Relationship between internal fire whirls generated in a vertical shaft model was studied. A vertical shaft model of height 145 cm was constructed. Four fuels including methanol, ethanol, propanol, and gasoline of different pool sizes were used. Ventilation was provided from a sidewall for onsetting internal fire whirl. In the experiments, the flame height and mass loss rate of fuel while burning the pool fires were observed to increase at the same time. A linear correlation between flame height and mass fuel burning rate can be found for different liquid fuels. A parameter α, which describes the burning rate, calorific value, and the pool size of liquid fuel, was used to develop the correlation between the burning rate and flame height. The flame height was found to be linearly correlated with α. However, the normalized average flame height was found to be roughly constant with different values of α.
ByramGMMartinRE.Fire whirlwinds in the laboratory. Fire Control Notes1962; 33(1): 13–17.
2.
EmmonsHWYingSJ. The fire whirl. In: Eleventh symposium (international) on combustion, University of California, Berkeley, 14–20 August, 1966, pp. 475–488. Pittsburgh, PA: The Combustion Institute.
3.
MortonBR.The physics of fire whirls. Fire Res Abstr Rev1970; 12(1): 1–19.
4.
SomaSSaitoK.Reconstruction of fire whirls using scale models. Combust Flame1991; 86: 269–284.
5.
SatohKYangKT.Experimental observations of swirling fires. ASME Heat Trans Div1996; 335: 393–400.
6.
SatohKYangKT. Measurements of fire whirls from a single flame in a vertical square channel with symmetrical corner gaps. In: Proceedings of ASME heat transfer division-1999, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 14–19 November, 1999 ASME IMECE, HTD, vol. 364-4, 1999, pp. 167–173.
McDonoughJMLohA. Simulation of vorticity-buoyancy interactions in fire-whirl-like phenomena. In: Proceedings of HT2003 ASME summer heat transfer conference, Las Vegas, NV, 21–23 July 2003, pp. 195–201. New York: ASME Publications.
9.
MeroneyRN.Fires in porous media: natural and urban canopies. In: GayevYAHuntJCR (eds) Flow and transport processes with complex obstructions. Dordrecht: Springer, 2007, ch. 8, pp. 271–310.
10.
SnegirevAYMarsdenJAFrancisJ. Numerical studies and experimental observations of whirling flames. Int J Heat Mass Trans2004; 47(12–13): 2523–2539.
ChuahKHKushidaG.The prediction of flame heights and flame shapes of small fire whirls. P Combust Inst2007; 31: 2599–2606.
15.
ChuahKKuwanaKHassanMI. An analytical model on the structure of an Emmons type fire whirl coupling Burke-Schumann diffusion flame and burger vortex. In: Proceedings of the 4th joint meeting of the US Sections of the Combustion Institute, Philadelphia, PA, 20–23 March, 2005, p. E05. Pittsburgh, PA: The Combustion Institute.
16.
ChuahKHKuwanaKSaitoK.Modeling a fire whirl generated over a 5-cm-diameter methanol pool fire. Combust Flame2009; 156(9): 1828–1833.
17.
HayashiYKuwanaKDobashiR. Influence of vortex structure on fire whirl behavior. In: 10th international IAFSS symposium, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 19–24 June 2011.
18.
ZhouKLiuNSatohK. Experimental research on burning rate, vertical velocity and radiation of medium-scale fire whirls. In: 10th international IAFSS symposium, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 19–24 June 2011.
19.
SatohKLiuNXieX. CFD study of huge oil depot fires—generation of fire merging and fire whirl in arrayed oil tanks. In: 10th international IAFSS symposium, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 19–24 June 2011.
20.
KuwanaKSekimotoKMinamiT. Scale-model experiments of moving fire whirl over a line fire. In: 34th international symposium on combustion, Warsaw, Poland, 29 July–3 August 2012.
21.
LeiJLiuNLozanoJS. Experimental research on flame revolution and precession of fire whirls. In: 34th international symposium on combustion, Warsaw, Poland, 29 July–3 August 2012.
22.
(1996).39 dead in fire horror. The Standard, 22November.
23.
ChowWKHanSS. Experimental investigation on onsetting internal fire whirls in a vertical shaft. J Fire Sci2009; 27(6): 529–543.
24.
ChowWKHeZGaoY.Internal fire whirls in a vertical shaft. J Fire Sci2011; 29(1): 71–92.
ChowWKHanSS. Experimental data on scale modeling studies on internal fire whirls. Int J Eng Perform-Based Fire Codes2011; 10(3): 63–74.
28.
CoteAE (ed.). NFPA fire protection handbook. 19th ed.Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association, 2003, pp. A1–A7.
29.
ChuahKHKuwanaKSaitoK. Inclined fire whirls. P Combust Inst2011; 33: 2417–2424.
30.
KlimenkoAYWilliamsFA.On the flame length in fire whirls with strong vorticity. Combust Flame2012; 160: 335–339.
31.
SaitoK (ed.). Progress in scale modeling: summary of the first international symposium on scale modeling (ISSM in 1988) and selected papers from subsequent symposia (ISSM II in 1997 through ISSM V in 2006). Dordrecht: Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2008.
