Studies on jatropha oil pool fire

Fire experiments with jatropha oil are performed in a cubical compartment of volume 64 m3 to explore fire development and induced thermal environment. A door opening of size 2 m height and 1 m width is made on the front wall for ventilation purpose. Three fire experiments, with full door, half door and quarter door ventilation conditions, are conducted. Heat release rate (HRR), mass loss rate (MLR), profiles of flame temperature, room corner temperature, door temperature with velocity profiles and heat flux at different locations have been recorded. It is found that reducing the door ventilation from full door to quarter door results in change in average mass loss rate from 8.42 g/s to 6.82 g/s and fire remains overventilated type. Experiment performed under full door and half door ventilation are then simulated using CFD code, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS, version 6.2.0). Based on the simulations results of full door, half door ventilation recommended mesh size is 0.05 m-0.07 m and corresponding value of D∗/dx is in the range of 8.34 to 12.