larger in reduced pressure for the same pool dimension. The averaged flame temperature is relatively higher in Lhasa due to reduction in air entrainment and thermal radiation loss, and the axial temperature rises could be scaled in the form of \(z\left( {{P \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {P Q}} \right. \kern-0pt} Q}} \right)^{2/5}\). Experimental findings also reveal that low pressure reduces the radiation feedback evidently for different scale pool fires and the averaged value could be correlated against \(T_{\text{f}}^{5} P^{2} L_{\text{m}}\). The radiation feedback fraction \(X_{\text{a}}\) is around 0.30 for 0.15 m pool fires, while it is 0.55 in Lhasa for 0.35 m pool fire, lower than 0.76 in Hefei.

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Abbreviations

\(c_{\text{p}}\) :

Specific heat of fuel (J kg−1K−1)

C :

Constant (–)

\(C_{\text{p}}\) :

Specific heat of air (J kg−1K−1)

\(D\) :

Diameter of the pool (m)

\(f_{\text{v}}\) :

Soot volume fraction (–)

\(g\) :

Gravitational acceleration (m s−2)

\(h\) :

Convective coefficient (W m−2 K)

\(k\) :

Conductive coefficient (W m−2)

\(L_{\text{m}}\) :

Mean beam length (m)

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass loss rate (g s−1)

\(\dot{m}^{{\prime \prime }}\) :

Burning intensity, or mass loss per unit area (g m−2 s−1)

P :

Pressure (kPa)

\(\dot{q}_{\text{r}}^{\prime \prime }\) :

Radiative heat flux (kW m−2)

\(Q\) :

Heat released (kW)

\(\dot{Q}_{\text{absorption}}\) :

Radiative heat absorbed by fuel (kW)

\(\dot{Q}_{{{\text{feedback}},{\text{rad}}}}\) :

Radiative heat feedback from flame (kW)

\(\dot{Q}_{\text{fuel}}\) :

The heat needed for evaporation of the fuel burned (kW)

\(\dot{Q}^{*}\) :

Dimensionless heat release rate (–)

\(T_{0}\) :

Initial fuel temperature (K)

\(T_{\text{boil}}\) :

Fuel boiling temperature (K)

\(T_{\text{f}}\) :

Flame temperature (K)

\(T_{\text{s}}\) :

Fuel surface temperature (K)

\(T_{\infty }\) :

Ambient temperature (K)

\(X_{\text{a}}\) :

The radiation fraction (K)

\(z_{\text{f}}\) :

Flame height (m)

\(z^{*}\) :

Dimensionless characteristic length (–)

\(\Delta H_{\text{c}}\) :

Heat of combustion (kJ kg−1)

\(\alpha\) :

The absorption fraction (–)

\(\alpha_{\uplambda}\) :

The absorption fraction (–)

\(\kappa\) :

Absorption coefficient (m−1)

\(\kappa_{\text{s}}\) :

Soot absorption coefficient (m−1)

\(\rho_{\uplambda}\) :

The reflection fraction (–)

\(\rho_{\infty }\) :

Ambient air density (kg m−3)

\(\sigma\) :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant (W m−2 K−4)

\(\tau_{\uplambda}\) :

The transparent fraction (–)

\(\phi\) :

Configuration factor (–)

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51376172 and 51909152) and Shanghai Sailing Program (Grant No. 18YF1409600). The authors deeply appreciate that.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuhan Second Ship Design and Research Institute, Wuhan, 430205, Hubei, China

    Pan Li, Deman Zhang & Guofeng Chen

  2. College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Jiahao Liu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China

    Jian Wang

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  1. Pan Li
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Correspondence to Jiahao Liu.

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Li, P., Liu, J., Zhang, D. et al. Experimental study of reduced pressure effect on radiation feedback to the fuel surface of pool fires. J Therm Anal Calorim 144, 883–893 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-09545-7

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