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Interaction of Heat Release Rate, Flame Tilt Angle and Flame Length of a Compartment Fire Under Stack Effect

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Abstract

This paper is a re-examination to quantify the flame tilt angle of fires induced by stack effect from a heat and mass transfer perspective. In previous studies, the critical transition and length of the deflection flame were formulated. In the current study, with different kinds of fuels, the flame tilt angles under different strength of stack effect are compared. Results show that under stack effect, the flame tilt angles are quite close at the quasi-steady state within a narrow range regardless of the heat release rate of fire and the position of the open window in a stairwell, which indicates that the inertial force of air flow induced by the stack effect equilibrates dynamically with the thermal buoyancy induced by fire plume. However, the velocity of air flow drawn into the fire compartment is directly related to the strength of stack effect, which is mainly influenced by the heat release rate of fire. A new correlation for the flame tilt angle under the influence of stack effect is developed by taking the dynamic equilibrium into account. The tangent value of the flame tilt angle is linearly proportional to the 4/15 power of the heat release rate of fire. Additionally, a correlation to predict the heat release rate with the titled flame length and flame tilt angle is formulated.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant No. 51976211 and 52006075, opening fund of the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science under Grant No. HZ2019-KF06.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, Fujian, China

    Man Li

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

    Man Li, Jie Ji & Huaxian Wan

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450000, Henan, China

    Zihe Gao

Authors
  1. Man Li
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  2. Zihe Gao
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  3. Jie Ji
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  4. Huaxian Wan
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Correspondence to Jie Ji.

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Li, M., Gao, Z., Ji, J. et al. Interaction of Heat Release Rate, Flame Tilt Angle and Flame Length of a Compartment Fire Under Stack Effect. Fire Technol 57, 1479–1495 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-01063-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-01063-0

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