Purpose

C-SAFE pool fire facility provides experimental data needed to understand and validate the C-SAFE numerical simulations of accidental fires and explosions.

Physical Description

A 0.30 m-diameter pan is used for burning aviation fuels (jet A and JP-8). The burner is water-cooled and is mounted rigidly approximately 0.50 m above ground level. It was designed to operate in both batch and continuous experiments. Thermocouples are placed at different distances relative to the burner lip, which provide a temperature profile of the fuel in the liquid phase. As is shown in Figure 1, the facility has an adjustable exhaust system to remove combustion gases and soot from various pool fire sizes up (up to 1 m). Walls and base made of incombustible board are used to vary the boundary conditions.

Height and flame shapes are obtained using a high-speed video camera (8000 frames per second) and still photographs. Radiative and total heat transfer are measured at different locations by using a gas-purged, water-cooled radiometer and a water-cooled heat flux transducer respectively. Both are Gardon-type gauges and were provided by Vatell Corporation.

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KSL Channel 5 News segment with Ed Yates: interview with Professor Philip Smith and Professor Eric Eddings regarding the C-SAFE project.