Citation

Modak AT. Fire Safety J. 1981; 3(3): 177-184.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A non-intrusive method for obtaining the spatial distributions of radiative properties (i.e.) absorption-emission coefficients and radiation temperatures) in pool fires is described. The method consists of measuring the lateral transmittance and radiance of the fire and performing an Abel inversion on the measurements to obtain absorption-emission coefficients and local radiation temperatures in the fire. Local radiative properties so obtained are used to calculate the flame radiation flux--the dominant heat transfer mode --to the pool surface. The computed flux is in good agreement with the flux inferred from experimentally measured burning rates of the fire. These experiments are performed on a 0.73 m diameter PMMA pool fire. The results presented here show that large pool fires tend to be significantly non-uniform in temperature and species concentrations and the non-uniformities play an important role in determining the burning rate of these fires.