Fire Hazards associated with pressure vessel seriously threaten the process safety in chemical industries. There are limited literatures about fire characteristics in closed pressure vessels, which are important for fire risk management and safety design. In this study, the effect of initial pressure on the burning behavior of ethanol pool fire in a pressure vessel was investigated. A series of ethanol pool fires with diameters from 4 cm to 10 cm was carried out in a pressure vessel with interior dimensions of 0.6 m (height) ×0.4 m (diameter), and the initial pressures range from 60 kPa to 300 kPa. Results show that the flame structure changes from laminar to turbulent and the flame color changes from yellow to blue as the initial pressure or the burning time increases, which can provide information on the flow and chemical details. Furthermore, considering the effect of initial pressure on the mean burning flux, an empirical formula for predicting the self-extinction time of pool fire in the closed pressure vessel was developed, which showing a good agreement with the experimental data in our study and previous tests. Finally, it was observed that the changes of pressure with time are similar to the change of mass burning rate and could be divided into three representative stages. The relationship for predicting the over pressure peak was introduced and verified by the experimental data.

与压力容器相关的火灾隐患严重威胁着化工行业的工艺安全。关于密闭压力容器火灾特性的文献有限，对火灾风险管理和安全设计具有重要意义。在这项研究中，研究了初始压力对压力容器中乙醇池火燃烧行为的影响。在内部尺寸为 0.6 m（高）×0.4 m（直径）的压力容器中进行了一系列直径为 4 cm 至 10 cm 的乙醇池火灾，初始压力范围为 60 kPa 至 300 kPa。结果表明，随着初始压力或燃烧时间的增加，火焰结构由层流变为湍流，火焰颜色由黄色变为蓝色，可以提供有关流动和化学细节的信息。此外，考虑初始压力对平均燃烧通量的影响，建立了预测密闭压力容器内池火自熄时间的经验公式，该公式与我们研究的实验数据和以往的试验数据吻合良好。最后观察到压力随时间的变化类似于质量燃烧速率的变化，可分为三个有代表性的阶段。介绍了预测超压峰值的关系，并通过实验数据进行了验证。观察到压力随时间的变化类似于质量燃烧速率的变化，可分为三个有代表性的阶段。介绍了预测超压峰值的关系，并通过实验数据进行了验证。观察到压力随时间的变化类似于质量燃烧速率的变化，可分为三个有代表性的阶段。介绍了预测超压峰值的关系，并通过实验数据进行了验证。