Fire Characteristics of Subsisting Multiple Fire Sources in Three Dimensions

Abstract

To reveal the fire characteristics such as mass burning rate, flame height and puffing frequency of subsisting multiple fire sources, experiments were conducted for two small pool fires arranged in three dimensions. Two different kind of fuels, n-heptane (luminous flame) and methanol (non-luminous flame) were employed for test fuels. Each pan diameter is 49 mm, and the two pans are arranged in horizontal distance between center of each pan ranged from 50 to 150 mm, in vertical distance between each surface ranged from 0 to 600 mm. As a result, mass burning rates for both of pans are lager than that of a single pool fire, especially the burning rate for upper pan is remarkable increases compared with that for lower pan. The external radiation heat and induced air flow by multiple flames contributes to increase of the burning rate for multiple pool fires. The flame height and the puffing frequency of multiple pool fires depend on the separation distance of each pan both in horizontal direction and vertical direction. The flame height for upper pan is smaller than that for lower pan, contrary the puffing frequency of upper flame is higher than that of lower flame.