The effect of water mist on burning rates of pool fire

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the interactions between water mists and fires and show the influence of water mist on burning rates of pool fires. Experiments are extensively performed for various sizes of fire source with different discharge rates of water. From the experimental observations, it is noted that the fuel burning rate is substantially changed when the water mists are interacted with fires and its difference with and without water mist increases with the discharge rate of water and decreases as the fire intensity increases. In addition, the interactions of water mists with pool fires are simulated by the FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator; Ver. 3.0) program with the measured burning rates as input data in the present study. Considering the influence of water mists on burning rates, better predictions are yielded compared with experimental data for the suppression time and the mean ceiling temperature.