An Algorithm for Determining the Parameters of Oil Spill Fire

Abstract

Many emergency situations that arise in chemical, processing and transport industries are resulted from the emergency spill and ignition of flammable liquid. In this case, the spread of fire to neighboring objects represents a particular danger. Therefore, the elaboration of the fire-fighting measures requires taking into account the heat flow of the fire and as a result the information is needed on the shape and area of the spill. The model was constructed to determine the liquid spread dynamics and this model represents the system of differential equations. The first equation is of a parabolic type and it describes the liquid spread taking into consideration its consumption for infiltration, filling surface asperities and the burnout. Surface asperities are taken into consderation by the term equation that includes an average depth of asperities. To define the spill area we need to take into account the amount of the liquid required for the filling of those asperities during the liquid spill. The second equation is an ordinary differential equation and it describes the infiltration of liquid into the depth of the ground. Consideration was given to the instantaneous and continuous types of spill. The first type of spill occurs in the case of the catastrophic collapse of the liquid-containing tank and the second type is peculiar for the tank or pipeline damages. The finite difference method was used for the equation system solution. The developed algorithm enables the definition of the spill area, dynamics of its change and the liquid layer thickness.