Study of Fire Fighting System to Extinguish Full Surface Fire of Large Scale Floating Roof Tanks

The basic characteristics of full surface fires of large scale floating roof tanks are briefed. It is pointed out that the present fire fighting systems of large scale crude oil storage depots cannot meet the need to extinguish full surface fires of large scale floating roof tanks. Adequate data of successful extinguishment of large scale tanks full surface fires and full scale tank fire experiments in the world are badly needed to design fire fighting system to extinguish full surface fires of large scale tanks in large scale crude oil storage depots. According to “Code of design for low expansion foam extinguishing system” and relative study results abroad, the fire fighting systems are calculated and designed to deal with full surface fires of large scale floating roof tanks. It is shown that designing parameters provided by API are more credible and large foam monitors act as the main fire extinguish facilities. The fire water supplying system is designed according to “Fire prevention code of petrochemical enterprise design”. The results show that the capability of the present fire fighting system should be raised up to at least 6-10 times to meet the need to extinguish full surface fires of large scale floating roof tanks. The reconstructing programs of fire fighting system are provided to deal with full surface fires of large scale floating roof tanks in the end.