Interaction Effects of

Multiple Pool Fires

K. G. H U F F M A N , * J. R. W E L K E R , and C. M. S L I E P C E V I C H

University of Oklahoma
What are the effects on flame behavior of a number of fires burning
in close proximity to one another? The results of measurements of
burning rates, heat feedback, flame height, and flame trailing are
reported for fires involving liquid pools.
H E interaction of multiple fires from liquid pools burning in close
proximity has a substantial effect on the burning rate of the fuel, the
size of the flame, and the rate of heat transfer from the flame to the surroundings. Although a few experimental studies of interacting fire effects
have been described in the literature, 1,2,3 most of them have used gaseous
fuel. Since the gas flow was a controlled variable, no data were obtained on
fuel burning rates.

EQUIPMENT
In the present studies? methanol, acetone, hexane, cyclohexane, and
benzene were burned in several sizes and spatial arrangements of burners
as shown in Figure 1. Circular burners, 4 in. in diameter, were used in the
13-burner pattern, whereas burners with diameters of 2 in., 4 in., and 6 in.
were used in the 9-burner pattern. The burners were mounted on the top
of a 10-ft octagonal table. The top of the table was located 2 ft above the
floor and was covered with insulation. The rims of the burners were
mounted flush with the table top; the rims were tapered to a knife edge to
minimize heat conduction from the table top. All the burners were 2 in.
deep. T h e y were kept flush full with fuel during the experiments by the
use of a constant head siphon arrangement. The center burner was connected to one fuel reservoir, and the outer burners were connected to a
second reservoir. During runs using the 13-burner pattern, the four intermediate burners were connected to a third reservoir. This arrangement
permitted the burning rates for each group to be measured separately.
The outer burners in the 9-burner pattern were separated from the
center burner by a distance, S, as shown in Figure 1. In the case of the
*Present address: Continental Oil Co., Ponca City, Oklahoma.

225

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Fire Technology

226
THIRTEEN -BURNER

PATTERN

NINE- 8URGER

PATTERN

~0~.. \\// j~O

\ o

o /

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of flame merging table, plan view.

13-burner pattern, the separation between the outer and intermediate

burners and between the intermediate burners and the center burner was
maintained at a distance, S. Thus, for the 13-burner pattern, the distance
from the center burner to the outer burners was 2S.
A camera was used to photograph the fires during the tests. Flame
heights were measured from the photographs.
BURNING
RATES
As shown in Figure 2, the multiple fires change progressively from individual flames with no interaction to individual interacting flames and
finally to fully merged flames as the separation distance decreases. The
change from non-interacting fires to merged fires is vividly illustrated by
the burning rate curves in Figure 3 for 4-in. diameter cyclohexane fires.
The curves show the burning rates for both th~ center burner and the outer
burners as a function of the dimensionless separation, S/D, where D is the
burner diameter. At large separation distances, the burning rates for the
center burner and the outer burners are about the same. As the burners
are brought closer together (from right to left in Figure 3), the burning
rate for the center burner increases and peaks faster than that for the outer
burners. However, both approach a common value at the closest separation distance. The maximum burning rate fdr the center burner occurs at
the onset of merging where the flames from the burners cease to be individually discernible.

Figure 2. Effect of separation distance on flame interactions (n-hexane in nine, 4-in.

diameter burners); individual fires (left), interacting fires (center), and merged fires (right).

Interaction

227

Effects

The behavior of all l u m i n o u s flames was similar to the curve shown in

Figure 3 except for the 6-in. burners using cyclohexane or hexane and the
2-in. burners using benzene. In these tests, the burning rate of the outer
burners did not peak; it leveled off at a maximum value as shown in Figure 4, but at a much lower value than the burning rate for the center burner
in a fully merged flame. The burning rates of the multiple, nonluminous
methanol fires exhibited little variation with separation distance since they
could not be made to merge.
Figure 5 shows the result of a typical set of tests using the 13-burner
pattern. The burning rates for the center and intermediate burners peaked
at about the same separation distance, whereas the outer burners did not
reach a peak within the limits of minimum separation distance attainable
with the equipment.
95

90

CIRCULAR BURNERS

B5

FUEL CYCLOHEXANE
@ CENTER BURNER
BURNERS

6 inch OIAMETER
CIRCULAR BURNERS

gO
75

-.. 70
6B
< BO
< BB

f
~

......i

FUEL : CYCLOHEXANE

G CENTER BURNER
OUTE~ BURNERS
O
O

lT~ OUI'E
~
O
......

