Transient Flame Spread Out of Small Scale Firebox - Research Paper Example

The exhaustion of a flame through an opening occurs in places where ventilation conditions are controlled within a compartment. Such fire spread can cause major hazards, thus necessitating the need to understand various parameters with regard to transient flame spread out of a small scale firebox by use of an experimental model as illustrated herein. It is through the understanding of both the experimental and theoretical models that fire growth dynamics and impacts of fires can better be predicted in any given enclosure (Rehm 2002).

Past research has presented results on computational and experimental studies about transient flame behaviors with regard to compartment fires under the conditions of limited ventilation (Saito 1997). Such past studies considered the use of hydrocarbon pool fires under a firebox that has one rectangular ventilation openings. A flame becomes transient when the supply of oxygen is insufficient to maintain steady combustion, thus making the flame easily thrown out of the ventilation to the atmosphere.

It is also recognized that in the conditions that are underventilated and the supply of oxygen is insufficient to sustain the required combustion rate for a given fuel, flames become transient. There are some cases where the flame becomes extinct and in other cases, the flame accesses the ventilation openings and is thrown out into the atmosphere. Such a situation results in external flaming and advances rapid spreading of fire in multi-compartment buildings. In order to assess the spread of fire hazard, there is a need to master the relationship that exists between fire source parameters, the position of the fire sources, the geometry of the openings and compartments, and the duration from the time of ignition.

The study of flame exhausts in fires that are underventilated is studied both theoretically and experimentally through the approach of the burner fire where gaseous fuel is feed at a specified mass flow rate.