Energy 264 (2023) 126210

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Energy
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Flame morphologic characteristics of horizontally oriented jet fires

impinging on a vertical plate: Experiments and theoretical analysis
Zhenhua Wang, Juncheng Jiang *, Guanghu Wang, Lei Ni, Yong Pan, Meng Li
College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211816, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Flame morphological characteristics of horizontal impinging jet fires are of practical importance in predicting
Uncontrolled combustion of energy and controlling the undesirable energy transfer to the nearby obstacle, which usually results in an escalating
Jet fire accident accompanied by severe consequences. But up to now, the relevant research is still very limited. The
Horizontal impingement
length of flame spread on the obstacle’s surface for various nozzle diameters as well as the lift-off distance
Vertical plate
Flame spread length
restricted by a vertical plane surface downstream the flame has not been quantified yet. In this work, the evo­
Lift-off distance lutions of flame spread length and lift-off distance of horizontal jet fires impinging on a vertical plate for different
nozzle diameters at various energy (heat) release rates and nozzle-plate spacings have been quantified
comprehensively. Experiments were conducted with three nozzles with different inner diameters of 2.0, 3.0 and
4.2 mm. The heat release rates of the fire source ranged between 5.7 and 32.2 kW, and the nozzle-plate spacings
were varied from 0.20 to 0.40 m with a corresponding free condition. The results showed that the length of flame
spread along the vertical plate increased with increasing the heat release rate and decreasing the nozzle-plate
spacing for a given nozzle diameter. In addition, the large nozzle had a relatively greater increase in the
flame spread length than the small one. A new correlation was proposed on physically the coupling effects of the
flux ratio of buoyancy-induced air entrainment and jet momentum and the dimensionless heat release rate,
showing good agreement with the experimental results. It was also found that the normalized lift-off distance
under impingement can be correlated with the modified dimensionless flow number, and the correlation can well
collapse all the lift-off data of this work. The present findings contribute to a better understanding of horizontal
impinging jet fires, allowing predictions to be made regarding the possible threat and the establishment of the
necessary safety distance for the pipeline to reduce the potential risk of such fire disasters.

severe subsequent event [7]. Therefore, it is of much practical signifi­

cance to characterize the flame evolution dynamics of gaseous fuel jet
1. Introduction
fires impinging on some nearby obstacle. The length of the fire plume
spread on the obstacle’s surface and the flame lift-off distance are two
As the global demand for energy rises, transporting natural gas
important parameters of safety design and energy control, since they
through the pipeline plays a key role in energy supply [1,2]. Nowadays,
determine the impinging and damaging range. Nevertheless, relatively
it is also viewed as the bridging solution to other renewable energy (e.g.,
little theoretical work has been done to address them. This paper at­
hydrogen natural gas mixtures) storage and transportation [3]. In recent
tempts to bridge this knowledge gap.
decades, the natural gas pipeline construction has experienced tremen­
Previous studies on jet fires were mostly focused on the vertical free
dous growth, which not only brings much convenience to the public, but
jet fire with two forces of initial momentum and buoyancy acting in the
also accompanies huge risks of fire and explosion due to gas leakage [4,
same direction. The available correlations are mainly used to estimate
5]. Among the types of accidents, the worst scenario is the jet fire
the flame geometry (including the lift-off height, flame height, flame
impingement generated from such uncontrolled energy release, which
width and flame area) [8–11], flame temperature and emitted radiation
can lead to an escalation of the accident, i.e., a “domino effect” [6,7].
by the flame [12,13]. Unlike the vertical free jet fire, the horizontal free
Direct flame impingement, together with intense heat radiated by jet
jet fires take a curved path because the direction of initial momentum is
fires, seriously threatens the safety of life and property. Statistics have
perpendicular to that of buoyancy, and the flame trajectory, lift-off
shown that about 50% of jet fire accidents will undergo at least one more

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wzhnj@njtech.edu.cn (Z. Wang), junchengjiang@njtech.edu.cn (J. Jiang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.126210
Received 6 July 2022; Received in revised form 11 November 2022; Accepted 24 November 2022
Available online 28 November 2022
0360-5442/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Wang et al. Energy 264 (2023) 126210

