Evaluation of CFD simulations of transient pool fire burning rates

Fire is the most commonly occurring major accident hazard in the chemical and process industries, with industry accident statistics highlighting the liquid pool fire as the most frequent fire event. Modelling of such phenomena feeds heavily into industry risk assessment and consequence analyses. Traditional simple empirical equations cannot account for the full range of factors influencing pool fire behaviour or increasingly complex plant design. The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling enables a greater understanding of pool fire behaviour to be gained numerically and provides the capability to deal with complex scenarios.This paper presents an evaluation of the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) for predictive modelling of liquid pool fire burning rates. Specifically, the work examines the ability of the model to predict temporal variations in the burning rate of open atmosphere pool fires. Fires ranging from 0.4 to 4 m in diameter, involving ethanol and a range of liquid hydrocarbons as fuels, are considered and comparisons of predicted fuel mass loss rates are compared to experimental measurements.The results show that the liquid pyrolysis sub-model in FDS gives consistent model performance for fully predictive modelling of liquid pool fire burning rates, particularly during quasi-steady burning. However, the model falls short of predicting the subtleties associated with each phase of the transient burning process, failing to reliably predict fuel mass loss rates during fire growth and extinction. The results suggest a range of model modifications which could lead to improved prediction of the transient fire growth and extinction phases of burning for liquid pool fires, specifically, investigation of: ignition modelling techniques for high boiling temperature liquid fuels; a combustion regime combining both infinite and finite-rate chemistry; a solution method which accounts for two- or three-dimensional heat conduction effects in the liquid-phase; alternative surrogate fuel compositions for multi-component hydrocarbon fuels; and modification of the solution procedure used at the liquid-gas interface during fire extinction.     

庚烷池火多火源燃烧特性的实验研究

多火源燃烧是森林火灾和城市群发性火灾中重要而又特殊的火灾现象,相关研究很少。通过恒定控制液面高度的实验系统,对直径0.1m、0.2m和0.4m的庚烷池火在单个火源、两火源燃烧和三火源线性排列时的火焰高度、火焰体积和燃烧速率等特性进行了实验研究。研究发现,三火源燃烧时中间火源的火焰高度、火焰体积和燃烧速率明显高于两火源燃烧和单火源燃烧,三火源燃烧时边上火源与两火源的燃烧状况难以区分。这些燃烧特性随着火源间距的减小,呈现增大趋势。热量反馈增强和空气卷吸受限这两种火源相互作用机制相互耦合,且随着火源间距的减小而增强,在S/D（S为火源间距,D为油池直径）为2～4时,两种机制强烈竞争,在其他参数范围内热量反馈增强效应占主导作用。研究还发现火焰体积与热释放速率有较好的线性相关关系,单位火焰体积的热释放速率约为1614kW/m3。     

TF5池火平均质量损失速率简化模型及其高原环境下的适用性研究

通过池火在常压环境下燃烧时的质量损失机理分析,对火灾探测中欧洲标准试验火TF5(正庚烷池火)归纳推导出以辐射热反馈为主导的质量损失速率简化模型,并推广到拉萨高原低压环境.该模型建立了TF5池火平均质量损失速率与火焰温度四次方的正比关系,通过对火焰温度的测量,确定燃料液面所受的辐射热反馈功率,从而推算出燃料的平均质量损失速率.同时结合合肥及拉萨两地的TF5标准火实验,对模型进行了验证,实验结果表简化模型能够反映出不同气压下TF5池火燃烧的主要过程.     

油池边沿高度对池火燃烧特性影响的实验研究

研究了油池边沿高度(h)对池火燃烧特性的影响,开展了内径(d)为10 cm的不同h和不同油盘材料(石英、不锈钢、铝和铜)的正庚烷池火实验。结果表明,正庚烷池火的燃烧速率、火焰高度和脉动频率均随着边沿高度的增大而减小,且随着油盘材料的热导率增大,边沿高度的影响逐渐减弱。基于量纲分析分别修正了火焰高度和脉动频率模型,结果能够较好地符合实验值。     

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.     

