Experimental study on flame morphology and flame radiation of pool fire sheltered by plate obstacle

Liquid pool fires may represent the initiating fire hazard in many risk assessments associated with industrial plants. As real industrial fire scenarios generally include numerous obstructions, a pool fire burning behind an obstruction is a challenging task in the industrial risk assessment. A systematic investigation was conducted on the flame characteristics of a pool fire sheltered by a plate obstacle with different heights and geometrical dimensions, where the flame morphology, flame height, flame width and flame radiation flux were recorded and studied. The results show that the flame morphology for a pool fire sheltered by a plate obstacle can be divided in three types. For the radiation heat flux evolution over the entire burning process, it was found that the plate obstacle above the fuel pool would lead to a larger peak value of the radiation heat flux. Using a physical and dimensionless method, prediction models for flame characteristics including flame width, flame height and maximum value of radiation heat flux were proposed.