Nomenclature S air to fuel mass stoichiometric ratio

SL maximum laminar burning velocity of fuel-air mixture (m/
A slope s)
B intercept Sn− p nozzle-plate spacing (m)
cp specific heat of air at constant pressure (kJ/(kg K)) T∞ ambient temperature (K)
C coefficient ΔTf,a mean flame temperature rise (K)
d nozzle diameter (m) u0 fuel exit velocity (m/s)
fs stoichiometric equivalent value, fs = 1 /(S + 1) un,z velocity of the infinitesimal control volume in vertical
Fr Froude number direction (m/s)
Frf flame Froude number, Frf = U∗ dimensionless flow number in [10]
3/2
u0 fs /(ρ0 /ρ∞ )1/4 ((ΔTf,a /T∞ )gd)1/2 U∗mod modified dimensionless flow number
g acceleration of gravity (m/s2)
Greek symbols
lf lift-off distance (m)
α1 , α2 power indexes
ln,z dimension of the infinitesimal control volume in vertical
δ laminar flame thickness (m)
direction (m)
ν kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
lp horizontally projected flame length (m)
ρ density (kg/m3)
lz length of flame spread along a vertical plate/wall (m) ξL dimensionless length scale in [14]
ṁ0 fuel mass flow rate at exit (kg/s)
Pi initial stagnation pressure (Pa) Subscripts
P∞ atmosphere pressure (Pa) f flame
Q̇ heat release rate of fire source (kW) i initial
Q̇d
∗ ∗ √̅̅̅
dimensionless heat release rate, Q̇d = Q̇/cp ρ∞ T∞ gd5/2 ∞ ambient
Re Reynolds number 0 fuel

distance, horizontally or vertically projected flame length are the pri­
mary physical parameters describing their geometric characteristics
[14–21]. In particular, Gore and Jian [15] established an analytical
solution for the flame trajectory of horizontal free jet fires. Mogi et al.
[17] studied the free jets of liquefied dimethyl ether (DME) issuing
horizontally from circular nozzles with diameters ranging from 0.2 to
2.0 mm, and introduced a dimensionless heat release rate (Q̇d ) to
∗
correlate the horizontally projected flame length. It is noted that the
correlation of [17] could not fit the horizontal jet fire well in which the
momentum-controlled ones are incorporated. Becker and Liang [14]
investigated the free jet fire behaviors in the buoyancy- and
momentum-controlled regimes and applied the dimensionless length
scale (ξL ) to successfully correlate the vertically projected flame length
of a horizontal jet fire with the flame height of a corresponding vertical
jet fire. Zhou et al. [21] recently examined the horizontal free jet fires
produced by diverse nozzle exit shapes (the circular, rectangular,
equilateral triangle and elliptic exits) in the transition regime from
buoyancy-to momentum-controlled and proposed correlations for the
lift-off distance, horizontally and vertically projected flame lengths as
functions of hydraulic diameter, exit shape coefficient and Richardson
number, respectively. Even for the cases with different nozzle inclined
angles where an upward or downward inclined jet configuration is
formed, their flame trajectory, flame horizontal projection and flame
downward distance are also quantified and correlated in Refs. [22,23].
Apparently, these studies provide a considerable insight into the flame
geometry of free jet fires.
However, in reality it is also common to have impinging jet fires
practically; while in the district with dense pipelines, equipment or
buildings, the jet fires induced by gas pipeline leaks may impinge on
these objects, as depicted in Fig. 1(a). In this context, ceiling jets that
often occur in the form of a vertical fire impinging on the ceiling have
been extensively studied by many scholars [24–30]. For example, Ding
and Quintiere [27] performed a scaling analysis of ceiling jet behavior
and established a correlation for flame spread lengths beneath the
ceiling by employing the dimensionless heat release rate; and Lattimer
[28] proposed another correlation similar to that of [27], but with the
characteristic length in the dimensionless heat release rate used by
nozzle-ceiling height. In contrast, the horizontal impinging jet fires have
been barely investigated. Sometimes the aforesaid obstacle appears in
the path of a horizontal jet fire, leading to a severely horizontal

Fig. 1. Typical horizontal jet fire scenes. Taken from www.gov.cn [consulted on 04/2022].
(a) A horizontal jet fire with a length of tens of meters, (b) Buildings impinged by a horizontal jet fire.

