Investigations on the Characteristics of Radiative Heat Transfer in Liquid Pool Fires

This work numerically investigates the radiative flux and flame shape from heptane liquid pool fires with small to medium sized pool fires (14-38 cm), grid sizes, spectral bands and solid angles. Experimental results were originated for comparison. The results show that calculated flame shapes and radiative fluxes are in good agreement with the measurements for suitable grid resolution. Besides, the effect of the intermittency of a flame on thermal radiation was performed. Experimentally, a shield was used to shade the radiant power from a persistent flame, and the radiative flux was measured from an intermittent flame on 30 cm diameter pool fires. The results show that 36% of the radiative flux measured is emitted from the intermittent flame when the radiometer is located at the base of the pool fire. As the radiometer is moved upwards, the radiative fluxes measured from the intermittent flame increase gradually, even to 50%.