\e

~ ~d*- ~

J'

~ 1:r-PATTERN
~
DURNER

~ BO
45
40
3~
30

SINGLE

~ 20
15
10
5
0

3
DIMENSIONLESS SEPARATION S/D

Figure 3. Burning rates of interacting 4-in.

cyclohexane fires.
HEAT

i
I
I
I
i
3
4
5
6
7
D~MENSIONLESB SEPARATION S/D

i
e

Figure 4. Burning rates of interacting 6-in.

cyclohexane fires.

FEEDBACK

The burning rate of the liquid fuel is determined by the rate of heat
feedback from the fire to the fuel. The total heat feedback is the sum of
conductive, radiative, and convective terms. HotteP expressed the rate of
heat feedback for single, liquid-fueled fires as*
q __

4k(TF -

Tz)

+ U(TF -

T , ) + zF(T4F -

T4B) (1--e -'D)

(1)

In the present interacting fire tests, the burner rims were tapered and insulated to minimize the conduction term. The heat feedback, therefore,
was primarily by convection and radiation. Although there m a y have been
* S e e list of n o m e n c l a t u r e

on p a g e 231.

228

Fire Technology

a small increase in the convection coefficient due to the interaction effects,

it is probable that increases in burning were due primarily to increases in
radiative feedback. Blackshear, Gin his analysis of heat feedback from interacting fires, concluded that increased burning rates for pools from 4 in.
to 80 in. in diameter are largely due to increases in the geometrical view
factor. In the present studies, it was clearly visible that, as the fires were
moved closer together, the view of each individual pool contained more and
more of the adjacent flames, particularly for the center fire. The flames
tilted and elongated toward the center burner because of the air flow pattern, thereby increasing the view factor and, consequently, the burning
rates.
Further decreases in separation distance after the m a x i m u m burning
rates had been achieved introduced over-compensating factors, which
caused the burning rates to decrease. As the base diameter of the completely merged fire was decreased, the opacity factor, (1 - e-VD), decreased,
which in turn caused the heat feedback rate and hence the burning rate to
decrease. Simultaneously, the air flow into the flame, particularly above
the center burner, b e c a m e more restricted, thereby causing an increase in
the unburned fuel vapor immediately above the liquid level. In turn, the
thicker layer of fuel vapor became more effective in absorbing part of the
radiation feedback to the pool as was observed in previous work b y the
Bureau of Mines. 7
Two generalized correlations of burning rate data for the 9-burner pattern were m a d e - one for the center burner alone, and the other for the
average burning rate of all nine burners combined. The average rate for
all nine burners is very near the rate for the eight peripheral burners.

For the center burner alone:

m~AHvl

= ~DLm~o~l]

(2)

For the average of all nine burners:

__

rnA~H,I ~P~

mp

=[

(3)

These two correlations are shown in Figures 6 and 7. The correlation of

the center burning rate was better than the correlation of the average burning rate. Figures 6 and 7 provide the means for estimating the burning
rates of interacting fires provided the burning rate from a single pool and
the fuel properties are known. Caution must be used in extrapolating the
data to larger pool sizes because, as pointed out by Blackshear, the burning
rate of larger fires would not increase significantly due to interaction effects.

Interaction Effects
I00

95
BO
BS

<

229

105

O0

F U E L : CYCLOHEXAN~
|

CENTER BURNER
iNTERMEDIATE

@ BURNERS
OUTER BURNERS

%
0

70

~ BB
~

ao
55

~ so

BURNER PATTERN

~ 4o
~ 3B
30
25
BO
0

3
4
5
6
7
OIMENSIONLES$ SEPARATION B/ D

Figure 5. Burning rates of interacting 4-in. cyclohexane fires (13-burner pattern).

