Case study on prevention of fire hazards in coating epoxy-based FRP work with illumination

In this study, we investigated and analyzed the causes of fire hazards on the basis of actual accidents that occurred during epoxy resin fiberglass-coating operations. Results of this study showed that during this process, two major factors could cause a fire. One factor was related to the heat produced during the mixing of the epoxy resin and a polyamide curing agent. From the results of thermal analysis, it was found that the T_onset of the epoxy resin and the polyamide curing agent was 52.8 °C by DSC and T_d10 was 58.9 °C by DT/TGA, causing an exothermic hazard. Further, the results of a pseudo-adiabatic analysis performed in a Dewar vessel showed that the temperature increased from 23.5 °C to 177 °C.The other factor that could increase fire hazard was the illumination source used during the coating operation. Depending on the type of illumination source used, the temperature could increase above 350 °C. The decomposition temperature (T_d10) of PVC was 276.3 °C. The experiments involving epoxy resin fiberglass coating using an illumination source showed serious burn marks, and the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) electrical cable emitted small flames. Therefore, it can be concluded that fire was caused by the combination of two factors—the exothermic reaction between epoxy resin and the polyamide curing agent and the effect of prolonged illumination, both of which caused an increase in temperature leading to auto-ignition of the PVC electric cable.     

Large scale high pressure jet fires involving natural gas and natural gas/hydrogen mixtures

A series of six large scale high pressure jet fires were conducted using natural gas and natural gas/hydrogen mixtures. Three tests involved natural gas and three involved a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen containing approximately 24% by volume hydrogen. For each fuel, the three tests involved horizontal releases from 20, 35 and 50 mm diameter holes at a gauge pressure of approximately 60 bar. During the experiments, the flame length and the incident radiation field produced around the fire were measured. The fires also engulfed a 1 m diameter horizontal pipe placed across the flow direction and about halfway along the flame. This pipe was instrumented to measure the heat fluxes to the pipe. The data obtained is compared with previous data obtained for various hydrocarbons at large scale.     

Flame extension length of inclined hydrogen jet fire impinging on a water curtain

The use of a water curtain system to prevent fire spread has been extensively investigated, but the case of an inclined jet fire inhibited with a water curtain is not involved. A series of experiments were conducted on inclined hydrogen jet fires with various fuel flow rates, nozzle diameters and inclination angles under the influence of a vertical water curtain. This study aims to explore the burning behaviors of inclined jet flames at the impingement area, specifically the flame extension lengths. The experimental results show that an increase in fuel flow rates or nozzle diameter leads to a larger flame extension length. With the increase of flame inclination angle, the flame extension length decreases and the influence of nozzle diameter on the flame extension length is attenuated. A new dimensionless heat release rate is proposed to correlate with the dimensionless flame extension length by incorporating an air entrainment coefficient. The model built in this study can be used to predict the flame extension length of jet flames with different diameters, fuel flows and inclinations under the influence of a water curtain, and is validated by data in the previous study.     

喷射火对输油管道热影响实验平台设计与验证*

为研究油气并行管道中,天然气管道喷射火对相邻输油管道内流体与管壁的热影响,设计并搭建天然气喷射火对输油管道热影响实验平台。实验平台由环道及冷却系统、火焰系统、控制及数据采集系统3个部分组成。完成平台搭建并验证环道系统气密性后,以0#柴油为介质,开展验证实验。研究结果表明:火焰系统工作可靠且可控,冷却系统能够将柴油温度控制在初馏点以下,数据采集系统能够正常采集油品压力、温度、流量、管壁温度、火焰温度等预定数据,实验平台具备一定可行性与安全性。实验平台可进行在不同管道规格及材质、火灾形式、油品介质及流速条件下的热影响实验。实验平台结合材料性能进行测试,可研究喷射火对管材性能的影响,为油气并行管道的安全运行提供相关实验依据。     