2
Z. Wang et al.
impingement in actual fire accidents, see Fig. 1(b). Schefer et al. [31]
and Houf et al. [32,33] conducted a series of experiments of horizontal
hydrogen jet fires with high pressure impinging different barrier-wall
configurations, and discussed the effectiveness of hazard mitigation
based on the measurements of ignition overpressure, wall deflection,
radiative heat flux, and wall and gas temperature. In addition, a set of
experiments was conducted as described in Ref. [34] to reveal the lift-off
behavior of horizontal jet fires impinging on a cylinder, and the lift-off
distance evolution with the restriction effect from the cylindrical sur­
face was elucidated. Noting that in a recent study of Wang et al. [35], the
only quantitative data of the length of flame spread along a vertical wall
under horizontal jet fire impingement was reported, in which the hori­
zontal impinging jets of propane from a 4.0 mm nozzle at exit velocities
of 10.0–40.0 m/s and nozzle-wall spacings of 0.1–0.6 m were studied. It
was found that the impinging flame could evolve into two different
morphologies (i.e., the upward-downward/upward spread flames). In
either case, a linear curve fit of the experimental data in dimensionless
form was proposed [35],
/ ( / )
lz ln,z = A u0 un,z + B (1)
where lz is the flame length along the wall, u0 is the fuel exit velocity, ln,z
and un,z are the dimension and velocity component of the infinitesimal
control volume in vertical direction, respectively, and A is the slope and
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup and image processing technique.
3
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
B is the intercept, which are power and exponential functions, both
related to the nozzle-wall spacing.
In summary, the previous studies are inadequate in that more work
should be done to understand the influence of nozzle diameter on the
flame morphological characteristics of horizontal impinging jet fires. To
date, although Wang et al. [35] proposed a correlation for the length of
flame spread along a wall, only one nozzle diameter was used in the
study and the associated knowledge was still very limited. The nozzle
diameter is expected to affect the fuel supply that can provoke a change
in flame spread length. Moreover, there is no related report on the lift-off
behavior of horizontal jet fires under such impingement conditions yet.
Motivated by the above problems, a series of experiments on hori­
zontal jet fires impinging upon a vertical plate considering various
nozzle diameters, exit velocities and nozzle-plate spacings were con­
ducted. Attempts have been made to develop new global models to
predict not only the length of flame spread along the plate surface but
also the lift-off distance under impingement. The results of this study
have implications for providing engineers with information and tools
that are useful in the design and implementation of pipeline trans­
portation of natural gas, regarding the possible threat and the estab­
lishment of the necessary safety distance for the pipeline to reduce this
risk.
Z. Wang et al.
2. Experiments
Fig. 2(a) depicts the schematic of the experimental setup. A smooth
low-carbon steel plate with good thermal conductivity of 53.6 W/(m K)
was placed vertically to simulate the common structural component
widely used in civil and chemical engineering structures. The dimension
of the plate is 1 m (width) × 1 m (height) × 5 mm (thickness). Three
horizontal circular nozzles made of stainless steel with inner diameters
of 2.0 mm, 3.0 mm and 4.2 mm were employed as fire sources. Propane
of 99% in purity was tested as fuel for safety consideration of
substituting natural gas [30,36]. The propane supply rate was monitored
and controlled by a mass flow controller (MFC) with accuracy of 0.1
SLPM (Standard Liter Per Minute). The heat release rates were regulated
in a range of 5.7–31.2 kW so as to have turbulent jet flames. Under this
condition, no obvious thermal deformation occurred in the plate. The
nozzle-plate spacing (Sn-p) was adjusted ranging from 0.20 to 0.40 m by
an interval of 0.05 m, as well as totally free condition without the plate.
This spacing is basically designed to be comparable to or less than the
Fig. 3. Typical flame images (left) and the corresponding flame intermittency contours (right). The nozzle diameter: 3.0 mm, exit velocity: 33.6 m/s.
4
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
horizontally projected flame length of a horizontal free jet fire, as to
focus on the direct impingement induced by strong, turbulent jet fires.
Each test lasted for about 5 min and was repeated three times to ensure
repeatability.
A digital video (DV) camera of sensor size 1/2.5 inch with resolution
3840 × 2160 was used to record the flame morphology at 25 fps. In
order to capture whole flames from a side view, the camera was posi­
