Building a model of oil tank water cooling in the case of fire

Abstract

The object of this study is the process of liquid combustion in spillage, and the subject is the temperature distribution along the wall of a vertical steel tank when it is heated under the thermal influence of fire and cooled by water. A system of equations describing the water cooling of the wall of a vertical steel tank under the conditions of the thermal effect of a fire spilling a flammable liquid has been constructed. The system consists of a heat balance equation for the tank wall, a heat balance equation for the water film flowing over the wall, and a mass balance equation for the water film. The equations take into account the radiative heat exchange with the flame, the environment, the internal space of the tank, as well as the convective heat exchange with the surrounding air, the vapor-air mixture, and the liquid inside the tank, as well as between the water film and the wall. The joint solution to the system of equations makes it possible to determine the temperature distribution along the tank wall and the water film at an arbitrary time point, as well as to determine the thickness and flow rate of the water film at a certain point.

The finite difference method was used to solve the system of heat and mass balance equations. It is shown that the insufficient intensity of water supply for cooling leads to boiling of water from the film, as a result of which the wall temperature in such areas can reach 300 °C. A delay in the supply of water, even with sufficient intensity, could lead to the establishment of a film-like mode of boiling. In such a situation, the water film is thrown away from the wall, as a result of which the part of the wall below the film boiling zone remains without cooling. The practical significance of the built model is the possibility of determining the necessary intensity of water supply for cooling the tank and the limit time for the start of cooling