Modelling breakdown of industrial thermal insulation during fire exposure

The aging of many of the installations in the oil and gas industry may increase the likelihood of loss of containment of flammable substances, which could lead to major accidents. Flame temperatures in a typical hydrocarbon fire may reach 1100–1200 °C, which are associated with heat flux levels between 250 and 350 kW/m². To limit or delay the escalation of an initial fire, passive fire protection (PFP) can be an effective barrier. Additionally, both equipment and piping may require thermal insulation for heat or cold conservation. Previous studies have investigated whether thermal insulation alone may protect the equipment for a required time period, e.g., until adequate depressurization is achieved. The present study entails the development of a numerical model for predicting the heat transport through a multi-layer wall of a distillation column exposed to fire. The outer surface is covered by stainless-steel weather protective cladding, followed by PFP, thermal insulation, and finally an inner column of carbon steel of variable thicknesses. The model for the breakdown of thermal insulation is based on observed dimensional changes and independent measurements of the thermal conductivity of the insulation after heat treatment. The calculated temperature profiles of thermally insulated carbon steel during fire exposure are compared to fire test results for carbon steel with thicknesses of 16, 12, 6 and 3 mm. The model's predictions agree reasonably well with the experiments. The degradation of the thermal insulation at temperatures above 1100 °C limits its applicability as fire protection, especially for low carbon-steel thickness. However, the model predicts that adding a 10-mm layer of more heat-resistant insulation (PFP) inside the fire-exposed cladding may considerably extend the time to breakdown of the thermal insulation.     

Large scale experiments to study fires following the rupture of high pressure pipelines conveying natural gas and natural gas/hydrogen mixtures

As part of the EC funded Naturalhy project, two large scale experiments were conducted to study the hazard presented by the rupture of high pressure transmission pipelines conveying natural gas or a natural gas/hydrogen mixture containing approximately 22% hydrogen by volume. The experiments involved complete rupture of a 150 mm diameter pipeline pressurised to nominally 70 bar. The released gas was ignited and formed a fireball which rose upwards and then burned out. It was followed by a jet fire which continued to increase in length, reaching a maximum of about 100 m before steadily declining as the pipeline depressurised. During the experiments, the flame length and the incident radiation field produced around the fire were measured. Measurements of the overpressure due to pipeline rupture and gas ignition were also recorded. The results showed that the addition of the hydrogen to the natural gas made little difference to radiative characteristics of the fires. However, the fraction of heat radiated by these pipeline fires was significantly higher than that observed for above ground high pressure jet fires (also conducted as part of the Naturalhy project) which achieved flame lengths up to 50 m. Due to the lower density, the natural gas/hydrogen mixture depressurised more quickly and also had a slightly reduced power. Hence, the pipeline conveying the natural gas/hydrogen mixture resulted in a slightly lower hazard in terms of thermal dose compared to the natural gas pipeline, when operating at the same pressure.     

An experimental study of an LPG tank at low filling level heated by a remote wall fire

This paper describes an experimental study of 2300 L pressure vessels exposed to remote fire heating by a natural gas fuelled wall fire simulator. The tanks were filled to 15% capacity with commercial liquid propane. The flame intensity and distance were varied to study the effect of different heating levels on the tank and its lading.The fire simulator is first characterized with tests including fire thermocouples, radiative flux meters and thermal imaging. With the appropriate positioning of a target tank it is possible to get very realistic fire heat fluxes at the tank surface.Three tests were conducted with the 2300 L tanks filled to 15% capacity with propane. The tanks were positioned at three different distances from the wall fire resulting in measured average peak heat flux at the tank surfaces ranging between 24 and 43 kW m^?2. The data shows rapid rise in vapour space wall temperatures, significant temperature stratification in the vapour space, and moderate rate of pressure rise. These results provide excellent data for the validation of computer models used to predict the response of pressure vessels exposed to moderate heating from a remote fire.     

Influence of thermal environment on metallographic structure characteristics of the electric arc bead pattern

Electrical apparatuses are prone to arc, which generally causes a fire, even an explosion hazard, when a flammable gas mixture is present, especially during industrial processes. Terrible fire scenes are challenging for fire investigations. In this work, by performing a simultaneous thermal analysis test we simulated a fire environment and found that as the oxygen concentration decreased, the oxidation/exothermic peak temperature of ‘cause’ bead became higher, but the melting temperature was unaffected. Results indicated that the bead pattern underwent oxidation at approximately 831 °C, melting initiated at approximately 1060 °C, and the pattern then disappeared. The melted pattern grain changes were divided into three critical temperature stages: Approximately 600 °C, the onset temperature at which the melted pattern grains began to be equiaxed; approximately 831 °C, at which the grains were interspersed with oxygen-containing material; and 831–1060 °C, when the grains disappeared, which is a criterion for identifying electrical fires. However, the boundaries remained throughout the thermal environment process. Moreover, the bead pattern demonstrated three metallographic regions: Deep layer (Region I), the intermediate layer (Region Ⅱ), and surface layer (Region Ⅲ). Region I was the most thermally sensitive, in which equiaxed crystals first appeared. Region Ⅲ was the thermal reaction lag zone, in which the typical branching crystals finally disappeared, and Region Ⅱ was intermediate between Regions I and Ⅲ. The results may help fire investigators determine the fire scene temperature stages and provide support for fire evidence extraction.     

