Near-limit flame spread over a thin solid fuel in microgravity
01 Jan 1989-Vol. 22, Iss: 1, pp 1213-1222
TL;DR: In this article, the flame behavior is observed to depend strongly on the magnitude of the relative velocity between the flame and the atmosphere, and a low velocity quenching limit is found in low oxgen environments.
Abstract: Diffusion flame spread over a thin solid fuel in quiescent and slowly moving atmospheres is studied in microgravity. The flame behavior is observed to depend strongly on the magnitude of the relative velocity between the flame and the atmosphere. In particular, a low velocity quenching limit is found to exist in low oxgen environments. Using both the microgravity results and previously published data at high opposed-flow velocities, the flame spread behavior is examined over a wide velocity range. A flammability map using molar oxygen percentages and characteristic relative velocities as coordinates is constructed. Trends of flame spread rate are determined and mechanisms for flame extinction are discussed.
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TL;DR: In this article, a flame spread map is presented which indicates three distinct regions where different mechanisms control the flame spread process: near-quenching region, very low characteristic relative velocities, a new controlling mechanism for flame spread - oxidizer transport-limited chemical reaction - is proposed.
Abstract: Microgravity tests varying oxygen concentration and forced flow velocity have examined the importance of transport processes on flame spread over very thin solid fuels. Flame spread rates, solid phase temperature profiles and flame appearance for these tests are measured. A flame spread map is presented which indicates three distinct regions where different mechanisms control the flame spread process. In the near-quenching region (very low characteristic relative velocities) a new controlling mechanism for flame spread - oxidizer transport-limited chemical reaction - is proposed. In the near-limit, blowoff region, high opposed flow velocities impose residence time limitations on the flame spread process. A critical characteristic relative velocity line between the two near-limit regions defines conditions which result in maximum flammability both in terms of a peak flame spread rate and minimum oxygen concentration for steady burning. In the third region, away from both near-limit regions, the flame spread behavior, which can accurately be described by a thermal theory, is controlled by gas-phase conduction.
142 citations
TL;DR: A review of modeling and experiments of the ignition and flame spread over liquid fuel pools for separate regimes defined by the initial pool temperature relative to the fuel flash point is given in this paper.
Abstract: This article is a review of modeling and experiments of the ignition and flame spread over liquid fuel pools for separate regimes defined by the initial pool temperature relative to the fuel flash point. The purpose of this review is twofold. First it will emphasise newer or lesser known studies, both experimental and numerical, because these may question or alter some of the conclusions from the last review of the field by Glassman and Dryer, published in 1981. Second, it will cover the additional subjects of ignition susceptibility, analytic and numerical modeling, non-air atmospheres and forced flow, beds of fuel-soaked sand or glass beads and buoyancy-related processes applicable to microgravity combustion science and spacecraft fire safety. The review concludes with recommendations for further numerical and experimental research.
130 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce fire safety standards for flammability evaluation of solid material intended for use in a spacecraft habitat, and the difference between the limiting value in microgravity and the indices given by the standard test methods on the ground is discussed.
Abstract: This paper introduces fire safety standards for flammability evaluation of solid material intended for use in a spacecraft habitat. Two types of existing standards include material evaluation by pass/fail criteria corresponding to Test 1 of NASA STD 6001B and evaluation by a flammability index such as maximum oxygen concentration (MOC) corresponding to the improved Test 1. The advantage of the latter is the wide applicability of the MOC index to different atmospheres in spacecraft. Additionally, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) method is introduced as a potential alternative index for the evaluation using the improved Test 1 method. When criteria based on an index such as MOC or LOI are applied for material screening, the discrepancy of the index to the actual flammability limit in microgravity such as minimum limiting oxygen concentration (MLOC) is essential information for guaranteeing fire safety in space because material flammability can be higher in microgravity. In this paper, the existing research on the effects of significant parameters on material flammability in microgravity are introduced, and the difference between the limiting value in microgravity and the indices given by the standard test methods on the ground is discussed. Finally, on-going efforts to develop estimation methods of material flammability in microgravity according to normal gravity tests are summarized.
