Heat Transfer to Large Objects in Large Pool Fires

摘要

Large pool fires are used to expose radioactive material shipping containers to levels of temperature and heat flux required by regulatory agencies. Due to the nature of outdoor pool fires, a large effort has gone into characterizing the temporal and spatial variability of the thermal environment. Three tests were performed in the summer of 1983 involving a 9.1 by 18.3 meter pool fire fueled with JP-4 aviation fuel. A calorimeter 1.4 m in diameter by 6.1 m long was used to examine the thermal input to a relatively large, massive object. An examination of temperature and heat flux data emphasizes the effect of even low wind conditions on the overall structure of the fire. In an attempt to examine the thermal environment in the absence of any disturbances, a 'conditioning signal' was used to extract data during periods of low wind. Heat flux and temperature data obtained from the large pool fire tests is presented and the variation over the surface of the large calorimeter is examined. The application of a conditioning signal is used to reduce the wind induced variance in the heat flux data. (ERA citation 12:037464)