FLAME

HEIGHT

Thomas,8 in his studies of flame heights of single wood crib fires, developed the following relationship between the flame height and burning
parameters for wood crib fires:

D,--~q = f p~v/gD5
Waterman et al2 applied the same flame height relation to the data obtained during their study of multiple wood crib fires. They took the value
B8

95
o

90

84

ACETONE

BO

N-HEXANE

85
BO

CYCLOHEXANE

BENZENE

76
72

75

Z ,.oh

70

4 ,rich BURNERS
6 inch BURNERS

65
60

BURNERS

35
SO

9 6 INCH BURNERS

60

44
40

36
3Z

BURNER PATTERN

28
24

25

o ~

BURNER PATTERN

48

;-B~
%

BENZENE

2 ~NCH BURNERS
41NCH BURNERS

52

~lg ,o

BB
64

o 0 O

oooo

fi6

~~

45

AVERAGE BURNING RATE

O ACETONE
N-HEXANE
o
CYC~OH[XAN~

20

20

SINGLE
BURNER

15

o%

>

16
12

I0

B
4
l

oi, olB ,'. . . . . . . .

~

~[~

315

p~ -oB7

Figure 6. Correlation of center burning

rates for all fuels and rimless burner si es
(9-burner pattern).

'o!,

o'e

,;
S

/6 21o'2 4. . . . . .ZB. . . .

mp - L 3

Figure 7. Correlation of average burning

rates for all fuels and rimless burner si es

(9-burner pattern).

230

Fire Technology

of De~ to be the dimension of the multiple crib array rather than that of a
single crib.
The flame height correlation suggested by Thomas was applied to the
liquid interacting fires. Comparison of the wood crib and liquid fires is
given in Figure 8. The flame heights for merged fires and for single burners
with no interaction effects were plotted according to Equation 4 for which
D~q for the liquid interacting fires was assumed to be 2S. The flame heights
were about the same as or slightly larger than those of Thomas, but they
were significantly larger than Waterman's data.
FLAME
TRAILING
The trailing effect exhibited by wind-blown pool fires has been described
previously.9 As is apparent in Figure 2, the induced wind caused the same
effect in the interacting fire tests. Several photographs were taken of individual peripheral fires during the runs. A few measurements of the velocity
at which the air moved into the fire were made. The photographs and air
velocity measurements were used, along with the appropriate burner size
and fuel properties, to compare the extent of flame trailing with that for the
previous fires. Flame trailing followed the equation found from earlier
work: 0
~-

2.1

(5)

F r o .2x

Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a flame showing the geometrical parameters of Equation 5.

A comparison of the data from the interacting fire tests with that of
the earlier wind tunnel tests is shown in Figure 10. It indicates the versai00
BO
60
40

20
THOMAS" CORRELATION
r
WOOD CRSBS
B
4

%%

WIND

VELOCITY

0 ew<xXxXx x
x xx

os
o6

WATERMAN I t ol , ( 2 6 )
WOOD CRIBS

Y ~

O.4

SINGLE

Ol

MEXANE
CYCLOHEXANE

BENZENE
Z ~nch D I A M E T E R
4 ,rich O I A M E T E R
6 ,.cA O$AMETER

9
=

. . . . . . .

6 8 fO"z

\ \ \ \ \

DATA

ACETONE

BURNER

0
0

fO ~

PEAK BURNING RATE DATA

02

e e i0"

6 e tOo

sJz

Figure 8. Effect of burning rate on [lame

height o[ single and multiple [ires.

_.J,\\\\\

\ \\ \\\\\\

Figure 9. Schematic diagram of trailing

fire from a circular burner.

231

I n t e r a c t i o n Effects

: ""
C l ~ ,o

WIND TUNNEL

ACETONE

D A T A (9)

inch

N-HEXANE

inch

BURNERS

N-HEXANE

inch

BURNERS

El

ACETONE

4 inch BURNERS

PATTERN
Ol

00l

L ....