tioned perpendicularly to the jet axis and 2 m away from it. A 1-min
video cut out from the recorded 5-min flame video was decompressed
into 1500 consecutive RGB image frames. The flame region and its
background can be distinguished using the Otsu thresholding algorithm
[37]. According to the luminance threshold value chosen, these frames
were converted into binary (black and white) images. The RGB and bi­
nary images of the same frame are shown in Fig. 2(b). The flame
appearance probability (intermittency) was calculated by averaging
these consecutive binary images in each pixel position, as indicated in
Figs. 2(b) and 3. The intermittency of 50%, as successfully applied
previously [6,20,21,23], was used to determine the flame geometric
Z. Wang et al.
characteristics of interest in this work. A summary of all the experi­
mental scenarios is listed in Table 1, including the nozzle diameter (d),
the mass flow rate of propane (ṁ0 ) and corresponding heat release rate
(Q̇), the relevant dimensionless parameters (including Fr, Re and Frf), as
well as the conditions of impingement occurrence. Note that the Froude
u2
number Fr = gd0 and Reynolds number Re = u0νd of fuel at the nozzle exit
ranged from 1.1 × 103 to 1.6 × 105, and from 7.1 × 103 to 3.0 × 104,
u0 f s
respectively. And the flame Froude number [38] Frf =
(ρ0 /ρ∞ )1/4
fell between 0.15 and 1.83. The calculations demonstrate that the ex­
periments were mainly in the buoyancy-to momentum-controlled tran­
sition regime. This is to assure that both horizontal impinging flame
morphologies as mentioned in Ref. [35] can appear, which is critical
when considering such jet fire impingement behaviors.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Horizontal impinging flame evolution
Fig. 4 shows typically the horizontal impinging flame evolution
under different conditions. As shown in Fig. 4(a), for the nozzle diameter
of 2.0 mm and the nozzle-plate spacing of 0.20 m, the horizontal jet fire
lifts from an attached position at the nozzle exit and impinges on the
vertical plate downstream. The lifted flame has a blue color at its base
and then exhibits a yellow luminosity near the impinging region. As the
exit velocity increases, the flame yellow luminosity gradually turns
transparent blue because of the mixing enhancement of unburn fuel and
air. In the meantime, the intensity of the flame impinging on the plate
also rises, resulting in an evolution from the upward to the upward-
downward flame spread with reference to the impingement stagnation
point. The behaviors of flame spread above or below this point are
distinctly different. Above the impingement stagnation point, the
buoyancy promotes the movement of unburn fuel, leading flame to
spread rapidly upwards. Below the impingement stagnation point,
however, the combustion becomes complex because the flow mo­
mentum and buoyancy are in opposite direction. Particularly, a coun­
terclockwise flame vortex appears (it was also identified by a high-speed
measurement in Ref. [35]) due to the asymmetric air entrainment into
flame caused by the restriction of the plate, so lots of unburned fuel
gathers here to widen the flame. In addition, it is also observed that the
lift-off distance significantly increases with the increase of exit velocity.
Fig. 4(b) further shows the typical horizontal impinging flame evo­
lution at various nozzle-plate spacings, for the nozzle diameter of 3.0
mm and the exit velocity of 33.6 m/s. The proportion of the flame length
developed in upward spread increases, while the total length of flame
spread along the plate decreases, as the nozzle-plate spacing increases.
The nozzle-plate spacing seems to have little effect on the lift-off dis­
tance from naked eye observations, which could be explained by the fact
that the flame liftoff occurs at a level that is much smaller than the
minimum spacing (for a more detailed discussion, see Section 3.3).
Conversely, when the nozzle-plate spacing and the exit velocity are
constant, both the length of flame spread along the plate and the flame
Table 1
Summary of experimental scenarios.
d (mm) ṁ0 × 104 (kg/s) Q̇ (kW) Fr × 10− 4
Re × 10−
2.0 1.2/1.8/2.4/3.1/3.7 5.7–17.0 2.0–16.3 9.9–29.7
3.0 1.8/2.4/3.1/3.7/4.9/5.5 8.5–25.5 0.6–4.8 9.9–29.8
4.2 1.8/2.4/3.1/3.7/4.9/5.5/ 8.5–31.2 0.1–1.3 7.1–26.0
6.7
Note: Values in brackets indicate the ranges of mass flow rate ( × 10− 4 kg/s) for direct flame impingements occurring at a fixed nozzle-plate spacing, and +∞ and N.A.
denote free conditions and not available, respectively. Besides, the complete combustion is assumed for estimating heat release rate and the combustion heat of
propane is 46.45 kJ/g [29].
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
lift-off distance increase with increasing nozzle diameters, as indicated
in Fig. 4(c). The figure also shows the corresponding flame contours at
50% intermittency under different nozzle diameter conditions, which
