Experimental study of liquid fuel boilover behavior in normal and low pressures

Author: Chen, Q. P., Liu, X. P., Wang, X. H., Zhao, J. F., Zhou, T. N., Ding, C., Wang, J.

Journal: Fire and Materials

Keywords: aviation kerosene, boilover, diesel, liquid pool fire, low pressure, hydrocarbon pool fires, thin-layer boilover, low air-pressure, n-heptane, combustion characteristics, water sublayer, radiation, prediction, altitudes, oil

Abstract:

To elucidate the effect of pressure on liquid fuel boilover, a series of field experiments were carried out using a portable measuring setup at Hefei (Alt.: 0m, P: 101kPa) and Lhasa (Alt.: 3650m, P: 64kPa). It is found that for a given size of pan, the boilover premonitory onset time t(p) and the boilover onset t(b) are delayed; the intensity of boilover is weaker in low pressure. For a given pressure, t(p) and t(b) in larger pan are shorter. In addition, the boiling point of water is still the critical of boilover premonitory period in low pressure, and the critical temperature at the interface is reduced as pressure drops when boilover occurs. Then a prediction equation was made to explain the effect of atmospheric pressure on t(p) and t(b), which proves that the pan diameter has a negative correlation against with t(p) and t(b), and there is a negative correlation between the boilover premonitory onset time t(p) and the low pressure P(L)when P-L > 10kPa.