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.     

地下商业街火灾中回燃现象的初步研究

对回燃这一特殊火现象的发生机理及研究现状进行研究分析,结合地下商业街发生火灾时烟气温度高、人员疏散困难等特性,对地下商业街火灾回燃现象进行了初步研究,分析了其发生的可能性及危害,指出可以通过控制送风风量和流速、降低可燃组分和控制点火源的措施来抑制回燃的发生,为进一步研究地下建筑火灾中烟气回燃现象提供参考。     

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.     

建筑大空间火灾模拟及升温计算简单公式

钢结构经常用于建筑大空间环境。因为使用和功能要求,建筑大空间内通常无法设置防火墙来阻止火灾的水平传播,而是通过设置燃烧岛、防火舱及防火隔离带等措施将可燃物限制在一定区域内。大空间内可能的火灾为区域火灾。给出了模拟大空间火灾的理论模型和升温计算简单公式。公式基于火羽流相关理论,并引入工程相关常数得到。通过工况分析,考察了两种不同火灾场景,公式的计算结果与场模拟软件FDS结果进行了比较,二者符合良好。所给出的公式形式简单,式中参数的物理意义明确,推荐用于实际工程计算。     

回燃及其对腔室火灾过程的影响

从火灾中的两种特殊火行为－轰燃和回燃的发生机理出发,着重讨论了回燃在整个火灾过程中的作用以及回燃对轰燃的影响。结果表明,由于回燃和轰燃同为火灾全过程中的分过程,并且由于二者发生机理的相似性,因而,它们可以建立联系。当具备合适的热解产物浓度时,回燃过程可以使火灾系统的状态突变到完全发展状态,即引发轰燃。     

室内火灾喷出和旋转火焰的实验和数值模拟

喷出火焰和旋转火焰是室内火灾火焰的两种常见存在形式。利用小规模室内火灾试验装置和FDS软件,对室内火灾喷出火焰和旋转火焰进行了实验模拟和数值模拟;根据模拟结果,提出了小规模室内火灾条件下喷出火焰根部温度估算公式,分析了室内火灾火焰旋转的机理及其引起热烟气层温度、地板辐射热通量等参数升高的原因。     

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.     

聚合物燃烧火焰辐射及其温度的估算

受限空间中，通风对于燃烧状况和火焰辐射特性有重要影响。本文根据火焰中炭颗粒的生成及其受通风的影响，提出了关于聚合物燃烧火焰辐射和平均辐射温度的估算方法。计算了几种典型聚合物的火焰辐射及其平均辐射温度，并讨论了通风、燃料组成、炭颗粒和燃烧尺度的影响，旨在加深认识通风条件对于火焰温度及其有关辐射特性的影响，为受限空间中燃烧过程的分析提供依据。     

小尺度森林火灾的渐近幂律分布

森林火灾系统是一个自组织临界性系统，它的表现之一就是火灾的尺度分布满足幂律规律。然而实际数据分析表明，在尺度最大和最小的两个区域，火灾分布与幂律规律存在较大的差异。对小尺度火灾的偏离现象，研究者通常猜测是由于小面积火灾记录数据遗漏较多造成的，目前尚没有一个理论上的依据，而小尺度火灾的分布规律对大尺度火灾的预测起看关键作用。为了解释这种偏离现象，该文将火灾看作一个生灭过程，并对火灾蔓延和熄灭的机理进行了分析，最终得到了森林火灾分布与火灾尺度的定量依赖关系及其机理。将该文的结果与日本近年来全国范围内的森林火灾统计数据进行了对比，表明该文得到的结果与真实数据得到较好符合，并且成功解释了小尺度森林火灾分布与幂律关系的偏离现象。该研究可望对深入认识火灾系统的自组织临界性和防治火灾具有一定的实际意义。     

Do home fire and safety checks by on-duty firefighters decrease the number of fires? Quasi-experimental evidence from Southern Sweden

Introduction: Fire and rescue services Syd, in the south of Sweden, started to conduct home fire and safety checks on a large scale in 2010. The goal was to reduce the damages from residential fires. Method: We estimate the effects of the intervention on the incidence of residential fires and evaluate its economic effect. We use a difference-in-kinks design to analyze time-varying intervention effects and conduct a cost–benefit analysis for the economic evaluation. Results: The results demonstrate that fires and developed fires decrease by a maximum of approximately 6% and 8% per year (assuming 100% causality) and that the intervention has positive economic effects, with the benefits estimated to be maximum 8–11 times higher than the costs. Practical applications: The results should be valuable as input when deciding whether to implement home fire and safety checks elsewhere.     

雷击火形成及预防扑救对策

雷击火作为天然火源是一种难以控制的自然现象,其形成机理极为复杂。雷击火与雷暴的活动密切相关。     

预防森林火灾的几个有效途径

森林火灾是危害性很强的八大自然灾害之一,一旦发生火灾就会给国家的经济、环境和人员造成巨大的损失,所以它成为了世界性难题。如何有效预防森林火灾的发生,具有十分重要的理论意义和现实意义。本文主要根据对国内外森林火灾预防做法的考查,从体制、人员、设备和教育等几个方面提出预防的途径。     

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).     