Analysis of the chosen thermal and flammability parameters of dried sewage dust

The hazardous sludge disposal process in the form of landfills requires the determination inter alia of the flammable and explosion properties of dried sewage sludge dust, which has the ability to ignite and spontaneously combust when stored in silos. At a constant furnace surface temperature, the minimum ignition temperature of the sludge dust layer with a layer thickness of 5 mm is 270 °C, and for a layer thickness of 12.5 mm it is 250 °C. Two selected fire extinguishing powders for Class A, B, C and D fires were used in the study to determine the possibility of reducing the susceptibility of dried wastewater to ignition from heated surface, self-ignition and explosion parameters. The most effective extinguishing powder was ABC Favorit, which increased the value of the minimum ignition temperature of the layer (5 mm thick) to 360 °C and the spontaneous ignition temperature of the sludge with this powder increased by 22 °C at 169.6 cm³ in comparison to the sludge without extinguishing powder, respectively. The lowest self-ignition temperature of 136 °C was recorded for the largest tested volume (169.6 cm³) for dried sewage dust without any fire extinguishing powders. The biggest values of p_max and (dp/dt)_max dried sewage dust were recorded 4.8 bar and 113 bar/s respectively. By analysing the obtained test results, it can be assumed that dried sewage dust is a combustible material with properties similar to biomass.     

The characterization of heat transfer fluid P-NF aerosol combustion: Ignitable region and flame development

Heat transfer fluids tend to form aerosols due to the operating conditions at high pressure when accidental leaking occurs in pipelines or storage vessels, which may cause serious fires and explosions. Due to the physical property complexity of aerosols, it is difficult to define a standard term of “flammability limits” as is possible for gases. The study discussed in this paper primarily focuses on the characterization of ignition conditions and flame development of heat transfer fluid aerosols. The flammable region of a widely-used commercial heat transfer fluid, Paratherm NF (P-NF), was analyzed by electro-spray generation with a laser diffraction particle analysis method. The aerosol ignition behavior depends on the droplet size and concentration of the aerosol. From the adjustment of differently applied electro-spray voltages (7–10 kV) and various liquid feeding rates, a flammable condition distribution was obtained by comparison of droplet size and concentration. An appropriate amount (0.3–1.2 ppm) of smaller droplets (80–110 μm) existing in a given space could result in successful flame formation, while larger droplets (up to 190 μm) have a relatively narrowed range of flammable conditions (0.7–0.9 ppm). It is possible to generate a more useful reference for industry and lab scale consideration when handling liquids. This paper provides initial flammability criteria for analyzing P-NF aerosol fire hazards in terms of droplet size and volumetric concentration, discusses the observation of aerosol combustion processes, and summarizes an ignition delay phenomenon. All of the fundamental study results are to be applied to practical cases with fire hazards analysis, pressurized liquid handling, and mitigation system design once there is a better understanding of aerosols formed by high-flash point materials.     

Full-scale experimental studies for backdraft using solid materials

The backdraft experiments involved three full-scale room fire tests that used solid furnishing, loveseats. From experimental data, a backdraft caused two temperature peaks. The first one was below 600 °C. Then, an abrupt opening of the front door led to a supply of a large amount of fresh air, followed by an indication of sudden temperature rise. The second peak temperature was over 600 °C. Meanwhile, the deflagration resulted in the gases heating and expanding within the fire space, thus forcing unburned gases out of the vent ahead of the flame front. Comparing both cases with natural gas and solid loveseat as the fuel in backdraft, the former can achieve pre-mixture state and readily create an instant explosion wave phenomenon; however, this wave disappeared immediately. On the other hand, the solid loveseat used as the fuel in this study produced backdraft within 30–50 s after opening of the door. After the occurrence of backdraft, fire maintained a period of fully developed stage, which was consistent with the conditions in actual fires.     

