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Experimental Investigation on Diesel Fire Toxicity in a Compartment Under Different Pool Locations

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Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate how the location of fire source impacts the species generation. From the standpoint of fire safety, toxicity need to be estimated from the product gases evolved under different conditions of pool fire inside the compartment. However, industries like chemical, nuclear and thermal power plants also possess fuel positions significantly above the floor level inside an enclosure. Also, marine diesel fuel storage position in the ship cabin is just above the base, which implies an elevated pool fire conditions. In the present investigation, the severity of product gases with different pan diameters (ranges from 0.2 to 0.8 m) along with diesel fuel pan elevations in terms of toxicity were analysed. In order to study the behaviour of various fuel position, a large pool diameter 0.8 m was burned in centre, corner and rear wall centre along with six different fire source elevation. Results were analysed in terms of heat release rate (HRR), ratio of CO2/CO, upper hot gas temperature, residence time of upper hot gas, CO yield, CO2 yield and fractional effective dose (FED). The maximum HRR was obtained in the range of 10 kW to 1100 kW. For large pool diameter, results of CO2/CO ratio shows exponential decay trend along with fuel pan elevation, the maximum concentration of CO increased with increase in ceiling temperature showed parabolic trend. Moreover, lower CO2/CO ratio addresses incomplete combustion and thereby leads to higher toxicity inside the compartment.

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Abbreviations

D :

Fuel pan diameter (m)

H :

Fuel pan height (m)

Hd:

Door height (m)

h/Hd:

Non-dimensional height

HRR:

Heat release rate (kW)

CO:

Carbon monoxide (% vol.)

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide (% vol.)

O2 :

Oxygen (% vol.)

\({t}_{R}\) :

Residence time (seconds)

\(T_{UL}\) :

Upper layer temperature (°C)

\(V_{UL}\) :

Upper layer volume (m3)

\(\rho_{UL}\) :

Density of upper hot gases (kg/m3)

FED :

Fractional effective dose

LC50 :

Lethal concentration 50%

\(V_{{CO_{2} }}\) :

Hyperventilation

\(Z_{A}\) :

Acidosis factor

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Acknowledgements

The work is supported by the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Mumbai, India under grant number DAE-973-MID to Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand, 247667, India

    Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, Akhilesh Gupta & Ravi Kumar

  2. Reactor Safety Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Pavan Kumar Sharma

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  1. Mahesh Kumar Tiwari
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Correspondence to Mahesh Kumar Tiwari.

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Tiwari, M.K., Gupta, A., Kumar, R. et al. Experimental Investigation on Diesel Fire Toxicity in a Compartment Under Different Pool Locations. Fire Technol 57, 2205–2233 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-021-01110-4

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