were further extracted and plotted to better examine the effect of the
nozzle diameter on the horizontal impinging flame geometry. It is
apparent that the horizontal impinging flames tend to touch the plate
more greatly and lift farther at a larger nozzle diameter.
3/2
( ΔTf ,a )1/2
T∞ gd 3.2. Correlation for length of flame spread along the plate
The flame can impinge on and spread along the plate when the
horizontal projection length produced by the flame is larger than the
nozzle-plate spacing. So based on the previous work of Mogi et al. [17],
the horizontally projected flame length of the horizontal free jet fire
normalized by the nozzle diameter (lp /d) is firstly correlated with the
√̅̅̅
dimensionless heat release rate Q̇d = Q̇ /(cp ρ∞ T∞ g d5/2 ), where cp, ρ∞
∗
and T∞ are the specific heat, density and temperature of ambient air,
respectively, and g is the acceleration of gravity. As shown in Fig. 5, the
experimental data of Smith et al. [16], Mogi et al. [17], Gopalaswami
et al. [39], Becker et al. [14], Gore et al. [40] and Lowesmith et al. [18]
are also included in the correlation. It can be seen that the horizontally
projected flame lengths in this work are consistent with those in the
previous works covering nozzle diameters of 0.2–50.0 mm. Despite
variations in the fitting coefficients (it could be resulted from much
ampler data resources and fuel types involved), the dimensionless heat
release rate proposed in Ref. [17] can still be used to well predict the
current data of horizontally projected flame length.
If the spacing between the nozzle and the plate is less than the hor­
izontally projected flame length of a horizontal free jet fire calculated by
the fitting formula in Fig. 5, the direct impingement occurs to induce the
flame spread over the plate. Fig. 6 plots the measured lengths of flame
spread along the plate against the heat release rate (Q̇) of each nozzle
diameter at different nozzle-plate spacings of 0.20–0.40 m. There are
two major observations: (1) the flame spread lengths available at the
same nozzle-plate spacing depend on the nozzle diameter; (2) for the
same nozzle diameter, the flame spread length increases with increasing
the heat release rate and decreasing the nozzle-plate spacing, and
additionally, the large nozzle has a relatively greater increase in the
flame spread length than the small nozzle.
From the above results, it is revealed that the exit velocity, nozzle-
plate spacing and nozzle diameter all hold an important role in flame
spread over the plate. As noted previously, to calculate the impinging
flame spread lengths produced by a specific 4.0 mm nozzle diameter
[35], a linear correlation (Eq. (1)) with the dimensionless parameters of
0.035S4n− 1.088S2n−
lz/ln,z and u0/un,z was developed, where ln,z = p
and un,z = p
.
u20 d2 u0 d
But under each nozzle-wall spacing condition, the slope A and intercept
B values varied and can be expressed as functions of the spacing, i.e.,
Sn− p
A = 0.046S−n−2.22
p and B = − 8794e
− 0.023 − 0.944, respectively. In order to
assess the predictability of this method, it is applied to calculate the A
and B of a different nozzle diameter (e.g., 2.0 mm) and compare the
results with the reported case of a 4.0 mm nozzle diameter. As shown in
3
Frf × 10 Impingement occurrences
6.6–18.3 0.20 (1.2–3.7), 0.25 (1.2–3.7), 0.30 (1.8–3.7), 0.35 (2.4–3.7), 0.40 (3.1–3.7), +∞ (N.
A.)
3.6–9.9 0.20 (1.8–5.5), 0.25 (1.8–5.5), 0.30 (1.8–5.5), 0.35 (3.1–5.5), 0.40 (3.1–5.5), +∞ (N.
A.)
1.5–5.2 0.20 (1.8–6.7), 0.25(1.8–6.7), 0.30 (2.4–6.7), 0.35 (3.1–6.7), 0.40 (3.7–6.7), +∞ (N.
A.)
5
Z. Wang et al.
Fig. 4. Typical impinging flame photos under various experimental conditions, and the overlays of 50% flame intermittency contours for each nozzle diameter are
also added in (c) to show the geometrical differences.
Fig. 7(a), there still exists an obvious linear relationship between the
dimensionless length of flame spread along the wall and exit velocity
under various spacings, for a 2.0 mm nozzle diameter of current
experiment. Nevertheless, changes in the fitting coefficients (Fig. 7(b))
have been observed to show a flame spread length dependence on nozzle
diameter. So, a new general correlation applicable for different nozzle
diameters has to be developed.
6
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
We note that in the studies of Mogi et al. [17], Ding and Quintiere
[27] and Lattimer [28], the dimensionless heat release rate was always
used as a key parameter to correlate the flame size of a horizontal free jet
fire or a vertical impinging fire, thus it is employed here to quantify the
flame spread lengths of horizontal impinging jet fires in this work.
Similar to Ding and Quintiere [27], the nozzle diameter is taken as a
characteristic length in the dimensionless heat release rate, but the
Z. Wang et al. Energy 264 (2023) 126210

