A wind tunnel experimental study on burning rate enhancement behavior of gasoline pool fires by cross air flow

The data set of our previous experiments in a wind tunnel is re-analyzed and interpreted in this paper in order to provide a more focused description of the manner the cross-flow affects the burning rate of gasoline pool fires. It was unexpectedly found that the burning rates (mass consumption rate per unit area) under a certain level of cross air flow decrease with pool size, which is opposite to that in quiescent air condition where the burning rates increase with pool size. The temperatures of the trailing, parallel-stream side rim walls were increased greatly, while those of the leading rim wall and the bottom changed relatively little when imposing a cross air flow. The burning rate of gasoline pool fire increased with cross air flow speed linearly in this range. The enhancement rate, defined as Delta(m) over dot/u, was found to be mainly attributed to heat supplied from the trailing and parallel-stream side walls of the pool, due to the significant increase in their temperature difference with the adjacent fuel. A phenomenological model deduced the enhancement rate to vary linearly with (2L/W + 1)/L. The experimental data was in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. (C) 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.