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Author
Borthwick, R. P.
Title
Flame Height of Gaseous Fuel Pool Fires.
Coporate
George Washington Univ., Washington, DC
Report
Thesis, March 15, 1995, 69 p.
Keywords
pool fires | flame height | burning rate | turbulent flames | diffusion flames | fuels | heat release | froude number | combustion efficiency | equations
Identifiers
burner diameter; energy emission characteristics; radiation absorption models for sooting flames
Abstract
The flame height, burner diameter, energy emission characteristics and mass burning rate for the turbulent diffusion flames burning four gaseous fuels were measured. Sensible heat release was measured systematically as a function of fuel flow. Measurements were recorded for burners ranging from .1 meter to 1 meter in diameter producing flames from .1 to 1.8 meters in height and theoretical heat release from .4 to 20 kilowatts. Flame height non dimensionalized with respect to burner diameter for the non smoking flames of methane, propane and natural gas all met existing flame height correlations proposed by Heskestad and Zukoski. The non dimensional flame height for the smoky acetylene flames failed to meet the existing flame height correlations. Analysis shows that the correlations proposed by Heskestad and Zukoski cannot be easily modified to perform equally well for both non smoking and smoking fires. A partial reason for the failure of acetylene to match existing correlations is possibly the energy loss characteristics of acetylene which are different from the non smoking fuels change the dynamics of the flame.