- Author
- Houf, W. G.
- Title
- Effect of Scattering by Soot Aggregates on Radiative Transfer in Large-Scale Hydrocarbon Pool Fires.
- Coporate
- Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA
- Report
- SAND88-8254, August 1999, 32 p.
- Keywords
- soot aggregates | pool fires | hydrocarbons | radiative heat transfer | fuel fires | energy transfer | scenarios
- Identifiers
- soot optical property model; parametric study; constant albedo analysis; verification of discrete ordinates model
- Abstract
- The modeling of large-scale hydrocarbon fuel fires is under investigation at Sandia National Laboratories. This work is being pursued as part of a program to determine energy transfer rates to weapon systems during fuel fire accident scenarios. Radiant energy transfer through the fire and at it boundaries contributes significantly to the energy transfer to a weapon system exposed to a fuel fire. The majority of the thermal radiation in a pool fire comes from hot soot aggregates. The purpose of this report is to document calculations performed to examine the effects of scattering by soot aggregates on the radiative transfer in large-scale hydrocarbon pool fires. The intent of this work is to determine whether the effects of soot aggregate scattering need to be included in large-scale 3-dimensional finite element radiative heat transfer models of fires. The approach followed was to develop a model for the optical properties of soot aggregates that included scattering. The soot optical property model was then used in a one-dimensional discrete ordinate radiative transfer model of a fire. The radiative transfer model was executed with and without the inclusion of scattering for a typical range of soot and fire parameters to determine the significance of including scattering in the calculations.