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Experimental study of flame spread over thermally-thin inclined fuel surface and controlling heat transfer mechanism under concurrent wind

Huang, Yajun LU ; Hu, Longhua ; Ma, Yuxuan ; Zhu, Nan ; Chen, Yuhang ; Wahlqvist, Jonathan LU ; Mcnamee, Margaret LU and van Hees, Patrick LU (2021) In International Journal of Thermal Sciences 165.
Abstract

The fuel inclination and wind velocity play a significant role on the forward flame spread behavior. It deserves further study since the heat transfer mechanism and flame spread characteristics coupled these two factors are not clear yet. In this paper, a thermally thin slab of PMMA that could be inclined from a horizontal (0°) to a vertical (90°) angle is used to investigate flame spread behavior under the condition of the concurrent ambient airflow. A wind tunnel is utilized to provide a uniform concurrent airflow, ranging from 0 (quiescent) to 3 m/s with an interval of 0.5 m/s. Essential flame characteristic parameters are collected to quantify the flame spread process, including flame spread rate (FSR), burning rate, heat release... (More)

The fuel inclination and wind velocity play a significant role on the forward flame spread behavior. It deserves further study since the heat transfer mechanism and flame spread characteristics coupled these two factors are not clear yet. In this paper, a thermally thin slab of PMMA that could be inclined from a horizontal (0°) to a vertical (90°) angle is used to investigate flame spread behavior under the condition of the concurrent ambient airflow. A wind tunnel is utilized to provide a uniform concurrent airflow, ranging from 0 (quiescent) to 3 m/s with an interval of 0.5 m/s. Essential flame characteristic parameters are collected to quantify the flame spread process, including flame spread rate (FSR), burning rate, heat release rate as well as heat flux feedback both in the pyrolysis and preheating zones. A mechanism, including the competition between the acceleration of buoyancy brought by inclination and the cooling effect of ambient airflow for relatively high wind velocity, is developed. The relationship between flame length and pyrolysis length is investigated. Moreover, the evolution of both heat release rate per unit width and standoff distance as a function of pyrolysis length are analyzed. A dimensionless heat release rate for upward flame at different wind velocities is used to scale the dimensionless flame length with a power-law exponent of 0.77 and −1.92. In addition, the dimensionless heat flux in preheated zone decay with distance as a function of power law. A predictive formulation of FSR coupled with inclination angle and wind velocity is proposed. This study facilitates the understanding of the interaction of fuel inclination angle and horizontal ambient airflow from aspect of heat and mass transfer.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Burning rate, Concurrent flame spread, Heat transfer, Inclined fuel, PMMA
in
International Journal of Thermal Sciences
volume
165
article number
106936
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85103086850
ISSN
1290-0729
DOI
10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2021.106936
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c87e809a-44e6-4782-8573-9624c0610463
date added to LUP
2021-04-06 13:54:06
date last changed
2022-04-27 01:14:59
@article{c87e809a-44e6-4782-8573-9624c0610463,
  abstract     = {{<p>The fuel inclination and wind velocity play a significant role on the forward flame spread behavior. It deserves further study since the heat transfer mechanism and flame spread characteristics coupled these two factors are not clear yet. In this paper, a thermally thin slab of PMMA that could be inclined from a horizontal (0°) to a vertical (90°) angle is used to investigate flame spread behavior under the condition of the concurrent ambient airflow. A wind tunnel is utilized to provide a uniform concurrent airflow, ranging from 0 (quiescent) to 3 m/s with an interval of 0.5 m/s. Essential flame characteristic parameters are collected to quantify the flame spread process, including flame spread rate (FSR), burning rate, heat release rate as well as heat flux feedback both in the pyrolysis and preheating zones. A mechanism, including the competition between the acceleration of buoyancy brought by inclination and the cooling effect of ambient airflow for relatively high wind velocity, is developed. The relationship between flame length and pyrolysis length is investigated. Moreover, the evolution of both heat release rate per unit width and standoff distance as a function of pyrolysis length are analyzed. A dimensionless heat release rate for upward flame at different wind velocities is used to scale the dimensionless flame length with a power-law exponent of 0.77 and −1.92. In addition, the dimensionless heat flux in preheated zone decay with distance as a function of power law. A predictive formulation of FSR coupled with inclination angle and wind velocity is proposed. This study facilitates the understanding of the interaction of fuel inclination angle and horizontal ambient airflow from aspect of heat and mass transfer.</p>}},
  author       = {{Huang, Yajun and Hu, Longhua and Ma, Yuxuan and Zhu, Nan and Chen, Yuhang and Wahlqvist, Jonathan and Mcnamee, Margaret and van Hees, Patrick}},
  issn         = {{1290-0729}},
  keywords     = {{Burning rate; Concurrent flame spread; Heat transfer; Inclined fuel; PMMA}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Thermal Sciences}},
  title        = {{Experimental study of flame spread over thermally-thin inclined fuel surface and controlling heat transfer mechanism under concurrent wind}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2021.106936}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2021.106936}},
  volume       = {{165}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}