Thermal effects of a sonic jet fire impingement on a pipe

Although the effects of jet fires are often limited to rather short distances, if their flames impinge on a pipe or a vessel collapse can occur in very short times. In such cases, the heat flux on the affected equipment is very high and wall temperature can increase very rapidly. This can happen in parallel pipelines, if a release occurs and impinges on another one. Nevertheless, jet fire impingement has been scarcely studied. In this communication the results obtained from an experimental set-up are presented. Sonic jet fires impinged on a pipe containing stagnant air or water. The temperatures of the flames impinging on it were measured for the worst case (flame front-bright zone), as well as the evolution with time of the pipe wall temperature at different locations. Initial temperature increases up to around twenty °C/s were registered for the air inside, with maximum values of up to 600 °C reached in 2.5 min, and 800 °C in approximately 9 min. In the case of pipe containing water, in the zone of the wall in contact with the liquid the heating rates were much lower, the maximum temperature reached being up to approximately 150 °C. From the temperatures of the jet flames and of the pipe, the heat fluxes reaching the pipe and the corresponding heat transfer coefficients were obtained. The results obtained emphasized that safe distances are essential in pipelines, together with fire proofing and other safety measures.