Ignition and burning behaviors of automobile oil in engine compartment

Accidental leakage of automobile oils is of great inclination to initiate pool fires in engine compartment, with threats to induce the flashover of other components and flame penetration into the passenger compartment. This paper presents experimental results of the ignition and burning behaviors of a kind of automobile oils (automatic transmission oil) using a cone calorimeter. Measurements of oil temperature, ignition time, mass loss and heat release rate are performed at different external heat fluxes and initial fuel depths. The comparison between experimental and numerical oil temperature evolutions shows that the variations of the ignition time at different experimental conditions depend on the heat dissipation process inside the liquid phase. The steady mass burning rate is nearly independent of initial fuel depth and has a linear relation with external heat fluxes. In addition, the results indicate an increase in peak heat release rate by a large margin initially, followed by a relatively small margin under thicker initial fuel depths, while its variations are proportional to external heat fluxes. Correlations are also developed to determine the peak heat release rate as a function of the initial fuel depth.