Behavior of luminous zones appearing on plumes of large-scale pool fires of kerosene

In order to understand characteristics of large pool fires, behavior of int ermittent luminous zones appearing on the smoky plumes has been analyzed us ing a recently developed image processing technique. The images of large po ol fires analyzed in this study are of 30 and 50-m diameter pool fires of k erosene recorded on videotapes at the large-scale experiments performed is Japan, 1981, The results indicate that the probability of a luminous zone a ppearing is the maximum on the central point of the average plume width and at a distance from its base, and decreases with the distance from the maxi mum point. It can be inferred that the luminous zone on the smoky plume of a pool fire likely appears at its concave boundary tin a side view). It asc ends at an almost constant velocity while changing it's area at the same fr equency as that of the "breathing". (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.