- Author
-
Gottuk, D. T.
|
Roby, R. J.
|
Beyler, C. L.
- Title
- Effect of External Burning on Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Yields From Hexane-Fueled Compartment Fires.
- Coporate
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg
Hughes Associates, Inc., Wheaton, MD
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-60NANB8D0829
- Book or Conf
- Combustion Institute/Eastern States Section. Chemical and Physical Processes in Combustion. Proceedings. Fall Technical Meeting, 1991. October 14-16, 1991,
Ithaca, NY,
87/1-4 p.,
1991
- Keywords
-
combustion
|
carbon monoxide
|
smoke yield
|
hexanes
|
compartment fires
|
experiments
- Abstract
- In a typical compartment fire a two layer system is created in which the upper layer consists of the products of combustion and the lower layer consists of primarily ambient air which is convectively heated prior to plume entrainment. As the fire progresses, the upper layer will grow and the layer interface will move towards the floor. The upper layer will spill into adjacent hallways or rooms as the layer interface descends below the top of doorways or other openings. Life threatening concentrations of CO and smoke arise when the flow dynamics create fuel-rich conditions in the upper layer. As fuel rich gases spill into adjacent areas, wmbient air can be entrained resulting in ignition and burning outside of the main compartment fire. Little known work has been done on the effect of external burning on CO and smoke yield. Arguments can be made that CO yield increases due to external burning because unburned fuel in the spilled upper layer is burned and the reactions are quickly quenched leaving a higher yield of CO then what was present in the compartment upper layer. On the other hand, CO yield may be reduced as CO and unburned hydrocarbons both burn to completion. The focus of this work is to investigate the effect of external burning on CO and smoke yields in compartment fires.