- Author
-
Fernandez-Pello, A. C.
- Title
- Experimental Investigation of Flame Spread Over Condensed Combustibles: Gas Phase Interactions.
- Coporate
- Princeton Univ., NJ
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBS GCR 78-117,
December 1977,
28 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- GRANT-79004
- Keywords
-
combustible materials
|
convection
|
flame spread
|
flame velocity
|
heat transfer
|
laser doppler velocimetry
|
liquid fuels
|
pitot tube
|
hot wire anemometers
|
research facilities
- Abstract
- The present study of flame spreading over combustible materials in intended to elucidate the role of gas phase heat transfer on flame spread over solid materials. Particularly, the major objective is to ascertain the importance of gas phase convective effects in the energy transfer mechanism. The importance of convective gas phase effects on flame spread has been a controversial point for some time. Due to instrumentation problems, measurements of gas phase velocities which could resolve the question have not been determined unambigously. Qualitative measurements of velocities of the order of magnitude of those encountered in the flame spread environment are simply difficult to make using conventional techniques such as pitot tubes or hot wire anemometers. With the additional complication that the flow may also be reversing in direction, little real progress has been possible. With the advent of LDV techniques however the possibility of determining the role of gas phase convective effects has become realizable. A sophisticated Laser Doppler Velocimeter facility has been constructed to undertake this project. We feel that the present fire research facility at Princeton University represents a unique capability in the fire research field for the study of gas phase phenomena.