flame spread length is normalized by the nozzle-plate spacing instead of

the nozzle diameter to include this essential parameter, which gives:
/
(2)
∗
lz Sn− p ∼ Q̇d

Fig. 5. Dimensionless correlation of horizontally projected flame length with
heat release rate for horizontal free jet fires.
Fig. 8 presents an attempt to use Eq. (2) to fit the length of flame
spread along the plate. It is shown that the normalized flame spread
length increases almost linearly with the dimensionless heat release rate
of a logarithmic scale, for a given nozzle-wall spacing. Meanwhile, these
linear relationships seem to follow a similar correlation under each
nozzle diameter condition. It is found that the larger the nozzle diam­
eter, the higher is the slope for all five nozzle-plate spacings of
0.20–0.40 m. The present results show that for the relative larger nozzle
diameter, the flame spread length increases by an increasing heat release
rate, since more fuel will be introduced to participate in the combustion.
A sketch to illustrate the physical mechanisms involved in deter­
mining the flame spread length of the horizontal impinging jet fire is
provided in Fig. 9. Two important influential parameters that control the
flame dynamics are summarized below:
(1) The complex interaction of the air entrainment induced by
buoyancy of flame itself with the fuel jet momentum. The initial mo­
mentum flux can be represented by d2 ρ0 u20 , which drives the flame
impinge on and spread along the vertical plate. The air entrainment
contributes to increase of burning rate and promote the flame spread in

Fig. 6. Variation of flame spread length of impinging jet fires with heat release rate for different nozzle diameters.

7
Z. Wang et al.
Fig. 7. Calculated results of A, B for a current 2.0 mm nozzle diameter and
comparison with previous data as well as the correlation proposed in Ref. [35].
the upward direction. But it is hindered in the downward direction since
a counterclockwise vortex is generated. The characteristic air entrain­
ment velocity can be scaled with nozzle-plate spacing and is equal to
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
gSn− p . The flame entrainment surface area is simply S2n− p due to the
fact that a jet fire has comparable flame length and width [19]. So, the
air entrainment induced by flame buoyancy for the horizontal impinging
jet fire can be expressed as ρ∞ gS3n− p . Referring to the dimensionless
length scale (ξL ) proposed in Ref. [14], here we define the flux ratio of
ρ gS3
air entrainment and jet momentum ( d∞2 ρ n−u2p ) for a horizontal impinging
0 0
jet fire. For the force analysis as a whole, this ratio physically in­
corporates the momentum force of the jet flow and the buoyancy
induced air entrainment that surrounds the flame, jointly determining
how far the flame after impingement can move along the vertical plate.
(2) According to the previous attempt, the length of flame spread
along the plate can be also related to the dimensionless heat release rate
(Q̇d ). A positive correlation has been observed between the dimension­
∗
less flame spread length and heat release rate. In view of that the
dimensionless heat release rate using nozzle diameter as length scale has
8
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
a vital implication for flame spread length, it is then also taken as the
characteristic parameter to describe the effect of heat release rate on
flame spread length accordingly. Therefore, there is an idea, to bring
together this characteristic parameter with the flux ratio to determine
the exact value of the flame spread length.
Based on the above discussions, the flame spread length could be a
function of,
( )
lz ρ∞ gSn−3 p ∗
=f , Q̇d (3)
Sn− p d2 ρ0 u20
The first term of the right-hand side (RHS) in Eq. (3) can be further
S3
simplified to d2n−up2 , thus substituting this into Eq. (3), it gives:
0
( )
lz Sn−3 p ∗
=f , Q̇ (4)
Sn− p d2 u20 d
By applying Rayleigh’s dimensional analysis approach [41] to the
characteristic parameters in Eq. (4), a power function model can be
∗α2
derived, i.e., lz /Sn− p = C(S3n− p /d2 u20 ) 1 Q̇d . Its values of coefficient C
α
and indexes α1, α2 are determined via regression with a good R2 = 0.98,
and thus the dimensionless flame spread length is expressed as follows:
( )− 0.38 ( )
lz Sn−3 p S3n− p
(5)
∗− 0.53
= 455.82 2 2 Q̇d 0.04 ≤ 2 2 ≤ 39.1
Sn− p d u0 d u0
Q̇
in which Q̇d = cp ρ √̅̅ 5/2 . The derived model in Eq. (5) clearly indicates
∗
∞ T∞ gd
the dependence of the flame spread length of a horizontal impinging jet
fire on the nozzle diameter, nozzle-plate spacing and heat release rate
(or exit velocity). It should be also noted that the power indexes are
similar to previous works on horizontal free jet fires [17,21] but with
opposite signs. This is due to the fact that the flame spread length of
interest is normalized by the nozzle-plate spacing instead of the nozzle
diameter, and there is a negative relationship between them.
Fig. 10 shows a comparison between the flame spread length pre­
dicted by Eq. (5) with the experimental measurements in this work, as
well as those reported by Wang et al. [35]. It is found that the relative
errors of prediction are within ±15%, suggesting that Eq. (5) is reliable
to describe the flame spread length of a horizontal impinging jet fire.
3.3. Correlation for impinging flame lift-off distance
Apart from the flame spread length of the horizontal impinging
flame, its lift-off distance is also investigated. The lift-off is of practical
importance in connection with the stabilization mechanism of turbulent
jet diffusion flames. It has attracted much attention in the thermal en­
ergy utilization [11,42] and thermal disaster control [39,43,44]. Fig. 11
presents an attempt to compare the current lift-off data of both hori­
zontal free and impinging jet fires with the early classic correlation
proposed by Peters and Williams [45] based on the laminar diffusion
flamelet model. The few available data of Gopalaswami et al. [39] and
Zhang et al. [46] for horizontal free jet fires produced by a large nozzle
diameter of 19.1 mm are also included for comparison. As can be seen
from Fig. 11, the normalized lift-off distances (lf /d) are proportional to
the global strain rates (u0 /d), and the proportionality coefficient in­
creases with increasing nozzle diameter. Evidently, the nozzle diameter
can affect the lift-off distance, which is consistent with the findings of
Kumar et al. [47].
However, the presence of a vertical plate downstream of the jet di­
rection seems to have little impact on the lift-off distance, particularly
for the 3.0 mm and 4.2 mm nozzle diameters. This can be attributed to
the fact that the plate position is of greater magnitude than the lift-off
distance. But if the nozzle diameter is further reduced to 2.0 mm, the
lift-off distances will get much closer to the plate at large exit velocities.
Accordingly, the trend of increase in impinging flame lift-off distance is
Z. Wang et al. Energy 264 (2023) 126210