Experimental research in the fire resistance of the double-frame container

During the road transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat), container was usually used to protect the inner package from accidents. The conventional container is a sandwich-framed construction. When it was subjected to car fire, the combustible materials such as poly-foam interlayer would burn up in few minutes. Once the hazmat leaked out, it could result in the great loss of the public and environment. In this paper, a double-frame container mechanism was firstly proposed for loss prevention. In order to investigate the heat conduction pattern and the effect of interlayer thickness, the two-dimensional (2D) Finite Element (FE) model was developed. Based on the numerical results, the interlayer thickness was defined as 155 mm considering the ignorance of sealing. Furthermore, two small-scale containers whose interlayer were ceramic fiber and phenolic foam separately were manufactured. Pool fire experiments were carried out to evaluate the fire resistance of the mechanism and compare the insulation of the interlayer. Results show that the construction of the container remained complete after about 30-min fire exposure. The maximum temperature inside was below 100 °C during the burning process. When the fire burnt down, the temperature inside increased to 110 °C and then declined gradually during the 1000-min cooling process. Additionally, although the thermal insulation of the container with phenolic foam is relatively better, the ceramic fiber is much more suitable for the interlayer considering the sealing of the container and the stability in heat. In summary, the double-frame container could protect the product inside from car fire. It could be beneficial for the fire-resistant design of much bigger containers, which might be widely used for loss prevention in hazmat transport.     

Effects of environmental temperature on the thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries during charging process

Lithium-ion batteries with relatively narrow operating temperature range have provoked concerns regarding the safety of LIBs. In this work, a series of experiments were conducted to explore the thermal runaway (TR) behaviors of charging batteries in a high/low temperature test chamber. The effects of charging rates (0.5 C, 1 C, 2 C, and 3 C), and ambient temperature (2 °C, 32 °C and 56 °C) are comprehensively investigated.The results indicate that the cell exhibited greater thermal hazard at the high charging rate and ambient temperature conditions. As the charging rate increased from 0.5 C to 3 C, more lithium intercalated in the anode prompt the TR triggered in advance, the TR onset temperature decreased from 297.5 °C to 264.7 °C. In addition, the charging time decreased with the elevated ambient temperature, resulting in a relatively higher TR onset temperature and lower maximum temperature, and the average TR critical time declined by 115–143 s. Finally, the TR required less heat accumulation with increasing of charging rate and ambient temperature, and the heat generation of side reaction played a substantial role that accounted for approximately 54%∼63%. These results provide an insight into the charging cell thermal runaway behaviors in complex operation environments and deliver valuable guidance for improving the safety of cell operation.     

An experimental study on the burning rate of a continuously released n-heptane spill fire on an open water surface

Spill fires are common during oil product storage and transportation after a loss of containment. Since the burning fuel is moving and the fuel depth is quite shallow, the burning rate in a spill fire is different from that of a pool fire with a static burning zone. Unlike pool fires, which have been studied for decades and have well-established correlations for burning rate, research on spill fires is inadequate. In this paper, continuously released n-heptane spill fire experiments were conducted on open water surfaces with varying fuel discharge rates. The pool diameters were measured, and the spill fire burning rates were estimated based on a dynamic balance between fuel supply and combustion. The burning rates in n-heptane pool fires from the literature were reviewed and compared with the estimated burning rates in spill fires of the same dimension. The spill fire burning rate was found to be close to that in a pool fire during the initial burning phase but lower than that in a bulk burning pool fire and that in a “fuel-level-controlled” pool fire. The distinction between the burning rates of spill fires and pool fires is explained by the heat balance analysis of the fuel layer. A model for the spill fire burning rate was proposed accordingly. The results calculated with the presented model are closer to the measured data than those calculated with pool fire models.     

