Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Experiments with a single fire source were carried out in an unconfined space to characterize the effects of cross-winds on apparent flame heights and flame tilt angles. Three sets of propane burners were used as model fire sources. One was a small circular burner, the other was large square burners, and the other was rectangular burners, having the aspect ratio ranging from 1 to 6. A refined empirical model on the apparent flame heights of the inclined flames modified by heat release rate and aspect ratio of fire source was presented. We also developed an empirical model of the flame tilt angles based on the balance of mass between the fluxes given by the upward hot current and the cross-winds. These models are correlations with respect to dimensionless heat release rates, Froude numbers and aspect ratios of fire sources. The values of empirical coefficients and exponents of the correlations were derived from the experimental results.