An experimental study is presented of a full-scale compartment fire. The room is 10 m long, 3.75 m wide and 2.50 m high. One end of the room is closed and the other one has an opening of 0.8 x 0.8 mZ in its center. A pool of TBPITPH liquid fuel (1 mZ) is placed at 2 m from the closed end in order to simulate an accidental fire of solvents in nuclear plants. These particular conditions result in a fire that is controlled by natural ventilation and the whole room being quickly invaded by combustion products and fuel gases. The temperature in the compartment quickly increases up to about 560 "C. It is then observed that the flame migrates from the original fuel surface towards the opening over a distance of 8 m with a displacement velocity ranging from 4 to 8 c d s . This flame presents characteristics similar to those of the ghosting flame described by Sugawa et al. Then the fire stabilizes at the opening of the room until there is no more liquid fuel available in the pool fire. The collected experimental data consists of temperatures, concentrations of chemical species (02, C02, CO), pressure in the fire room and recordings by means of a video camera.
A numerical model and experiments over PMMA are used to evaluate the main assumptions used in the theoretical description of a diffusion flame established in a natural boundary layer. Flow characteristics (2-D Boundary Layer) and surface thermal balance are identified as the critical assumptions to be evaluated. Comparison of experiments, numerical results, and theoretical model serve to validate the assumptions leading to the definition of a mass transfer number but establish the need to model all three-dimensional features of the flow.
Research and development studies concerning the combustion and the behaviour of the various materials encountered in nuclear reactors and facilities are carried out by the CEA in "fire laboratories" at CADARACHE. The objective is to place qualified numerical and technical tools at the disposal of designers, project managers and safety analysts. Qualification is supported by experiments and physico-chemical models. Results are given on pyrophoric metals (mainly magnesium) and carbon compounds (inflammable liquid and solid) combustion and on fire extinguishing procedure.
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