Experimental study of fuel sootiness effects on flashover

Previous fire safety studies have demonstrated that flashover can result in severe injure and death and heat radiating back to a fuel is an important mechanism. Fuel sootiness dominates in radiative heat transfer. However, empirical correlations from previous investigations did not consider the fuel sootiness but nevertheless generated reasonably good predictions of flashover. In this study, a series of experiments was employed to examine fuel sootiness effects on flashover. The fuels used, in the order of their sootiness, were gasoline, n-hexane, iso-propanol and methanol. These fuels were filled in circular pans 100-320 mm in diameter to generate fires with different heat release rates and levels of sootiness. The pans were in 1/3 the size of the ISO 9705 test chamber. After ignition, the heat release rate (HRR), temperature inside the chamber, as well as heat flux on the floor and time to flashover (tfo) were determined. Experimental data show that HRR at flashover and tfo were strongly corrected and their relationship was independent of the fuel burned. Although heat feedback to the floor increased as fuel sootiness increased, consequently enhancing the burning of sooty fuels, flashover occurs only when the HRR at flashover criterion is reached.