Figure 8: Height

of luminous
flame zone for
a gasoline fire,





where rmax 0 35, q f 2400 kW/m2 , k 0 05 m 1 , and

E f 100 kW/m2 . See Eq. (5). In general, the maximum
height of the luminous
flame
zone of a
liquid pool fire is


given by Hmax 6 4 10 3 q f where q f is the heat release
rate per unit area in units of kW/m2 . The dashed line in
the figure indicates Hmax .


the wall is composed of circular or linear elements for which analytical recipes of the view factor
are available.
The presence of man-made or natural thermal barriers can be incorporated into the view factor
calculation. Although the methodology presented in this section is designed to be conservative, it
is not conservative in one regard. Because the radiative energy output is concentrated near the base
of the fire rather than distributed over the entire height of the fire, the effectiveness of a thermal
barrier in blocking thermal radiation might be exaggerated. Recent measurements in Japan [8] of
a 20 m diameter crude oil fire showed that 85 % of the radiant energy of the fire was emitted at
heights lower than 20 m. The remaining 15 % of the radiant energy was emitted mainly by hot
black
smoke at higher levels, and by occasional luminous bursts of flame. The HRR per unit area,


q f , for crude oil is approximately 2,000 kW/m2 , thus according to Eq. (6), the luminous flame


height for a 20 m diameter pool fire is 6 4 10 3 2000 12 8 m. In this context, a thermal barrier
13 m in height would be expected to block all of the thermal radiation. To remedy the situation, it
is suggested that for the purpose of evaluating a thermal barrier, the emissive power of the flame be
reduced by a half, from 100 kW/m2 down to 50 kW/m2 . Energy conservation will be preserved by