Experimental Studies on Forced-Ventilated Fires

Abstract

Full scale burning tests were performed to study wood, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and methanol fires in a compartment under forced ventilation conditions. In each fire test, the mass loss rate, the gas temperature, the flame height, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations were measured. Results illustrated that the burning behaviour of wood will be affected by the ventilation rate. But for PMMA and methanol fires, the burning behaviour and the fire plume properties are not so sensitive to the change in ventilation rates. The hot gas temperatures for wood and PMMA fires within the quasi-steady burning period are expressed in terms of the extraction rates and the average total heat-release rate with empirical constants determined by this experiment. Also the average hot gas temperatures are compared with the values calculated by the simple model due to Deal and Beyler (1990).