Experimental study of flame spread over oil floating on water

Abstract

The phenomena and mechanism of flame spread over oil floating on water were studied using temperature measurements made by fine thermocouples and an infrared camera, schlieren images of surface convection and video recordings of flame spread. The experimental results reveal that the floating-oil depth greatly affects the average rate of flame spread and average flame pulsation wavelength. The surface tension effect is the main cause of surface convection, which controls flame spread. Momentum loss and heat loss from forward-flowing hot oil to water play an important role in retarding flame spread for oil thicknesses less than about 8 mm. © 2012 Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.