Fire Size of Gasoline Pool Fires

Area of Science:

• Fire Science
• Combustion Engineering
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Gasoline pool fires are common fire scenarios.
• Understanding their combustion behavior is crucial for safety and design.
• Previous studies have explored various aspects of pool fires, but detailed characterization of gasoline fires across different scales is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally investigate the flame characteristics of gasoline pool fires.
• To analyze the combustion behavior of pool fires with varying pool sizes under atmospheric conditions.
• To determine the relationship between fire area and heat release rate.

Main Methods:

• Experiments were conducted using gasoline pool fires with initial areas of 0.25 m², 0.66 m², and 2.8 m².
• Fire models were classified according to European standard EN 3 (classes MB, 21B, 89B).
• Flame geometry was recorded using a CCD digital camera, and burning rates and heat release rates were measured.

Main Results:

• The study observed turbulent flames with a constant burning rate per unit area.
• Flame height and heat release rate varied with pool size.
• A linear relationship was found between the heat release rate (HRR) and the fire area, with HRR increasing approximately 2.6 times with increasing fire area.

Conclusions:

• Gasoline pool fires exhibit predictable combustion behavior with scalable characteristics.
• The linear dependence of HRR on fire area provides valuable data for fire modeling and risk assessment.
• Further research could explore different fuel types and atmospheric conditions.