THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WATER DELUGE SYSTEMS IN MITIGATING OFFSHORE FIRES

摘要

A Joint Industry Project (JIP) has recently been completed that has studied the effectiveness of area water deluge in mitigating fires on offshore oil and gas production platforms. The project involved an extensive program of large-scale experiments, and was sponsored by eleven oil and gas companies and the UK Health and Safety Executive. The work of the JIP was divided into two phases and this paper presents the work performed during the first phase of the project. The work was conducted by Advantica Technologies (formerly British Gas Research and Technology) at their Spadeadam Test Facility, and involved the study of area water deluge on high-pressure natural gas jet fires and diesel pool fires. The test program was designed to:- 1. Quantify the benefits that area water deluge systems can provide, and the conditions under which these benefits can be realized. 2. Enable an understanding to be obtained of the physical processes involved in the interaction between water and the fire. 3. Identify the important factors that influence the effectiveness of area water deluge systems in mitigating fires. A description of the test facility in which the tests were conducted, the experimental program and an overview of the results will be presented. An outline of the work conducted in the second phase of the project will also given. Finally, the implications of the findings of these and other relevant studies for the management of offshore fire hazards will be discussed.