An experimental and modeling study of continuous liquid fuel spill fires on water

The spread of burning fuel spilled from oil product containers during offshore storage and transportation may cause large damage and trigger further accidents. Some analytical models already exist to predict the spread and burning behavior of liquid fuel spill fires, however, few experimental studies have been conducted to verify the model results. In this paper, continuous n-heptane spill fire experiments were conducted in a rectangular trench covered with water. The burning area, fuel spread rate, and thermal flux with different discharge flow rates and ignition delay times were investigated by both experimental and modeling means. The spill fire burning area, with 5 typical phases during burning, has a quasi-steady value which is directly proportional to the discharge rate but irrelevant to the ignition delay times. The steady burning rate, as the ratio of discharge rate over burning area, was estimated. A spread model was modified to simulate the spread of continuous liquid fuel spill fires in a one-dimensional channel, based on the balance between gravity and viscous forces. A cuboid solid flame model was used to compute the thermal flux from spill fires. The burning fuel spread and the heat flux calculated by the models agree with the experimental results.     

Analytical modelling of hydrocarbon pool fires: Conservative evaluation of flame temperature and thermal power

As well known, risk is a combination of probability and consequences of an accident. In analyzing the consequence of accidental hydrocarbon fires and the potential for domino effects, the evaluation of the flame extent and temperature are of the utmost importance. Since the primary effects of pool fires are connected to thermal radiation and issues of interplant/tank spacing employees’ safety zones, firewall specifications are to be addressed on the basis of a proper consequence analysis. By means of real scale experimental tests it was verified that both the thermal power and the flame temperature, T_f, increase as the pool area increases, up to reach maximum values in connection with a “critical pool dimension”. Dealing with pool areas higher than the critical one, experimental results, performed by different researchers at different scales, show a decrease of T_f. An in-depth analysis of the different concurring phenomena connected to a pool fire development allowed identifying the limiting step controlling the flame temperature. In fact, the trend of T_f is mainly determined by the increasing difficulty of oxygen diffusion within the internal bulk of gaseous hydrocarbons. In this article, we propose a novel pool fire modelling approach based on the simplified physical phenomena occurring in a circular turbulent diffusion fire and suitable to provide a theoretical insight into the above-mentioned experimental trends and to obtain the maximum values of the flame temperature and of the thermal power.The geometry of the pool is dictated by the surroundings (i.e., diking) and the analytical models here presented were successfully applied to the common situation of circular pools.However, it must be remarked that the developed model, matching fairly well experimental data for different hydrocarbons, can be applied in modelling similar scenarios characterized by different geometric or environmental conditions (e.g. road and rail tunnel fires).     

受限空间脉冲细水雾灭火数值模拟

为研究脉冲细水雾灭火效果和灭火机理,采用FDS软件对连续和脉冲细水雾熄灭受限空间油盘火进行了数值模拟。通过模拟和理论分析确定了脉冲细水雾周期为8 s开启、8 s暂停,并设置了冷却和窒息两种灭火条件,对两种细水雾熄灭不同尺寸的柴油池火进行了研究。结果表明:连续细水雾无法熄灭直径15 cm和20 cm的小尺寸油盘火,对直径25 cm中尺寸油盘火的灭火机理为冷却,对直径为30cm和35 cm大尺寸油盘火的灭火机理为窒息;脉冲细水雾能够熄灭不同尺寸的油盘火,且灭火效率高,火焰熄灭均发生在喷头暂停喷水期间,灭火机理为水雾蒸发稀释氧气而窒息。     

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.     

Function of Basic Fire Research

ＦｕｎｃｔｉｏｎｏｆＢａｓｉｃＦｉｒｅＲｅｓｅａｒｃｈＴｏｓｈｉｓｕｋｅＨｉｒａｎｏＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔｏｆＣｈｅｍｉｃａｌＳｙｓｔｅｍＥｎｇｉｎｅｒｉｎｇ，ＴｈｅＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙｏｆＴｏｋｙｏＡＢＳＴＲＡＣＴＳｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ，ｕｎｒｅａｓｏｎ...     

近年我国家装材料变化对住宅火灾的影响研究

住宅火灾危险性和家装材料有着紧密联系。为研究近年我国家装材料变化对住宅火灾的影响,调研了近30年我国家装材料的变化趋势,分析了常见家装材料的火灾特性变化,并完成了对不同年代常见家装材料组合的火灾危险性综合评价,结果表明：随着近30年家装材料的变化,软体家具、木质家具、地板和壁纸的燃烧性能均有所改善,但软体家具产烟能力恶化;2000年～2010年合成材料的应用使得家装材料组合的综合火灾危险性有所提升,引起大型亡人火灾的可能性更大;2010年后阻燃材料的普及使得家装材料组合的综合火灾危险性有所降低,对消防安全的作用已经凸显,但同时我国住宅火灾中“小火亡人”事故可能更为频发,未来研究应该更加关注于降低阻燃材料的烟气危害性。     

火源位置对腔室火流动特性影响的实验研究

腔室火流动特性是影响腔室火灾蔓延与通风状况的重要因素。通过一系列小尺度腔室火实验,研究了火源位置变化对腔室火流动特性的影响。实验结果表明,随着火源沿腔室底部从壁面向开口方向移动,在开口中性面以上,同一高度处压差与流速增大,中性面高度和烟气层高度均降低,并导致开口质量流率增大。与火源强度相比,火源位置变化对烟气层高度的影响更为显著。火源位置对中性面高度及烟气层高度的影响在壁面处及开口处更为显著,腔室中部位置变化的影响相对较小。火源由壁面向开口移动,会造成火焰高度降低和水平伸长量增加。基于实验数据,给出了考虑耦合火源位置的腔室内火焰水平伸长量的表达式。研究结果可为相关场景下的腔室火灾理论模型提供实验结果支撑。