BURNERS

0 1

. . . . . .

u2

(IS

BURNER

)
I

, ,,,

I0

$(

Fr = - Og

Figure 10. Flame trailing correlation for interacting fires.

tility of the flame trailing correlation for situations involving wind-flame

interactions.
NOMENCLATURE
q
heat feedback per unit of pool area, B t u / h r - f t 2
k - - conduction coefficient, Btu/hr-ft- ~ R
D = burner diameter, ft
T F = flame temperature, ~ R
T s = pool temperature (usually the boiling temperature), o R
U = convection coefficient, Btu/hr-ftL ~ R
Stephan-Boltzmann constant, B t u / h r - f t L~ R 4
geometrical
view factor from the liquid to the flame, unitless
F=
Beer's law extinction coefficient of the flame to allow for increasing
opacity with thickness, ft-1
m = burning rate per unit area of interacting fire, lb/hr-ft 2
burning rate per unit area of single fire, lb/hr-ft 2
m s
m p = peak burning rate per unit area of interacting fire, lb/hr-ft 2
A H ~ = heat of combustion of the fuel, Btu/lb
A H , = heat of vaporization at the boiling point plus the sensible heat for
raising the fuel from ambient temperature to the boiling point,
Btu/lb
pg ~--- density of fuel vapor at boiling point, lb/ft 3
density of ambient air, lb/ft 3
Pa
burner
spacing, ft
S=
L = flame height, ft
fuel source dimension, ft
Deq
g = gravitational acceleration, f t / h r 2
mt
= total fuel mass burning rate, lb/hr
D r = flame trailing length, ft
F r = Froude number, U~-/Dg, unitless
U = air velocity, ft/sec

232

Fire Technology

REFERENCES
P u t n a m , A. A. and Speich, C. F., "A Model Study of the Interaction of Multiple
Turbulent Diffusion Flames," Ninth Symposium (International) on Combustion, 1963,
Academic Press, New York, pp. 867-877.
Thomas, P. H., Baldwin, R., and Heselden, A. J. M., " B u o y a n t Diffusion Flames:
Some Measurements of Air Entrainment, Heat Transfer, and Flame Merging," Tenth
Symposium (International) on Combustion, 1965, The Combustion Institute, pp.
983-996.
Waterman, T. E., Labes, W. G., Salzberg, F., Tamney, J. E., and Vodvarka, F. J.,
"Prediction of Fire Damage to Installations and Built-Up Areas from Nuclear Weapons," Final Report, Phase III, Experimental Studies, Appendices A-G, I I T Research
Institute report for National Military Command System Support Center, Contract
No. DCA-8, November 1964.
4 Huffman, K. G., "The Interaction and Merging of Flames from Burning Liquids,"
Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Oklahoma, 1967.
6 Hottel, H. R., a review of "Certain Laws Governing Diffusive Burning of Liquids,"
V. I. Blinov and G. M. Khudiakov, Fire Research Abstracts and Reviews, Vol. 1, No. 2
(Jan. 1959), p. 41.
Blackshear, P. L., "Some Thoughts on Heat and Mass Transfer in Very Large
Fires," Defense Atomic Support Agency, Information and Analysis Center Special
Report 59, Santa Barbara, California, Oct. 1967.
Burgess, D. S., Strasser, A., and Grumer, J., "Diffusive Burning of Liquid Fuels
in Open Trays," Fire Research Abstracts and Reviews, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Sept. 1961), p. 177.
8 Thomas, P. H., "The Size of Flames from Natural Fires," Ninth Symposium
(International) on Combustion, 1963, Academic Press, New York, pp. 844-859.
9 Welker, J. R. and Sliepcevich, C. M., "Bending of Wind-blown Flames from Liquid
Pools," Fire Technology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May 1966), p. 127.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Financial support for this work came from the National
Bureau of Standards, U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal, and the University of Oklahoma.