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a numerical model was developed to examine steady, laminar flame spread and extinction over a thin solid fuel in low-speed concurrent flow, incorporating an elliptic treatment of the upstream flame stabilization zone near the fuel burnout point, and a parabolic treatment of downstream flame, which has a higher flow Reynolds number.
Abstract: A numerical model is developed to examine steady, laminar flame spread and extinction over a thin solid fuel in low-speed concurrent flow. The model incorporates an elliptic treatment of the upstream flame stabilization zone near the fuel burnout point, and a parabolic treatment of the downstream flame, which has a higher flow Reynolds number. This provides a more precise fluid-mechanical description of the flame than using parabolic equations throughout, and is the first time such an approach has been used in concurrent flame spread modeling. The parabolic and elliptic regions are coupled smoothly by matching boundary conditions. The solid phase consists of an energy equation with surface radiative loss and a surface pyrolysis relation. Calculations (with the flame spread rate being an eigenvalue) are performed for forced flow without gravitational influences in a range of velocities which are lower than those induced in a normal gravity buoyant environment. Steady spread with constant flame and...
67 citations
Glenn Research Center1, Case Western Reserve University2, University of California, Berkeley3, University of Maryland, College Park4, University of Paris5, University of Bremen6, Moscow State University7, Hokkaido University8, European Space Research and Technology Centre9, University of Edinburgh10
TL;DR: In this paper, a large-scale flame spread experiment was conducted inside an orbiting spacecraft to study the effects of microgravity and scale and to address the uncertainty regarding how flames spread when there is no gravity and if the sample size and the experimental duration are, respectively, large enough and long enough to allow for unrestricted growth.
Abstract: For the first time, a large-scale flame spread experiment was conducted inside an orbiting spacecraft to study the effects of microgravity and scale and to address the uncertainty regarding how flames spread when there is no gravity and if the sample size and the experimental duration are, respectively, large enough and long enough to allow for unrestricted growth. Differences between flame spread in purely buoyant and purely forced flows are presented. Prior to these experiments, only samples of small size in small confined volumes had been tested in space. Therefore the first and third flights in the experimental series, called “Saffire,” studied large-scale flame spread over a 94 cm long by 40.6 cm wide cotton-fiberglass fabric. The second flight examined an array of nine smaller samples of various materials each measuring 29 cm long by 5 cm wide. Among them were two of the same cotton-fiberglass fabric used in the large-scale tests and a thick, flat PMMA sample (1-cm thick). The forced airflow was 20–25 cm/s, which is typical of air circulation speeds in a spacecraft. The experiments took place aboard the Cygnus vehicle, a large unmanned resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The experiments were carried out in orbit before the Cygnus vehicle, reloaded with ISS trash, re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and perished. The downloaded test data show that a concurrent (downstream) spreading flame over thin fabrics in microgravity reaches a steady spread rate and a limiting length. The flame over the thick PMMA sample approaches a non-growing, steady state in the 15 min burning duration and has a limiting pyrolysis length. In contrast, upward (concurrent) flame spread at normal gravity on Earth is usually found to be accelerating so that the flame size grows with time. The existence of a flame size limit has important considerations for spacecraft fire safety as it can be used to establish the heat release rate in the vehicle. The findings and the scientific explanations of this series of innovative, novel and unique experiments are presented, analyzed and discussed.
59 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, heat transfer and gas phase chemical kinetic aspects of the flame spread process are addressed separately for the spread of flames in oxidizing flows that oppose or concur with the direction of propagation.
Abstract: Recent advances in the experimental study of the mechanisms controlling the spread of flames over the surface of combustible solids are summarized in this work. The heat transfer and gas phase chemical kinetic aspects of the flame spread process are addressed separately for the spread of flames in oxidizing flows that oppose or concur with the direction of propagation. The realization that, in most practical situations, the spread of fire in opposed gas flows occurs at near extinction or non-propagating conditions is particularly significant. Under these circumstances, gas phase chemical kinetics plays a critical role and it must be considered if realistic descriptions of the flame spread process are attempted. In the concurrent mode of flame spread, heat transfer from the flame to the unburnt fuel appears to be the primary controlling mechanism. Although gas phase chemcial kinetics is unimportant in the flame spreading process, it is important in the establishment and extension of the diffusion ...