不同边沿高度油池火燃烧行为的实验和数值模拟研究

采用实验和FDS数值模拟相结合的方法,探讨了边沿高度对油池火燃烧特性的影响。在实验部分,研究了燃烧速率和表观火焰高度随边沿高度的变化趋势,并分别分析了各个阶段的热反馈机制。在实验获得不同尺度、边沿高度正庚烷油池火燃烧速率的前提下,建立相应尺度的不同边沿高度油池火的Fire Dynamics Simulator(FDS)计算模型以针对火焰高度进行了数值模拟研究,分析了实际火焰高度、火焰下探高度随边沿高度的变化趋势,并提出了相关的无量纲拟合式。     

Application of fire suppression materials on suppression of LNG pool fires

An LNG pool fire is considered one of the main hazards of LNG, together with LNG vapor dispersion. Suppression methods are designed to reduce the hazard exclusion zones, distance to reach radiant heat of 5 kW/m², when an LNG pool fire is considered. For LNG vapor dispersion, the hazard exclusion zone is the distance travelled by the LNG vapor to reach a concentration of 2.5% v/v (half of the LNG lower flammability limit).Warming the LNG vapor to reach positive buoyancy faster is one way to suppress LNG vapor dispersion and reduce evaporation rate (thus fire size and its associated radiant heat) and that is the main objective in LNG pool fire suppression. Based on previous research, the use of high expansion foam has been regarded as the primary method in suppressing LNG pool fires. However, in 1980, another method was introduced as an alternative pool fire suppression system, Foamglas^®. The research concluded that 90% of the radiant heat was successfully reduced. Currently-called Foamglas^® pool fire suppression (Foamglas^® PFS) is a passive mitigation system and is deployed after the leak occurs. Foamglas^® PFS is non-flammable, and has a density one-third of the density of LNG, thus floats when an LNG pool is formed.This paper describes the study and confirmation of Foamglas^®PFS effectiveness in suppressing LNG pool fires. In addition, while Foamglas^® PFS is not expected to suppress LNG vapor dispersion, further investigation was conducted to study the effect of Foamglas^®PFS on LNG vapor dispersion. An LNG field experiment was conducted at Brayton Fire Field. The experimental development, procedures, results and findings are detailed in this paper.     

水平风对不同液位深度酒精池火火焰长度的影响

通过改变风速、液位深度的大小,研究边界条件变化对酒精池火火焰长度的影响。研究结果表明：在无量纲液位深度小于一定值时,酒精池火的火焰长度会随着风速的增加而增大,当无量纲液位深度较大时,油盘外部酒精池火的火焰长度基本为0。风速相同而液位深度不同时,酒精池火的火焰长度会随着液位深度的增大首先增大,而后逐渐减小。这主要是因为,液位深度较大时,燃料表面的供氧量降低导致燃烧效率降低,最终导致火焰长度的减小。     

Numerical simulation of small-scale pool fires of LNG

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been largely indicated as a promising alternative solution for the transportation and storage of natural gas. In the case of accidental release on the ground, a pool fire scenario may occur. Despite the relevance of this accident, due to its likelihood and potential to trigger domino effects, accurate analyses addressing the characterization of pool fires of LNG are still missing.In this work, the fire dynamic simulator (FDS) has been adopted for the evaluation of the effects of the released amount of fuel and its composition (methane, ethane, and propane), on the thermal and chemical properties of small-scale LNG pool fire. More specifically, the heat release rate, the burning rate, the flame height, and thermal radiation, at different initial conditions, have been evaluated for pool having diameter smaller than 10 m. Safety distances have been calculated for all the investigated conditions, as well.Results have also been compared with data and correlations retrieved from the current literature. The equation of Thomas seems to work properly for the definition of the height over diameter ratio of the LNG pool fire for all the mixture and the investigated diameters.The addition of ethane and propane significantly affects the obtained results, especially in terms of radiative thermal radiation peaks, thus indicating the inadequacy of the commonly adopted assumption of pure methane as single, surrogate species for the LNG mixture.     