Fig. 8. Normalized flame spread length lz /Sn− p versus dimensionless heat release rate Q̇d for different nozzle diameters, and the lower part is the detailed view for
∗

each nozzle diameter with error bars (left to right): d = 4.2 mm, d = 3.0 mm and d = 2.0 mm.

Fig. 9. A physical model for the horizontal impinging jet fire.

gradually flattening (see a red dotted rectangle in Fig. 11(a) or its

enlarged view, i.e., Fig. 11(b)) due to the blockage effect of the plate. In
this region, the impinging flame lift-off distances are only slightly Fig. 10. Comparison of flame spread length predictions by the proposed model
reduced as compared to those without impingement. This is because the (Eq. (5)) with the measured values.
plate reduces the air entrainment from downstream, whereas in fact a
substantial amount of air entrainment from upstream is mainly
responsible for the lifted flame stabilization [48]. Considering that the

9
Z. Wang et al. Energy 264 (2023) 126210

where SL is the maximum laminar burning velocity of the fuel-air

mixture, δ is the laminar flame thickness, δ = ν/SL , and Pi /P∞ repre­
sents the ratio of the initial stagnation to atmosphere pressure and could
be neglected for the subsonic jet flows in this work. So, Eq. (6) can be
rewritten as:
∗
Umod = (u0 / SL )(d/δ)− 0.4
(7)

Fig. 12 presents an attempt to plot the horizontal impinging flame

lift-off distance normalized by nozzle diameters (lf /d) against the
modified dimensionless flow number of Eq. (7). It is found that the
following correlation can be used to reasonably estimate the lift-off
distances for all of the experimental scenarios as a function of Umod
∗
:
lf ( )
∗0.68
= − 10.11 + 7.31Umod ∗
1.7 ≤ Umod ≤ 13.9 (8)
d
The value of R2 can be as large as 0.98. This high degree of fit con­
firms that the U∗mod is sufficient to describe the horizontal impinging
flame lift-off distances under current experimental settings. As discussed
above, the restriction effect of the downstream vertical plate on the
upstream air entrainment is insignificant, therefore the modified
dimensionless flow number should still be physically the characteristic
parameter to control this behavior near the nozzle.
Notably, to some extent, there are some possible limitations of this
study. There are several other theories on explanation of the mecha­
nisms involved in jet diffusion flame stabilization at the lift-off distance,
such as the premixed flame turbulence intensity theory [8,42], the edge
flame theory [49,50] and the large eddy theory [51,52], etc., which may
be also used to predict the lift-off distances of horizontal impinging jet
fires. Moreover, additional data involving the impingement cases of
different fuels and higher exit velocities (a sonic jet fire [53]) can be
added to improve the reliability of the developed models and to extend
their use. For example, previous studies on flame impingement heat
transfer [54,55] showed that the intense thermochemical heat could be
released by high-temperature flames at a sufficiently large exit velocity,
affecting the level of species dissociation in the flame. As the hot
dissociated combustion products impinged on a cold plate, they
recombined at its surface with other species to form more stable mole­
cules. It is likely that the reactions would make flame difficult to
blowout and greatly increase the lift-off distance [34]. The thermo­
chemical heat release resulting from the addition of the plate may play
an important role in the impinging flame lift-off phenomenon under

