INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION

E
IMO

SUB-COMMITTEE ON FIRE PROTECTION

48th session
Agenda item 3

FP 48/3/1
10 October 2003
Original: ENGLISH

UNIFIED INTERPRETATIONS TO SOLAS CHAPTER II-2, THE FSS CODE

AND RELATED FIRE TEST PROCEDURES
Proposal for a unified interpretation of SOLAS regulation II-2/4.2.2.5.3
Submitted by the Republic of Korea

SUMMARY
Executive summary:

This document proposes a unified interpretation of SOLAS regulation

II-2/4.2.2.5.3 concerning the protection against fuel oil spray and oil
leakage onto the source of ignition.

Action to be taken:

Paragraph 6

Related documents:

FP 47/3/7, MSC/Circ.647 and MSC/Circ.1083

Introduction
1
The 2000 amendments to SOLAS 1974, as adopted by resolution MSC.99(73), have
come into force on 1 July 2002. Among these amendments, ships constructed on or after 1 July
2002 shall comply with the requirements of SOLAS regulation II-2/4.2.2.5.3.
2
First of all, SOLAS regulation II-2/4.2.2.5.3 requires that oil fuel lines shall not be
located immediately above or near units of high temperature with temperature above 220C,
which may be impinged as a result of fuel system failure including boilers, steam pipelines,
exhaust manifolds, silencers or other equipment. By this requirement, all the possibilities of fuel
oil coming into contact with sources of ignition due to, at least, the leakage from oil fuel lines as
a result of fuel system failure has been eliminated.
3.
Secondly, SOLAS regulation II-2/4.2.2.5.3 also states As far as practicable, oil fuel lines
shall be arranged far apart from hot surfaces, electrical installations or other sources of ignition
and shall be screened or otherwise suitably protected to avoid spray or leakage onto the sources
of ignition. The number of joints in such piping system shall be kept to a minimum. With this
requirement in practical situations, questions arise as to how far apart the fuel oil lines in
question should be from the sources of ignition in order to be considered exempt from the
requirement of screening or protection to avoid spray or leakage onto the sources of ignition.
4
To this end, the Republic of Korea conducted an experiment and the comprehensive
information obtained is presented at annex of this paper. The proposal of this document is based
on conclusions obtained from this experiment and appendix 3 of MSC/Circ.647.

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-2-

Proposal
5.
The Republic of Korea proposes a unified interpretation of regulation II-2/4.2.2.5.3 as
follows:
.1

oil fuel lines should not be located within area as shown in figure 4 of the annex;

.2

many types of spray shields, such as thermal insulation, anti-splashing tape or

other spray shield cover approved by Administrations or recognized organizations
can be accepted as effective spray shield of fuel oil system; and

.3

oil fuel lines located far apart, as minimum, 5 m from hot surfaces, electric
installations or other sources of ignition need not necessarily be screened or
protected.

Action requested of the Sub-Committee

6
The Sub-Committee is invited to consider the above proposal and take action as
appropriate.

***

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ANNEX
SUMMARY OF EXPERIMENT FOR FUEL LINE FAILURE
1

Purpose of research

Using the test rig, the Republic of Korea conducted an experiment to confirm the spraying
characteristic of oil fuel, if the flanged connection was failed, and the effectiveness of spray
shields.
2

Test rig for fuel oil system

2.1

Test model

Test model was composed as follows:

Figure 1 - Schematic Diagram of test model

2.2

Characteristics of fuel oil spray

To confirm the characteristics of fuel oil spray, four presumed cases where fuel oil was leaking
through distorted flange packing were selected. Fuel oil line was pressurized at 5 bar, 10 bar and
15 bar and the nominal diameter of pipe was 32A.
ab
t.
1m
m

Case (a): cut with 1 mm clearance

Case(b): cut right through bolt hole.
Case(c): torn by hand
Case(d): torn right through the bolt hole by hand
Figure 2 - Shapes of distorted flange packing

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ANNEX
Page 2
As the result of the test, we found the pattern of a solid stream(jet) spray in case (a) but some
drops of oil fuel dripped in cases (b), (c) and (d). Based on the test results, a conclusion was
made that fine spray as in the case of high pressure pipe failure could not have resulted from
distortion of flange packing or even from a loosened bolt.
2.3

Distance of oil fuel spraying

The proposal by Japan contained in document FP 44/INF.4 (annex 2) introduced engineering

approach for the calculation of the spraying distance. In accordance to the calculation, if the oil
fuel line break, the spray can reach everywhere in engine room. Thus, an attempt was made to
verify whether the theoretical distance of spray matched the actual distance. As shown in
Figure 3, the distances covered by the spray through the 1mm and 0.5 mm flange gap, were about
4.5 meter. The distance covered by the spray was not affected much by the change in the line
pressure (i.e. at 5 bar-4 m). This is became the droplet formation mechanism falls into the
atomization regime at spraying velocity. The formation of droplets from liquid jet spray depends
on the relative velocity of the liquid jet and the surrounding air when liquid is injected into air.

Figure 3 - Actual spraying distance from fuel line failure

2.4

Location prohibited from hot surface.

Figure 4 - The definition of above and near zone

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ANNEX
Page 3
As shown in Figure 4, oil fuel line should not be located immediately above hot surfaces or
within the space above hot surface extending 22.5o outwards in all direction from the outer
boundary of hot surface.
2.5

Method of protection from oil fuel spray

We have tested the following three cases to confirm which method is the most effective
protection from the fuel oil spray. The first was thermal insulation used on heated heavy fuel oil
line, the second was anti-splashing tape and the third was the specially designed spray shield
cover. Using the above test rig, the test pressure was kept at 10 bar and 15 bar.
.1

Thermal insulation: After the pipe was provided with the thermal insulation and
pressurized, the first drop fell after 10 seconds as glass wool absorbed the fuel oil.

.2

Anti-splashing tape: Firstly, fuel oil dripped and sprayed immediately in case
where the tape was just wrapped around the face of flanges. Secondly, fuel oil
only dripped after a few seconds where flanges and pipes were wrapped
completely.

.3

Spray shield cover: Fuel oil dripped at once where the specially designed flange
cover was provided on flange without any spray.

BOLT & NUT

PLAIN WASHER

Figure 5 - Acceptable spray shields

________

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