烃类池火灾热辐射量化分析模型探讨

为澄清有关烃类池火灾热辐射量化分析模型选择中存在的问题,针对"池火计算方法"模型进行量纲分析和物理意义方面的讨论,提出该模型在概念使用、量纲关系、热释放速率的计算以及池火焰模化等方面存在的问题。系统阐述点源模型、Shokri-Beyler模型、Mudan模型等常用烃类池火灾热辐射通量分析模型的适用条件和应用范围。点源模型适用于被辐射目标物从池火焰接受的热辐射通量小于5 kW.m-2情况下池火灾热辐射的量化分析;Shokri-Beyler模型主要应用于估算被辐射目标物从池火焰接受的热辐射通量大于5 kW.m-2的情况;Mudan模型可用于估算无风或有风条件下被辐射目标物从池火焰接受的热辐射通量。     

Improved models of failure time for atmospheric tanks under the coupling effect of multiple pool fires

Fire accidents of chemical installations may cause domino effects in atmospheric tank farms, where a large amount of hazardous substances are stored or processed. Pool fire is a major form of fire accidents, and the thermal radiation from pool fire is the primary hazard of domino accidents. The coupling of multiple pool fires is a realistic and important accident phenomenon that enhances the propagation of domino accidents. However, previous research has mostly focused on the escalation of domino accidents induced by a single pool fire. To overcome the drawback, in this study, the failure of a storage tank under the coupling effect of multiple pool fires was studied in view of spatial and temporal synergistic process. The historical accident statistics indicated that the accident scenario of two-pool fires accounted for 30.6% in pool fires. The domino accident scenario involving three tanks is analyzed, and the typical layout of tanks is isosceles right triangle based on Chinese standard “GB50341-2014”. The thermal response and damage of a target tank heated by pool fires were numerically investigated. The volume of 500 m³, 3000 m³, 5000 m³ and 10000 m³ were selected. Flame temperature was obtained by FDS, and then was input onto the finite element model. The temperature field and stress field of target tanks were simulated by ABAQUS. The results showed that the temperature rise rate of the target tanks under multiple pool fires was higher than that under a single pool fire. The failure time of the tank under the coupling effect of multiple fires was lower than that under the superposition of multiple fires without the first stage. The stress and yield strength were compared to judge the failure of the target tank. The model of failure time for the tank under the coupling effect of pool fires was established. Through the verification, the deviation of this model is 4.02%, which is better than the deviation of 15.76% with Cozzani's model.     

Estimation of safety distances in the vicinity of fuel gas pipelines

In this paper, safety distances around pipelines transmitting liquefied petroleum gas and pressurized natural gas are determined considering the possible outcomes of an accidental event associated with fuel gas release from pressurized transmission systems. Possible outcomes of an accidental fuel gas release were determined by performing the Event Tree Analysis approach. Safety distances were computed for two pipeline transmission systems of pressurized natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas existing in Greece using real data given by Greek Refineries and the Greek Public Gas Enterprise. The software packages chetah and breeze were used for thermochemical mixture properties estimation and quantitative consequence assessment, respectively. Safety distance determination was performed considering jet fire and gas dispersion to the lower flammable limit as the worst-case scenarios corresponding to immediate and delayed cloud ignition. The results showed that the jet fire scenario should be considered as the limiter for safety distances determination in the vicinity of natural and petroleum gas pipelines. Based on this conclusion, the obtained results were further treated to yield functional diagrams for prompt safety distance estimation. In addition, qualitative conclusions were made regarding the effect of atmospheric conditions on possible events. Thus, wind velocity was found to dominate during a jet fire event suppressing the thermal radiation effect, whereas gas dispersion was found to be affected mainly by solar radiation that favors the faster dissolution of fuel gas below the lower flammable limit.     

Behavior of buoyancy and momentum controlled hydrogen jets and flames emitted into the quiescent atmosphere

As an effort to improve the prediction of hydrogen dispersion in the atmosphere, effects of buoyancy acting on the hydrogen jets formed by releasing from high pressure vessels are investigated analytically and experimentally. For the analytical study, an integral analysis for buoyant jets and flames is carried out to yield the closed formula describing the jet and flame shapes, including their trajectory and horizontal and vertical lengths corresponding to the critical concentrations. Because the density of hydrogen after releasing from high pressure storage conditions is much close to that of helium than that of hydrogen at room temperature, helium is used as the hydrogen surrogate for the buoyant jet experiments, which were performed by visualizing the jet dispersing in the atmosphere up to the jet Reynolds number Re ～ 2400. The trajectories obtained by the integral analysis and experiments agree relatively well until the transition to turbulence occurs. A further estimate for jets and flames is made by using the integral analysis as a preliminary design to the experiments involving a much greater hydrogen release. Once the comparative investigation of the larger scale experiments with the integral analysis, we anticipate that a more universal hydrogen jet and flame data can be obtained, which perhaps leads to a better safety distance of hydrogen stations.