skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Temperature profiles in forced-ventilation enclosure fires

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5128968

We investigated the effect of ventilation rate, ventilation configuration, fire elevation, and the presence of a plenum (suspended ceiling) on the fire compartment temperatures during forced ventilated methane gas fires (100-400 kW). We found that with low air-inlet positions, fires with ventilation rates greater than 2 to 3 times the stoichiometrically required air (referred to here as well-ventilated fires) produce two-layer temperature profiles; fires with a lower ventilation rate (under-ventilated fires) produce single-layer profiles with a temperature gradient. Higher temperatures throughout the enclosure are seen in underventilated fires as compared to well-ventilated fires. We observed that high air-inlet locations perturb the two-layer temperature profile of the well-ventilated fire, cooling the upper layer and heating the lower layer. For underventilated fires, high air-inlet locations lower temperatures in the enclosure but do not perturb the profile shape. Elevated fires and fires in a compartment with a plenum were seen to behave similarly for the same distance from fire base to ceiling, producing hotter layers the shorter the distance. 9 refs., 13 figs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
5128968
Report Number(s):
UCRL-97975; CONF-880634-2; ON: DE88006807
Resource Relation:
Conference: 2. international symposium on fire safety science, Tokyo, Japan, 13 Jun 1988
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English