细水雾对油池火热释放速率影响规律的实验研究

热释放速率是描述火灾现象的重要参数,可以表征火灾发展的强烈程度。利用大尺寸的热释放速率实验测量平台开展细水雾对不同种类油池火灭火效率的实验研究,同时分析细水雾对燃烧产物一氧化碳含量的影响。结果表明,热释放速率曲线能直接反映出细水雾对火源的作用,细水雾作用下三种燃料的热释放速率均被有效抑制,且细水雾的流量越大,对油池火的灭火效果越好。燃烧产物一氧化碳在施加细水雾时出现陡增,表明细水雾隔绝氧气,造成不完全燃烧或者燃烧熄灭。     

高原乙醇油池火燃烧特性实验研究

为研究低压条件下油品燃烧特性,以乙醇油池火为研究对象,搭建高原油池火实验平台,研究不同油盘直径下乙醇油池火燃烧规律,分析燃烧速率、火焰高度和火焰脉动等参数随时间的变化规律。研究结果表明：低压条件下的乙醇油池火,燃烧速率小于同等尺度常压条件下的油池火燃烧速率;乙醇油池火的燃烧速率随油盘直径增加变化不明显;火焰高度随油池直径增加呈现显著上升趋势,并拟合推导出适用于低压乙醇池火的火焰高度公式;火焰脉动频率随油池直径增大而减小,并给出火焰脉动与油池直径的经验公式。研究结果可丰富低压乙醇燃烧的油池火实验数据,为低压乙醇油池火的风险评估提供参考。     

多因素下小尺度油罐火燃烧速率的研究

以正庚烷为研究对象,开展了不同因素耦合作用下小尺度油罐火燃烧特性的实验研究。结果表明:在不改变其他工况条件下,开口因子直接影响燃料燃烧速率,发现不同开口因子下燃烧速率与全开口下燃烧速率之比始终正比于对应的开口面积之比,且之间存在着相应的关系式。在实验所测两种液位6cm和8cm下,其燃烧速率变化不大,由此可发现,在该实验液位下油罐火液位高度不是影响燃烧速率的主要因素。在不同的风速下,随着风速的增加燃烧速率逐渐增加并趋于一定值,且不同开口因子下风速对燃烧速率的影响程度不同。风速对开口因子大的油罐燃烧速率的影响小于开口因子较小的油罐。     

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.     

多种气压条件下甲醇池火燃烧特性的实验研究

通过自行研制的低氧低压模拟试验箱开展了小尺寸甲醇油池火燃烧实验,研究了在多种气压条件(40kpa、45kpa、55kpa、65kpa、75kpa、85kpa、100kpa)下的油池火燃烧特性参数的差异。实验发现,一定情况下,甲醇燃烧速率随着气压的升高而升高,呈现幂函数关系;火焰高度和火焰面积从低压开始先随着气压值的升高而升高,当达到一定的气压值后就会随着气压值的升高而降低;随着气压升高,羽流中心温度下降的幅度变缓。     

Assessment of four turbulence models in simulation of large-scale pool fires in the presence of wind using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Pool fires are the most common of all process industry accidents. Pool fires often trigger explosions which may result in more fires, causing huge losses of life and property. Since both the risk and the frequency of occurrence of pool fires are high, it is necessary to model the risks associated with pool fires so as to correctly predict the behavior of such fires.Among the parameters which determine the overall structure of a pool fire, the most important is turbulence. It determines the extent of interaction of various parameters, including combustion, wind velocity, and entrainment of the ambient air. Of the various approaches capable of modeling the turbulence associated with pool fires, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has emerged as the most preferred due to its ability to enable closer approximation of the underlying physical phenomena.A review of the state of the art reveals that although various turbulence models exist for the simulation of pool fire no single study has compared the performance of various turbulence models in modeling pool fires. To cover this knowledge-gap an attempt has been made to employ CFD in the assessment of pool fires and find the turbulence model which is able to simulate pool fires most faithfully. The performance of the standard k–? model, renormalization group (RNG) k–? model, realizable k–? model and standard k–ω model were studied for simulating the experiments conducted earlier by Chatris et al. (2001) and Casal (2013). The results reveal that the standard k–? model enabled the closest CFD simulation of the experimental results.     

