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Effects of Fuel Location and Distribution on Full-Scale Underventilated Compartment Fires

Published

Author(s)

Andrew J. Lock, Cheolhong Hwang, Matthew F. Bundy, Erik L. Johnsson, Gwon H. Ko

Abstract

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate the effect of fuel location and distribution on full-scale underventilated compartment fires in an ISO 9705 room. Heptane fuel was burned in three different fuel distributions: single centered burner (SCB), single rear burner (SRB) and two distributed burners (TDB). It was observed experimentally that variations in fuel placement do not affect the global fire characteristics such as fuel mass loss rate, heat release rate, combustion efficiency, global equivalence ratio and global CO emission outside the compartment. On the other hand, the local characteristics of thermal and chemical environments do depend on the fuel placements between the front and rear region inside the compartment. That is, at the front region, the local fire characteristics are nearly the same regardless of fuel placement. However, the fuel location and distribution are accompanied by the significant changes in temperature, total heat flux, CO2 and CO volume fraction at the rear region. The existence/nonexistence of centered burner seems to cause changes in the mixture fraction, the flow dynamics, and cause significant variations in CO production at the rear region of the compartment.
Citation
Journal of Fire Sciences
Volume
29
Issue
1

Keywords

underventilated, compartment, fire, ISO9705, fuel, distribution, heptane

Citation

Lock, A. , Hwang, C. , Bundy, M. , Johnsson, E. and Ko, G. (2011), Effects of Fuel Location and Distribution on Full-Scale Underventilated Compartment Fires, Journal of Fire Sciences, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=903203 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created January 3, 2011, Updated February 19, 2017