Fig. 11. Normalized lift-off distance lf /d versus global strain rate u0 / d.

impact of the downstream vertical plate on the flame lift-off behavior is

negligible, we assume that it is not an important parameter for deter­
mining the lift-off distance in the current work.
It is of practical interest to find a convergence in the lift-off distances
for horizontal impinging jet fires. We note that Bradley et al. [10]
recently examined a vast data bank of experimental flame lift-off dis­
tances from the unchoked to choked flow regime, covering six different
types of fuels (acetylene, butane, ethylene, hydrogen, methane and
propane) and the wide ranges of source pressures 0.06–90 MPa and
nozzle diameters 4 × 10− 4-1.32 m. Through coupling the stretched
laminar flamelet modelling with the Karlovitz Stretch factor (defined as
the ratio of chemical and eddy lifetimes), a newly developed dimen­
sionless flow parameter, U*, was found possible to make all data collapse
onto a single line. The expression for U* is given by Ref. [10]:
Fig. 12. A dimensionless correlation of normalized lift-off distance lf /d with
(6)
0.4
U ∗ = (u0 / SL )(d/δ)− (Pi / P∞ )
the modified dimensionless flow parameter Umod ∗
(Eq. (7)) showing to well
correlate the data for horizontal impinging jet fires in this work.

10
Z. Wang et al.
high exit velocity conditions. These topics are prospective to be explored
in future works.
4. Conclusions
This paper systematically investigates the flame morphological
characteristics of horizontal jet fires impinging on a vertical plate,
focusing on the length of flame spread along the plate and lift-off dis­
tance under impingement. Experiments are performed for various nozzle
diameters, heat release rates and nozzle-plate spacings. Correlations of
impinging flame spread length and lift-off distance have been proposed
in general for various conditions. Major findings include:
(1) The flame continues to spread over the surface of the vertical
plate after a horizontal jet fire impingement. The flame spread
behavior in vertical direction is controlled by the buoyancy force
and longitudinal flame momentum. When the exit velocity is
large enough, an intense counterclockwise flame vortex appears
below the impingement stagnation point, hindering the flame
spread in the downward direction.
(2) The nozzle diameter has an effect on the flame spread behavior
under impingement. With the increasing of nozzle diameter, the
length of flame spread along the vertical plate increases. The
increase in flame spread length is even greater for the larger
nozzle diameter than for the smaller nozzle diameter. This is
physically attributed to more fuel participating in the combus­
tion. Based on the theoretical and scaling analysis, a new corre­
lation (Eq. (5)) among the flame spread length, the flux ratio of
air entrainment and jet momentum and the dimensionless heat
release rate is determined.
(3) The lift-off distance changes little when a vertical plate is added
downstream the flame, while an increase in nozzle diameter
generally leads it to decrease. A general formula (Eq. (8)) using
the modified dimensionless flow parameter [10] achieves a good
agreement with experimental results in horizontal impinging
flame lift-off distances.
Credit author statement
Zhenhua Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation,
Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Juncheng Jiang:
Supervision. Guanghu Wang: Visualization, Investigation. Lei Ni:
Investigation. Yong Pan: Writing – review & editing. Meng Li: Data
curation.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51834007), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2022M711603), and Natural Science Foundation of the
Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (No. 22KJB620005). ZH
acknowledges the support from the Jiangsu Funding Program for
Excellent Postdoctoral Talent and GW acknowledges the support from
the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu
Province (No. SJCX22_0456). Prof. Sunsun Li and Dr. Lu He are thanked
for their helpful comments and discussions on this paper.
11
Energy 264 (2023) 126210
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.126210.
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