266 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical analysis of diffusion flame extinction in the stagnation point region of a condensed fuel has been made including radiative heat loss from the fuel surface, and the extinction boundary consists of a blowoff and a radiative extinction branch.
Abstract: A theoretical analysis of diffusion flame extinction in the stagnation point region of a condensed fuel has been made including radiative heat loss from the fuel surface. In addition to the blowoff limit normally found when flame stretch rate is large, an extinction limit has been identified when the flame stretch rate becomes sufficiently small. This limit occurs as a result of flame temperature reduction when the rate of radiative loss becomes substantial compared with the rate of combustion heat release. A flammability map using oxygen mass fraction and stretch rate as coordinates shows that the extinction boundary consists of a blowoff and a radiative extinction branch. The merging point of the two branches defines a fundamental low oxygen flammability limit.
187 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the steady-state flame spread over a thermally thin solid fuel is investigated, and qualitative agreement is obtained with experimental results in the near-extinction limit region.
Abstract: A theory for the steady-state flame spread over a thermally thin solid fuel is developed in this study. The model considers a laminar diffusion flame in a uniform opposed flow and includes the two-dimensional, elliptic, gas-phase energy, and species equations with one-step overall chemical reaction and second-order, finite-rate Arrhenius kinetics. The unsteady, solid-fuel equations neglect heat conduction ahead of the flame but include transient heating and Arrhenius pyrolysis kinetics and are coupled to the quasisteady gas phase. The equations are solved in the laboratory coordinate system. In this study the two-dimensional distributions of temperature and species are obtained, including the low reactivity zone in the flame region. The solid-fuel surface profiles indicate a region of almost uniform temperature (vaporization temperature) during pyrolysis for some parameter values; however, the value is not universally constant for the fuel and does depend on the ambient parameters (pressure, oxygen mass fraction, and magnitude of opposed velocity). The dependence of the flame-spread rate on the ambient parameters is investigated, and qualitative agreement is obtained with experimental results in the near-extinction-limit region. Quantitative agreement with experimental data depends on the choice of parameter values, especially the gas-phase kinetics model parameters, which are generally unknown. The flame-extinction limits due to increased opposed velocity, reduced pressure, and reduced ambient oxygen mass fraction are all obtained in the results calculated from this theory.
183 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that buoyancy influences the downward spread rate of flames consuming thermally thin fuel beds, and that a small change in orientation with respect to the vertical is equivalent to a change in the magnitude of gravity in the direction of spread.
Abstract: Experiments show that buoyancy influences the downward spread rate of flames consuming thermally thin fuel beds. For index cards (0.0098 cm half-thickness) and adding-machine tape (0.0043 cm half-thickness), an increase in the buoyancy level causes the spread rate to drop until no flame propagation is possible. A dimensionless spread rate is found to correlate with a Damkoehler number. As the Damkoehler number increases with decreasing buoyancy level brought about by an increase in pressure or a decrease in gravity, the dimensionless spread rate approaches unity. It is also found that a small change in orientation with respect to the vertical is equivalent to a change in the magnitude of gravity in the direction of spread, and power-law relations between the dimensional spread rate and pressure are only valid over a small pressure range.
131 citations
TL;DR: A survey of the characteristics and predictions of the different theoretical models of the spread of flames over the surface of a solid combustible in opposed or concurrent oxidizing flows is presented in this paper.
Abstract: A survey of the characteristics and predictions of the different theoretical models of the spread of flames over the surface of a solid combustible in opposed or concurrent oxidizing flows shows that, at present, there is a good understanding of what are the controlling mechanisms of the flame spread process andl of what is the necessary formulation to develop a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon. It also shows, however, that the problem is very complicated and difficult to solve mathematically particularly if an analytical solution is sought, and that this complexity is what has prevented so far the development of an analysis capable of describing accurately the flame spread process under realistic conditions where material properties, finite rate kinetics, turbulence and radiation effects can determine the characteristics of the process. Although some of the analyses presently available are capable of predicting quantitatively or at least qualitatively rates of flame spread under certain limit...
89 citations