Effect of tank diameter on thermal behavior of gasoline and diesel storage tanks fires

Fuzzy Bayesian estimation and consequence modeling of the domino effects of methanol storage tanks

In this study, a fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN) approach was proposed to analyze the domino effects of pool fire. Failure probabilities were calculated using triangular fuzzy numbers, the combined center of area (CoA)/sum-product method and the BN approach. Consequence modeling, probit equations and leaky-noisy-OR (L-NOR) gates were used to analyze the domino effects, and modify conditional probability tables (CPTs). Methanol storage tanks were selected to confirm the practical feasibility of the suggested method. The domino probability using bow-tie analysis (BTA) and FBN in the first and second levels was compared, and the ratio of variation was used for sensitivity analysis. Probability of the domino effect in the first and second levels (FBN) was 0.0071472631 and 0.0090630640, respectively. The results confirm this method is a suitable tool for analyzing the domino effects and that using FBN and L-NOR gate is a good way to assess the reliability of tanks.

Effects of pool size and spacing on burning rate and flame height of two square heptane pool fires

The interaction of multiple pool fires might lead to higher burning rate and flame height than single pool fire, raising the possibility of fire ignition and flame spread and increasing the risks to people, buildings and environment. To quantify the burning rate and flame height of multiple pool fires from the view of physical mechanism, this paper presents an experimental study on two identical square pool fires. Heptane was used as fuel. The pool size and spacing were varied. Results showed that both the burning rate and flame height change non-monotonically with spacing. From the view of air entrainment, a correlation for the flame height of two pool fires is developed involving pool size, spacing and the flame height of zero spacing. The comparison with experimental results shows that the developed correlation is suitable for two heptane or propane fires. A theoretical study based on energy balance at one of the pool surfaces is performed to evaluate the burning rate of two fires, which is finally expressed as a function of pool size, spacing, burning rate and the flame height of single fire. The proposed model is validated using the experimental and literature data, which presents a reasonable reliability.

Burning rate, flame geometry and temperature of convection-controlled circular diesel oil pool fire under air crossflow conditions

Hazardous fires in fuel storage tanks may result in casualties of great impact. Efforts are being done to master the physics of the phenomena, aiming both avoidance and damage minimization. Flame characterization is an important approach studied by many researchers. This article presents the results of an experimental investigation of diesel oil (S500 type) pool fires under air crossflow conditions. A reduced scale model properly instrumented was tested in an aerodynamic channel. Measurement techniques include analysis of infrared images of pool fires, mass burning rates and flame geometry as a function of air crossflow velocity (which ranged from 0 m/s - quiescent air - to 4.0 m/s). Mass burning rates showed an oscillatory behavior as the crossflow velocity was raised. Regarding flame geometry, for an increasing air crossflow, firstly flame tilt angle increased, flame length decreased and flame height decreased until about 1.5-2.0 m/s, while after that velocity, flame geometry became nearly steady. Geometry results were also compared with thirteen correlations from literature for geometric parameters obtaining good agreement for some of them. The IR-measured temperatures showed that the flame region (reacting region) became hotter and the plume region (non-reacting region) became colder as the air crossflow velocity was increased.