有风条件下航空煤油池火燃烧特性的实验研究

在全尺寸热释放速率实验台的基础上,搭建有风条件池火实验平台,开展了不同风速条件下的航空煤油池火燃烧实验,实验所用正方形油盘的边长分别为0.2m、0.3m和0.4m,风速范围为0 m.s-1至4.99 m.s-1。实验结果表明,风速为0 m.s-1时航空煤油池火的燃烧速率随油盘尺寸增大而单调递增,实验值与理论值的差距随风速增大而减小。实验所得.m″windy/.ms″till与v/D呈线性关系,与前人结论一致,但实验所得参数与前人值不同。同尺寸油盘池火的热释放速率峰值来临时间随风速增大有减小的趋势;不同尺寸油池火的燃烧速率随风速增加而单调递增。对不同尺寸油池火的热释放速率峰值随风速的变化规律作了讨论。     

Configuration predictions of large liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pool fires using CFD method

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has potential pool fire risks due to its flammability. The configuration of pool fires plays a significant role when applying the solid flame model or point source model to assess the risks from heat radiation. However, no existing correlations can precisely predict the configuration of large LPG (100% propane) pool fires. To enhance the fundamental understanding on how pool diameter and wind velocity can influence the configuration of large LPG pool fires, an experimentally validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is employed to simulate fires using different burning rate models. Fire temperature profiles, flame heights, and flame tilts predicted by the CFD model were compared with empirical models and experimental data. Accordingly, new correlations for flame height and flame tilt as functions of pool diameter D and wind velocity u_w have been developed. The comparisons demonstrate that the new correlations have the best overall accuracy in the prediction of flame height and tilt for large LPG pool fires under different conditions (10 m ≤ D ≤ 20 m, 0 ≤ u_w ≤ 3 m·s⁻¹).     

非稳态火源热释放速率等效合成模型研究

火源热释放速率的设定直接关系到火灾数值模拟与仿真的准确性.为研究多火源作用下的火灾热释放速率,通过对非稳态火源引起火灾的火势蔓延情况进行迭代分析,结合热辐射点燃机理,对单一火源引发其他可燃物共同燃烧的火灾建立了热释放速率等效合成模型,并通过对某型飞机客舱ULD内货物进行实例分析来加以验证.结果表明,等效合成模型的最大热释放速率受初始火源位置、可燃物的燃烧特性及其摆放位置的共同影响.     

局部蒸汽系统抑制熄灭油池火的实验研究

选取乙醇为燃料试样,进行不同条件下蒸汽灭火的全尺寸实验,研究了局部蒸汽系统抑制熄灭油池火的有效性及其影响因素,并探讨其灭火机理.实验结果表明:喷口直径是影响蒸汽灭火的关键因素,中等直径的喷口具有较好的灭火效率;喷口方位和燃料浓度也会影响灭火有效性;局部蒸汽系统的有效保护面积大于直接覆盖面积,对可燃气和氧气的稀释置换作用...     

The study of burning behaviors and quantitative risk assessment for 0# diesel oil pool fires

The liquid fuel safety issues on fuel storage, transportation and processing have gained most attention because of the high fire risk. In this paper, some 0# diesel pool fire experiments with different diameters (0.2–1 m) were conducted with initial fuel thicknesses of 2 cm and 4 cm, respectively, to obtain liquid fuel combustion characteristics. Some key parameters including mass burning rate, flame height and the flame radiative heat flux, associated with fire risk, were investigated and determined. Subsequently, a detail quantitative risk assessment framework for 0# diesel pool fire is proposed based on the 0# diesel burning characteristics. In the framework, the probability of personal dead and the facility failure are calculated by the vulnerability models, respectively. In the end, 10 special tank fire scenarios were selected to show the whole risk calculation process. The tank diameter and the distance to pool fires were paid more attention in the cases. The safety distances in the cases are provided for the persons and nearby facilities, respectively. The paper enriches the basic experimental data and the provided framework is useful to the management of 0# diesel tank areas.