The Impact of Location and Ventilation on Pool Fire in a Compartment

This paper describes recent experiments to investigate the effects that the location of a fire within an enclosure has upon the rate of heat release. A series of pool fire experiments in a 1⁄2 domestic scale compartment using three ventilation geometries (fully open, soffit, and door), and heptane pool fires located in three evenly distributed locations within the compartment (rear, centre and front). The primary goal of this work is to the impact that the fire location within a compartment can have on the heat release rate and subsequent compartment conditions. Results indicate that the fire location and ventilation can significantly impact the heat release rate of the fire. In most cases the fire will have a larger heat release rate than under free burning conditions however, when the fire is near the opening the heat release rate is actually less than the free burning value.