- Author
-
Babrauskas, V.
|
Wickstrom, U. G.
- Title
- Thermoplastic Pool Compartment Fires.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
- Journal
-
Combustion and Flame,
Vol. 34,
195-201,
1979
- Report
-
CIB W14/78/26 (USA); CIB W14/79/36 (S); Report 79-1,
- Keywords
-
pool fires
|
compartment fires
|
thermoplastics
|
gas temperature
|
ventilation
|
algorithms
|
windows
|
steady state
- Abstract
- A numerical investigation is described wherein expected gas temperatures in compartment fires where the fuel consists of a pool of thermoplastic material are determined. Natural ventilation from a single rectangular window is assumed and only steady-state, well-stirred, flashed-over fire in considered. The fuel is assumed to pyrolyze radiatively only. The dominant variable is shown to be the ratio of ventilation parameter to fuel area for fuel-lean conditions. A stable higher and an unstable lower solution are obtained for gas temperature. For a fuel-lean condition, no real solution is obtained, indicating that a well-stirred fire does not occur under this condition. The dependence of gas temperature on the ratio of ventilation parameter to fuel area and window aspect ratio is developed. Predicted results are compared to experimental data from small-scale fire tests where polyethylene and polyethylmethacrylate were used as fuel with good agreement. The finding that a flashed-over fire does not occur for fuel-lean conditions is verified by this comparison.