Experimental and numerical investigation of one and two phase natural convection in storage tanks

Experiments were performed to investigate heating up processes of fluids in storage tanks under the influence of an external heat source. As a consequ ence of an external fire, the heat-up of the inventory may lead to the evap oration of the liquid and to release of significant quantities of dangerous gases into the environment. Several tests were performed both with heating from the bottom and with heating from the side walls. In recent tests in a ddition to thermocouples, the tank was equipped with needle probes for meas uring of the local void fraction. The paper presents experimental and numer ical investigations of single and two phase heating up processes of tanks w ith side wall heating. The measurement of the temperature and of the void f raction makes interesting phenomena evident, which could be explained by an own 2D model. The gained experimental results may be used for the validati on of boiling models in 3D CFD codes.