Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

An experimental study of liquid pool fires was undertaken in the corner and centre fire geometries. An Industrial Methylated Spirits fuel placed in square trays and elevated from the floor was used in the study. The fuel trays ranged in size from a 0.2m tray which was used in a 1/3 scale test enclosure to 0.5-1.0m trays used in an ISO sized room. Measured, well mixed ceiling gas temperatures and energy release rates were correlated with two dimensionless groups as used in the well known McCaffrey, Quintiere, Harkleroad (MQH) correlation. An initial interrogation of the MQH correlation suggests that the modification to the MQH correlation suggested by Mowrer and Williamson for the corner fire geometry is satisfactory. In the case of the centre room fires, correlation of the data suggested a proportionality factor CT which was at the upper limit of the data correlation shown in the original MQH work. This result may be attributable to intermittent flames approaching the ceiling for these tests where quality data was only available tests with the doorway at half width and for large fuel trays. The paper addresses key factors that need further investigation for validating and refining the MQH correlation(s).