An experimental investigation of flame length of alcohol and N-heptane pool fires under air cross condition

In this paper, the effect of airflow speed on flame length of liquid pool fires has been experimentally studied based on a small-scale wind tunnel, where the airflow speed was varied from 0 to 2.93 m/s during the tests. Different sizes of the pool with 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 cm diameter were considered. The experimental results show that with increase of Ri(-1), the non-dimensional flame length of alcohol pool fire firstly increases and then decreases after Ri(1) exceeds 8.0, while the non-dimensional flame length of n-heptane pool fire increases with increase of Ri(-1). It was also found that the flame length response to the airflow speed correlates to heat release rate of the fire, which was seriously influenced by combustion efficiency. A model was also developed for predicting flame length of a pool fire influenced by airflow with Ri(-1)<30.